(συνθήκη), and thus society came into being.39 The theory, at first, though untrue, was not intended to be destructive of moral foundations, but was opposed rather to the traditional idea of the laws of a state as the “decrees of a divinely inspired lawgiver.”40 In the hands of men like Thrasymachus41 and Callicles,42 however, it became a means of denying that the life according to nature was bound by any laws which the strong need observe, and that might was the only final law.
In line with their radical individualism, the Sophists were also pioneers in the more cosmopolitan spirit that characterized the Cynics and Stoics. They taught the doctrine of the fundamental worth and relationship of men,43 and thus, with the Cynics, started the attack upon the theory that upheld slavery as a natural institution.44 Little further is known of their other social or economic ideas. Protagoras wrote a work on “wages,” but it was probably an argument relative to the acceptance of pay by Sophists.45 In any event, this fact that the Sophists were so ready to be enriched through their lectures is clear evidence that their teaching on wealth was not the negative doctrine of the other Greek philosophers.46 Prodicus seems to have scorned menial labor as morally degrading, though he agreed with Hesiod in his doctrine of the dignity of all work that is noble.47 He emphasized the necessity of labor in the production of material good,48 and, like Democritus, was the forerunner of the Socratics in his insistence upon right use as a criterion of wealth.49 Hippias prided himself on his accomplishment in many arts,50 and thus probably did not share the prejudice of the philosophers against manual labor.
Euripides, though markedly individualistic, like the Sophists, shows traces of the older use of nature to explain the necessity of the state. He draws a parallel between the social order and the order of nature, by which law and government are justified, and the right of the middle class of farmers to rule is upheld.51 He emphasizes the importance of agriculture, and the dignity of the peasant farmer (αὐτουργός), who