Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/21

Rh makes Athens to seek for, 44. It is true that Peisthetærus finds anything but what he seeks in the course of the play; but if the Poet had intended any allusion to Alcibiades, he would not have thus bewildered his audience at the outset. Again, the alarm as to the Salaminia above quoted is expressed not by Peisthetærus but Euelpides; for whome indeed we might make out quite as good a claim to honour of being Alcibiades in disguise.

Lastly, the words, if they have a serious meaning, seem to have been added expressly to warn the audience that the two wanderers now soliciting their applause, did not belong to the band of exiles deservedly proscribed for their gross impiety.

These discrepancies, then, prove that Peisthetærus does not represent Alcibiades. Now with regard to Gorgias. In this case it cannot be expected that we should find so many points of opposition between the Dramatic Person and his supposed prototype; because of Gorgias's character we have very little information, and that little is not always traceable to any trustworthy sources. We know from Plato (Hipp. Maj. p. 282. b) that Gorgias was sent by the Leontini as one of the ambassadors to Athens in the year 427 That he subsquently revisited Greece is certain; that he spent some time in Athens, very probable; but that he ever made Athens his permanent abode is an assumption of Süvern's entirely unsupported by evidence. What evidence we have makes against it. Cicero, Orator,. 176, says, Now if Gorgias had been a permanent resident in Athens, he might have heard him at home without going to Thessaly. Isocrates was about twenty-two years old,, when this play was produced. Moreover, if Gorgias had ever possessed a house of his own at Athens, Plato would scarcely have introduced him as the guest of Callicles (Gorg. p. 447. d). That he ever occupied so important a place in public estimation as that a miscellaneous audience would recognize him when introduced on the stage under a false name,, and combined with another person, is quite incredible. For his popularity at Athens, Süvern relies upon an obscure Scholiast, whose words are