The “Sophistes” in the Greek classical period (especially the second half of the 5th century BC) refer to the earliest professional teachers of higher education in ancient Greece and even the whole Western world. Meeting the need of the development of the democratic system in ancient Greek city-states, they earned their living by spreading knowledge and charging fees, and gradually formed a special social class. The prosperity and abundant social wealth in Athens, the city-state democracy, constitutionalism and other environmental resources, the change of people’s values, the free and open atmosphere and other humanistic conditions have jointly promoted the rise of the professional teachers in higher education. At that time, in their professionalization process, the professional teachers of higher education started to think about the world origin, made clear the education value, accumulated the curriculum system, promoted the class teaching system, innovated the teaching mode, defended human morality, spread popular culture, and sold intellectual achievements, etc., thus putting the basic educational propositions into practice. These roles and functions provide reference for the development of professional teachers of higher education in the new era in China.