the sophists
Socrates was identified with this group of intellectuals and teachers who serviced the desire on the part of the citizen body to learn and practice public discourse

some names Ð Gorgias, Protogoras, Euthydemos

developing an intellectual discourse pertinent to these urban and political spaces

Plato despised them (seeing Socrates as pursuing not the skill of discourse per se but its object Ð questions of right and wrong)