The Darkling of the Political Horizon

The impetus Pericles gave to the intellectual life of Athens, lived on after his death. Aloquence and able argument became very desirable accomplishments. A class of teachers arose, the Sophists, who undertook to strengthen young men in these arts. One cannot reason without a matter, and knowledge followed in the wake of speech. In the end, Socrates was executed for disturbing people's minds,. 399 BC. His young men carried on his teaching. Chief among these young men was Plato, 427 to 347 BC. He was the first man to write a utopia, that is to say, the plan of a community different from and better than any existing community.