Note 576 — Chapter LXVII · THE DRAMA. — RHETORIC AND DIALECTICS. — THE SOPHISTS.

Aristot. Rhetoric. ii, 26. Ritter (p. 582) and Brandis (p. 521) quote very unfairly the evidence of the “Clouds” of Aristophanês, as establishing this charge, and that of corrupt teaching generally, against the sophists as a body. If Aristophanês is a witness against any one, he is a witness against Sokratês, who is the person singled out for attack in the “Clouds.” But these authors, not admitting Aristophanês as an evidence against Sokratês, whom he does attack, nevertheless quote him as an evidence against men like Protagoras and Gorgias, whom he does not attack.