Institutio Oratoria

All these statements occur in the Gorgias and are uttered by Socrates who appears to be the

mouthpiece of the views held by Plato. But some of his dialogues were composed merely to refute his opponents and are styled refutative, while others are for the purpose of teaching and are called doctrinal.

Now it is only rhetoric as practised in their own day that is condemned by Plato or Socrates, for he speaks of it as

the manner in which you engage in public affairs

[*](500 c.) : rhetoric in itself he regards as a genuine and honourable thing, and consequently the controversy with Gorgias ends with the words,

The rhetorician therefore must be just and the just man desirous to do what is just.

[*](460 c.)