Born in Leontini in Sicily in about 485 B.C., Gorgias is said to have been a student of Empedocles; he doubtless began his career as a philosopher whose work included speculations on natural science. But Sicily in the late fifth century B.C. was the fountainhead of the new discipline of rhetoric, and Gorgias turned his attention to language at an early age. His teacher Empedocles is called the founder of rhetorical studies; Gorgias is also described as a student of Tisias, who had learned rhetoric from Corax, the man most often named as the first systematic rhetorician. The nihilistic theses in Gorgias's book Concerning Nature or What is Not may suggest that, having devastated scientific positivism, Gorgias abandoned the pursuit of ultimate truth as inaccessible and turned to oratory as an alternative field in which the unknowability of ultimate truth is not necessarily a defect.
In about 427 B.C. Gorgias, having journeyed to Athens as the leader of a delegation that was requesting military aid against the Syracusans, dazzled the local orators with his highly ornamented and rhythmic style of speaking. He was not only successful in persuading the Athenians to make an alliance with Leontini; he had made such an impression that he moved to Athens himself and took pupils, reputedly at high tuition.
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