His death, then, may be presumed to have occurred circa 420 BC, but is not known for certain, since assumptions about it are based on an apparently fake story about his trial for asebeia (impiety) in Athens. In the Meno he is said to have died at approximately the age of 70, after 40 years as a practising Sophist. This suggests a birth date of not later than 490 BC. In Protagoras Plato wrote that, before a gathering of Socrates, Prodicus, and Hippias, Protagoras stated that he was old enough to be the father of any of them. The dates of his life are not recorded but extrapolated from writings that have survived the ages. Protagoras became well known in Athens and even became a friend of Pericles. Democritus promptly took him into his own household and taught him philosophy. Democritus realized that Protagoras had tied the load together with such perfect geometric accuracy that he must be a mathematical prodigy. According to Aulus Gellius, he originally made his living as a porter, but one day he was seen by the philosopher Democritus carrying a load of small pieces of wood he had tied with a short cord. Protagoras was born in Abdera, Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos (today part of the Xanthi regional unit).
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