You ask, my boy, how you can get to be a public
speaker, and be held to personify the sublime and
glorious name of sophist; life, you say, is not worth
living, unless when you speak you can clothe
yourself in such a mantle of eloquence that you
will be irresistible and invincible, that you will be
admired and stared at by everyone, counting among
the Greeks as a highly desirable treat for their ears.
Consequently, you wish to find out what the roads
are that lead to this goal. Come, I have no desire to
be churlish, lad, especially when a mere youngster who
craves what is noblest, not knowing how to come by
it, draws near and asks, as you do now, for advice—
a sacred matter. So listen; and in so far as it lies
in my power, you may have great confidence that
soon you will be an able hand at discerning what
requires to be said and expressing it in words, Like Pericles (Thuc. 2, 60). if only
you on your part are willing henceforth to abide by
what I tell you, to practise it industriously, and
to follow the road resolutely until you reach your
goal.
 
Certainly the object of your quest is not trivial,
nor one that calls for little effort, but rather one
for which it is worth while to work hard, to scant
your sleep, and to put up with anything whatsoever.


 

Just see how many who previously were nobodies
have come to be accounted men of standing, millionaires, yes, even gentlemen, because of their
eloquence.
 
Do not be daunted, however, and do
not be dismayed at the greatness of your expectations, thinking to undergo untold labours before
you achieve them. I shall not conduct you by a
rough road, or a steep and sweaty one, so that you
will turn back halfway out of weariness. In that
case I should be no better than those other guides
who use the customary route—long, steep, toilsome,
and, as a rule, hopeless. No, my advice has this to
commend it, that ascending in the manner of a
leisurely stroll through flowery fields and perfect
shade in great comfort and luxury by a sloping
bridle-path that is very short as well as very pleasant,
you will gain the summit without sweating for it,
you will bag your game without any effort, yes, by
Heaven, you will banquet at your ease, looking
down from the height at those who went the other
way as they creep painfully upward over sheer and
slippery crags, still in the foot-hills of the ascent,
rolling off head-first from time to time, and getting
many a wound on the sharp rocks—and you, the
while, on the top long before them, with a wreath
upon your head, will be fortunate beyond compare,
for you will have acquired from Rhetoric in an
instant, all but in your sleep, every single blessing
that there is!
 
Yes, my promise goes to that extent in its
generosity ; A quotation from Demosthenes, Phil. 1, 44, 15. but in the name of Friendship More literally, Friendship’s patron; 7. ¢. Zeus. do
not disbelieve me, when I say that I shall show



 

you that its attainment is at once easy and pleasant.
Why should you? Hesiod was given a leaf or two
from Helicon, and at once he became a poet instead
of a shepherd and sang the pedigrees of gods and
heroes under the inspiration of the Muses. Theogony, 30-34. The Muses plucked a branch of laurel and gave it him as a staff of office (oxjrrpov). Is it
impossible, then, to become a public speaker —something far inferior to the grand style of poetry—in
an instant, if one could find out the quickest way?

 

Just to show you, I should like to tell you the
tale of a Sidonian merchant's idea which disbelief
made ineffectual and profitless to the man who heard
it. Alexander was then ruler of the Persians,
having deposed Darius after the battle of Arbela,
and postmen had to run to every quarter of the
realm carrying Alexander’s orders. The journey
from Persia to Egypt was long, since one had to
make a detour about the mountains, then to go
through Babylonia to Arabia, and then to traverse
a wide expanse of desert before reaching Egypt at
last, after spending in this way, even if one travelled
light, twenty very long days on the road. Well,
this annoyed Alexander, because he had heard that
the Egyptians were showing signs of disaffection,
and he was unable to be expeditious in transmitting
his decisions concerning them to his governors.
At that juncture the Sidonian merchant said: “I
give you my word, King Alexander, to show you a
short route from Persia to Egypt. If a man went
over these mountains—and he could do it in three


 

days—he is in Egypt in no time!” And it was so!
Alexander, however, put no faith in it, but thought
that the merchant was a liar. The Sidonian merchant was exaggerating, but there was truth in his tale. From Persepolis, by crossing the mountains to the head of the Persian Gulf one could pick up a traderoute that led from Alexandria on the Tigris (Charax) to Petra (see Pliny 6, 145), whence one could get to Rhinocolura, and so to Egypt. This would have been much shorter than the normal (Susa, Babylon, Damascus) route, but it might not have been any quicker. So true is it that
amazing promises seem untrustworthy to most
people.