Editing Gorgias (section)

==Life==
{{
Location map+|Mediterranean|width=400|float=right|caption=Map of the Mediterranean showing locations associated with Gorgias|places=
{{Location map~|Mediterranean|lat=37.2838|N|long=14.9961|E|region:IT_type:city(60157)|position=right|label_size=75 |label=[[Leontinoi]]}}
{{Location map~|Mediterranean|lat=37.3094|N|long=13.5860|E|region:IT_type:city(60157)|position=left|label_size=75 |label=[[Agrigento|Acragas]]}}
{{Location map~|Mediterranean|lat=37.9838|N|long=23.7275|E|region:IT_type:city(60157)|position=right|label_size=75 |label=[[Athens]]}}
{{Location map~|Mediterranean|lat=39.6390|N|long=22.4191|E|region:IT_type:city(60157)|position=right|label_size=75 |label=[[Larissa]]}}
{{Location map~|Mediterranean|lat=37.6385|N|long=21.6299|E|region:IT_type:city(60157)|position=below|label_size=75 |label=[[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]}}
}}

Gorgias was born {{circa|483 BC}} in [[Leontinoi]], a [[Chalcis|Chalcidian]] colony in eastern Sicily that was allied with [[Classical Athens|Athens]].{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=6}} His father's name was Charmantides.{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=6}} He had a brother named Herodicus, who was a physician, and sometimes accompanied him during his travels.{{sfn|Consigny|2001|pages=6–7}} He also had a sister, whose name is not known, but whose grandson dedicated a golden statue to his great uncle at [[Delphi]].{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} It is not known whether Gorgias married or had children.{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} Gorgias is said to have studied under the Sicilian philosopher [[Empedocles|Empedocles of Acragas]] ({{circa}} 490 – {{circa}} 430 BC), but it is not known when, where, for how long, or in what capacity.{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} He may have also studied under the rhetoricians [[Corax of Syracuse]] and [[Tisias]],{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} but very little is known about either of these men, nor is anything known about their relationship with Gorgias.{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}}

It is not known what kind of role Gorgias may have played in the politics in his native Leontinoi,{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} but it is known that, in 427 BC, when he was around sixty years old, he was sent to Athens by his fellow-citizens as the head of an embassy to ask for Athenian protection against the aggression of the [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracusans]].{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} After 427 BC, Gorgias appears to have settled in mainland Greece, living at various points in a number of city-states, including Athens and [[Larissa|Larisa]].{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} He was well known for delivering orations at [[Panhellenic Games|Panhellenic Festivals]] and is described as having been "conspicuous" at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]].{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} There is no surviving record of any role he might have played in organizing the festivals themselves.{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}}

Gorgias's primary occupation was as a teacher of rhetoric.{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}} According to [[Aristotle]], his students included [[Isocrates]].<ref>Aristotle, fr. 130 [[Valentin Rose (classicist)|Rose]] = [[Quintilian]] 3.1.13.</ref> (Other students are named in later traditions; the ''[[Suda]]'' adds [[Pericles]], [[Polus]], and [[Alcidamas]],<ref>Suda, ''Gorgias''</ref> [[Diogenes Laërtius]] mentions [[Antisthenes]],<ref>Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 2</ref> and according to [[Philostratus]], "I understand that he attracted the attention of the most admired men, [[Critias]] and [[Alcibiades]] who were young, and [[Thucydides]] and Pericles who were already old.  [[Agathon]] too, the tragic poet, whom Comedy regards as wise and eloquent, often Gorgianizes in his iambic verse").<ref>''Lives of the Sophists'' 1.9, trans. George Kennedy in ''The Older Sophists'', ed. R.K. Sprague (Columbia, S.C., 1972), p. 31.</ref> Additionally, although they are not described as his students, Gorgias is widely thought to have influenced the styles of the historian [[Thucydides]], the tragic playwright [[Agathon]], the doctor [[Hippocrates]], the rhetorician [[Alcidamas]], and the poet and commentator [[Lycophron]].{{sfn|Consigny|2001|page=7}}

Gorgias is reputed to have lived to be one hundred and eight
years old (Matsen, Rollinson and Sousa, 33). He won admiration for his ability to speak on any subject (Matsen, Rollinson and Sousa, 33). He accumulated considerable wealth; enough to commission a gold statue of himself for a public temple.<ref>Sprague, Rosamond Kent, ''The Older Sophists'', [[Hackett Publishing Company]] ({{ISBN|0-87220-556-8}}), p. 31</ref> After his Pythian Oration, the Greeks installed a solid gold statue of him in the temple of [[Apollo]] at [[Delphi]] (Matsen, Rollinson and Sousa, 33). He died at [[Larissa]] in [[Thessaly]].