The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists.

A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste.[1101] [Footnote 110: Herodes Atticus gave the sophist Polemo above eight thousand pounds for three declamations.

See Philostrat.l.i.p.

538.
The Antonines founded a school at Athens, in which professors of grammar, rhetoric, politics, and the four great sects of philosophy were maintained at the public expense for the instruction of youth.

The salary of a philosopher was ten thousand drachmae, between three and four hundred pounds a year.