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What happened to Protagoras after he expressed agnostic views about the gods?
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Plato (center left) and Aristotle, detail from School of Athens, fresco by Raphael, 1508–11; in the Stanza della Segnatura, the Vatican. Plato is shown pointing to the heavens and the realm of forms, Aristotle to the earth and the realm of things.
According to ancient tradition, after Protagoras expressed his agnostic views regarding the gods in his work Concerning the Gods, he faced serious consequences for his ideas. He was accused of impiety, his books were publicly burned, and he was subsequently exiled from Athens.12
While some later writers alleged that many intellectual figures of that era were similarly prosecuted, scholars note that historical evidence for a widespread period of persecution remains debated, as some accounts may have been invented to frame these philosophers as martyrs for their ideas.3