He was an ambassador of his native city Elis. Like other sophists, Hippias travelled extensively as a professional teacher.
Hippias of Elis was one of the more notable among the Sophists who visited Athens in the latter half of the fifth century BC.
Hippias of Elis is known from Plato’s dialogues, where he is represented as an intellectual jack-of-all trades who has a prodigious memory, performs numerical calculations at a speed which amazes his audience and teaches the ‘quadrivium’, calculation, astronomy, geometry and music.
As an ambassador, Hippias traveled more frequently to Sparta than to Athens. He claimed to have gone to Sicily when Protagoras was there. Hippias appeared in Athens during the years of the peace of Nicias and on special occasions.
Hippias was polymath and wrote extensively in almost every literary genre, but nothing more than a few references to his work exist.
Hippias of Elis
