Athens immediately after Eukleidês—political history little known.—Extraordinary development of dramatic genius.—Gradual enlargement of tragedy.—Abundance of new tragedy at Athens.—Accessibility of the theatre to the poorest citizens.—Theôrikon, or festival-pay.—Effect of the tragedies on the public mind of Athens.—Æschylus, Sophoklês, and Euripidês—modifications of tragedy.—Popularity arising from expenditure of money on the festivals.—Growth and development of comedy at Athens.—Comic poets before Aristophanês—Kratinus, etc.—Exposure of citizens by name in comedy—forbidden for a time—then renewed—Kratês and the milder comedy.—Aristophanês.—Comedy in its effect on the Athenian mind.—Mistaken estimate of the comic writers, as good witnesses or just critics.—Aversion of Solon to the drama when nascent.—Dramatic poetry as compared with the former kinds of poetry.—Ethical sentiment, interest, and debate, infused into the drama.—The drama formed the stage of transition to rhetoric, dialectics, and ethical philosophy.—Practical value and necessity of rhetorical accomplishments.—Rhetoric and dialectics.—Empedoklês of Agrigentum—first name in the rhetorical movement.—Zeno of Elea—first name in the dialectical movement.—Eleatic school—Parmenidês.—Zeno and Melissus—their dialectic attacks upon the opponents of Parmenidês.—Zeno at Athens—his conversation both with Periklês and with Sokratês.—Early manifestation, and powerful efficacy, of the negative arm in Grecian philosophy.—Rhetoric and dialectics—men of active life and men of speculation—two separate lines of intellectual activity.—Standing antithesis between these two intellectual classes—vein of ignorance at Athens, hostile to both.—Gradual enlargement of the field of education at Athens—increased knowledge and capacity of the musical teachers.—The sophists—true Greek meaning of that word—invidious sentiment implied in it.—The name sophist applied by Plato in a peculiar sense, in his polemics against the eminent paid teachers.—Misconceptions arising from Plato’s peculiar use of the word sophist.—Paid teachers or sophists of the Sokratic age—Protagoras, Gorgias, etc.—Plato and the sophists—two different points of view—the reformer and theorist against the practical teacher.—The sophists were professional teachers for active life, like Isokratês and Quintilian.—Misinterpretations of the dialogues of Plato as carrying evidence against the sophists.—The sophists as paid teachers—no proof that they were greedy or exorbitant—proceeding of Protagoras.—The sophists as rhetorical teachers—groundless accusations against them in that capacity, made also against Sokratês, Isokratês, and others.—Thrasymachus—his rhetorical precepts.—Prodikus—his discrimination of words analogous in meaning.—Protagoras—his treatise on Truth—his opinions about the pagan gods.—His view