Should he pursue studies as a rhetor or philosopher? He mentions several influences&colon; Prodicus the rhetor and Anaxagoras the philosopher. He was a pupil of the philosopher Plato and of the rhetor Isocrates. The "rhetor" was the final stage in Roman education. Eusebius is described as a rhetor in an epistle by Libanius. Young men who studied under a rhetor would not only focus on public speaking. The audience are the listeners who the rhetor is attempting to persuade. Nyaya presents an argumentative approach that works a rhetor how to decide about any argument. He defines artistic proofs as arguments that the rhetor generates and creates on their own. Evagrius Scholasticus and Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos describe Agathias as a rhetor ("public speaker"). Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, whoever he was, did not compose these documents&colon; he compiled them.