This man was better than his father[1] as regards the things that lead to virtue and the things that lead to eloquence. When still a young man he had hopes in himself and presented himself to everybody as in a sense not much inferior to the great Plutarch.[2] Accordingly Proclus considered him, even though still young, worthy of hearing his lecture-course of [= on] the Chaldean Oracles.[3] There was in him, by nature, a love of learning and a reasonableness. But apparently there was also wealth, that usual great evil for souls, furnishing the flatterers with an abundant supply not only of money (for this [is] not yet terrible) but also of a soul of a young man, easily devoured by such beasts, just like a freshly flowering plant. These people corrupted the life of Hegias in a way that he was no longer a philosopher. Otherwise he was eager to learn to interpret everything in relation to its nature; yet in accordance with his other habits there were times when he even deviated from correct reasoning. Wanting to be, above all else, holy,[4] he covertly celebrated the rites of in-laws in the Attic manner, without their consent, and he changed also, out of zeal, many other long-established things -- [whether] rather dangerously or rather piously.[5] Hence he became well-known in the civic community and attracted to himself those enemies who aimed to get the large fortune of which he was master and who were plotting [against him] with the support of the established order; for there was in Hegias something of Theagenes' magnanimous nature in his benefactions;[6] but [it was] more frugal than his to the extent of what he spent on friends and suppliants.