Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c.

430c. 550 C.E.)

Author(s): Edward Watts
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Classical Philology, Vol. 106, No. 3 (July 2011), pp. 226-244
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DOCTRINE, ANECDOTE, AND ACTION: RECONSIDERING THE
SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS (C. 430C. 550 C.E.)
edward watts
T
WO PARALLEL NARRATIVES have tended to dominate modern recon-
structions of the fnal century and a half of Platonisms long ancient
history. The frst ties the dramatic intersection of pagan-Christian
confict, imperial policy, and philosophical principles to the end of Platonic
teaching in the Eastern Roman Empire.
1
A second, distinct narrative analyzes
Latin philosophical writings and traces the gradual unraveling of the ties that
bound Latin philosophical culture and its Greek counterpart.
2
Each of these
narratives has its own unique way of viewing and understanding Platonism.
The frst story culminates with the emperor Justinians closing of the Athe-
nian Platonic school. It tends to present the afected philosophers as a small,
isolated group of pagan intellectuals whose confict with an increasingly as-
sertive Christian political order pushed them to the empires margins. The
second narrative ends with Boethius and Cassiodorus and stresses how their
philosophical eforts both underlined Graeco-Latin philosophical separation
and planted the seeds of medieval scholasticism. It sees Platonism primarily
as a movement held together by scholastic practices and doctrinal continuities
in which Latin writers participated only at some remove.
This paper proposes a diferent, more expansive way to think about late
antique philosophical life. Ancient philosophical culture was not defned ex-
clusively by religious concerns and doctrinal ties. Beginning with the Old
Academy of Xenocrates, Platonists shaped themselves into an intellectual
community held together by doctrinal commonalities, a shared history, and
defned personal relationships.
3
As the Hellenistic world developed and
Platonism spread beyond its Athenian center, doctrine, history, and social
ties stopped being conterminous. Platonists remained connected by a shared
intellectual genealogy, but Platonisms social and doctrinal aspects became
Earlier versions of this paper were delivered at the Late Antique Network meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee
in 2009 and at a symposium in Uppsala University. I wish to thank the participants in these meetings as well as
the anonymous referees of CP for their suggestions and criticism.
1. Numerous studies have been written arguing about the closing of the Athenian school. Among the most
prominent are Cameron 1969, 729; Blumenthal 1978, 36985; and Hllstrm 1994, 14160. For a more
detailed discussion of this event and its aftermath see Watts 2006a, 12842, and 2005, 285315.
2. For this line of exploration see, most notably, Courcelle 1943. In assessing Courcelles arguments about
Boethius use of contemporary Greek philosophy, one should note the important corrective ofered by Shiel
1990, 34972. For Boethius as one who anticipates Medieval Scholasticism, see Marenbon 2003. Note as well
the essay of Moorhead 2009, 1133.
3. Watts 2007, 10622.
227 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
decentralized as individual schools with their own interests grew up in vari-
ous cities.
4
Although no direct institutional connection joined them to the
Academy, late antique Platonists saw themselves as part of an old philosophi-
cal lineage that reached back to Plato.
5
In their schools, the history of an
individual circles past mingled with that of the larger intellectual tradition it
claimed to have inherited. This amalgamated tradition was handed down from
teachers to students in personal conversations that had a number of important,
community-building efects. They attracted students to Platonic philosophy,
encouraged them to identify with the movements past leaders, and infu-
enced their ideas and actions once they joined a specifc group. As this paper
will show, the Platonic circles that these men and women formed were then
defned as much by the relationships they formed and by the behaviors they
exhibited as by the doctrines they espoused.
1. Social Space
Before speaking about the men and women who used Platonic ideas to guide
their actions, it is frst important to emphasize that the classrooms of Platonic
teachers contained many students who studied philosophy only as a supple-
ment to a diferent sort of education. Some of these people ultimately chose
to order their lives according to Platonic principles, but many (and perhaps
most) simply absorbed Platonic ideas and moved on to law schools, adminis-
trative positions, or other pursuits.
6
It is also important to note that a number
of the Platonic philosophers leading these classes taught in other disciplines
as well. Chrysanthius, the intimate and former teacher of the emperor Julian,
spent his mornings teaching grammar in Sardis.
7
Syrianus, the Aristotelian
commentator and Orphic hymnist who preceded Proclus as head of the Athe-
nian Platonic school, and Horapollon, the scion of an Alexandrian Platonic
dynasty at the turn of the sixth century, also ofered regular classes in gram-
mar.
8
It is probable, then, that some of the students who studied under these
men never received any Platonic instruction at all.
9
These diverse interests complicated the social organization of a Platonic
community, but the way in which Platonists used scholastic space may have
4. On this process of decentralization, see the important collection of essays in A.-M. Ioppolo and D. Sed-
ley 2007.
5. The connection that late Platonists felt they had to Plato can perhaps be best seen in the Philosophical
Histories assembled by both Numenius and Porphyry. For the role of Numenius, in particular, in crafting a
broad and integrative model of the philosophical past, see Boys-Stones 2001, 3841.
6. Among the most notable examples of casual students who became devotees are the ffth- and sixth-
century Athenian luminaries Proclus and Damascius. Proclus frst took instruction in philosophy while pursu-
ing a course of study that he hoped would lead to law school (Marinus Vita Procli 8). Damascius, for his part,
seems to have sat in on the philosophical lectures of Ammonius Hermeiou while preparing himself for a career
in rhetoric; this is suggested by Isid. 56. For discussion of Damascius conversion, see Athanassiadi 2006,
19294. For those who moved on to other pursuits, see Zacharias Ammonius 12, 2831.
7. Eunap. VS 503, 505.
8. The best indication that Syrianus taught grammar is his extensive commentary on a work by the gram-
marian Hermogenes. On Horapollon, see Dam. Isid. 120B as well as the account in Zacharias Scholasticus Vita
Severi 1527. His grammatical teaching is described at Vita Severi 15. For Horapollons position as head of a
philosophical school in the 490s, see Maspero 1914, 16395.
9. Eunapius, for example, studied both grammar and philosophy with Chrysanthius but seems to have
received philosophical instruction after he returned to Sardis following his rhetorical training in Athens.
228 EDWARD WATTS
helped to resolve some of this complexity. Late antique Platonic schools seem
to have utilized public spaces for teaching students seeking a general philo-
sophical education and private spaces for the interaction of Platonic initiates.
Two sites that may be connected to philosophical instruction suggest a way
to understand in spatial terms how late Platonists set their public instruction
apart from the activities of a schools inner circle. The frst, unearthed at Kom
el-Dikka in Alexandria, seems to have been a sort of publicly-commissioned
classroom complex. In the mid-to-late ffth century, perhaps as many as
twenty-fve lecture halls were constructed in the center of the city abutting a
late Roman bath.
10
Each of these contained rows of seats arranged along three
walls of the room so that they resembled small, horseshoe-shaped theaters.
At their head was a raised chair, presumably for the teacher leading the class.
These seem to have been part of a larger scholastic quarter in the city that
included a public theater, a large open space in which people could congre-
gate, and a colonnaded portico onto which all of the individual rooms opened.
A series of literary descriptions of the space in which philosophical instruc-
tion took place in ffth- and sixth-century Alexandria suggests that the Kom
el-Dikka classrooms may have been used by the most prominent Alexandrian
Platonists of the period. In the early sixth century, Zacharias Scholasticus
wrote about the Platonist Ammonius Hermeiou sitting on a high seat in the
manner of a pompous sophist, expounding and clarifying to us Aris totles
doctrines.
11
He also describes leaving a class given by Ammonius and head-
ing out into an area called the temenos of the Muses, in which poets,
rhetors, and students of grammar make their declamations and to which
students could go to further discuss issues raised in class.
12
This could cor-
respond to the large open space next to the classrooms at Kom el-Dikka.
13

Similarly, in the later sixth century, the philosopher Elias spoke about the
classrooms of his day as not unlike theaters with a rounded plan in order
for the students to be able to see one another as well as the teachers.
14
Here
again, an Alexandrian teacher describes his teaching space in terms that seem
to match the structures found at Kom el-Dikka.
The remains of a number of late antique houses erected along the Athe-
nian Areopagus may preserve the foundations of a diferent type of scholastic
building. One group of structures located along the north side of the hill
had distinctive architectural features (like apsidal rooms) that have prompted
some to speculate that these were the residences and schools of teachers oper-
ating in the city.
15
More intriguing is a structure on the Acropolis south slope.
10. The remains are described and analyzed in detail by Majcherek (2007, 1150); and placed in their
urban context by McKenzie (2007b, 5383). On the larger complex of auditoria, see Majcherek 2004, 2538,
as well as 2005, 1730. I thank Professor Majcherek for the fnal two references. Note now the detailed recon-
structions in McKenzie 2007a, 20820.
11. Zacharias Ammonius 9299. All translations in this article are my own, unless otherwise noted.
12. Zacharias Ammonius 36169.
13. On this space see Majcherek 2007, 1415; McKenzie 2007b, 79. Elsewhere McKenzie (2007a, 214)
explicitly connects the temenos of the Muses with the teaching complex of Kom el-Dikka.
14. Elias in Porphyrii Isagogen 21.2930 (trans. Majcherek 2007, 41).
15. Most prominently, Frantz 1988, 3941; and Athanassiadi 1999, 34347. Athanassiadis proposal that
Areopagus House C may have replaced the so-called House of Proclus as a scholastic center after the latter was
abandoned around the turn of the sixth century remains an intriguing one. On the House of Proclus, see more
229 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
Its location matches what is described by Marinus, the biographer of Proclus,
when he writes about the house that Proclus inherited from his teachers Syri-
anus and Plutarch.
16
Like those on the other side of the hill, this building
contained a large central hall with a mosaic foor and an apse at the foor level.
A passage in Eunapius Lives of the Sophists states that the house of the
Athenian sophist Prohaeresius contained a marble theater in which he held
class, an arrangement that Prohaeresius and other Athenian teachers adopted
because scholastic violence had reached such a level that it was unsafe to
teach in public.
17
On the basis of this description, it has been assumed that
the apsidal rooms in the Areopagus houses were constructed to serve the
same instructional purpose as the private theater that Eunapius mentions.
18

There are a couple of difculties with this idea, however. First, Eunapius
description should be considered with a bit more caution. The house used by
Prohaeresius predates the Areopagus houses by perhaps as much as a cen-
tury.
19
In addition, Eunapius highlights the arrangement created by Julianus
and continued by Prohaeresius because it was exceptional.
20
This suggests
that Eunapius evidence may not necessarily provide a helpful parallel for
understanding how these later constructions were utilized. Secondly, the apses
in both the house of Proclus and its cousins on the Areopagus north side are
relatively small in size and do not contain the sort of theater arrangement that
Eunapius describes. This is especially important to note because, at roughly
the same time as their construction, the Metroon on the west side of the Agora
was reftted to include an apse with marble benches at the end of a long central
aisle, a structure not unlike that found in the Alexandrian public auditoria.
21

The size and shape of the apsidal rooms in the Areopagus houses suggest
that they are more likely to be the large public dining rooms of elite houses
below. The similarity of the Areopagus houses to urban villas in other cities has been noted by Castrn (1994a,
8); and Fowden (1990, 494500).
16. To this end his house in which he lived was a help to him. Indeed, in addition to other good features,
the house was beautiful to him, and then there was the fact that his father Syrianus and his grandfather
Plutarch, as Proclus himself called them, lived there. More so, it was on the one hand neighboring to the Ascle-
pion, famous from Sophocles, and the temple of Dionysus adjacent to the theater, and on the other it could be
seen and was otherwise perceptible to the senses from the Acropolis of Athens (Vita Procli 29). On the House
of Proclus, see Karivieri 1994, 11539.
17. VS 483.
18. Frantz 1988, 45.
19. It had once belonged to Prohaeresius teacher Julianus, who frst set up shop in Athens in the 290s.
Eunapius says nothing about when the house was constructed. It has generally been assumed that the Areopa-
gus houses were built in the last part of the fourth century (e.g., Frantz 1988, 4749).
20. In the same period, Libanius taught in his home only when he was trying to establish himself in
Antioch. Once his school became viable, Libanius moved to larger, more public spaces; for discussion, see
Cribiore 2007a, 30. Other teachers used their homes too, but most seem to have done so only until public space
became available (see Cribiore 2007b, 14447). I am skeptical of Cribiores identifcation (on p. 146) of the
small school described by Himerius in Or. 64 as his home, though this is certainly possible. CTh 14.9.3, a law
that prohibits teachers who make use of public facilities in Constantinople from also teaching privately in their
homes, shows the difculty in distinguishing between informal gatherings in a home and actual teaching. The
specifc problem it addressed, however, was publicly salaried professors looking to supplement their income
by taking on additional fee-paying students (or charging extra fees for better instruction). It is not generally
concerned with the use of private facilities.
21. Thompson 1937, 195202. Because of its westward orientation, this cannot represent conversion into
a church. Thompson has proposed identifying the renovated building with a synagogue, an idea echoed by
Frantz 1988, 5859. In light of the Kom el-Dikka remains, however, Majcherek 2007, 4243, has suggested
reinterpreting this site.
230 EDWARD WATTS
than the teaching spaces of schools. Indeed, such features are typical of later
Roman villas found throughout the empire and often were part of the public
space in which prominent families entertained their guests.
22
This does not mean, however, that late antique Athenian intellectual com-
munities made no use of houses like these. The Life of Proclus suggests
that this sort of semiprivate space may have served as a site for both public
scholastic activities and social interaction between philosophical initiates.
When Proclus frst arrived in Athens, he joined a small meeting (sunousia) led
by Syrianus and attended by Lachares, a professional rhetorician who was
drenched with philosophical learning and a fellow student of the philosopher
in these matters.
23
The conversation ran long and, as the moon began to rise,
the two philosophical initiates tried to send [Proclus] outside, speaking to the
youth as a stranger [xenos],
24
so that they might be free to make obeisance to
the god on their own.
25
Proclus then immediately removed his sandals and,
as these men watched, he paid his respects to the god.
26
Lachares, who was
struck by this free expression of the youth, spoke to the philosopher Syrianus
that statement divinely spoken by Plato about those of great character This
man either will be a great good or quite the opposite.
27
This scene ofers rich material for understanding both the organization of
the ffth-century Athenian Platonic school and the way in which diferent
strata of the schools social hierarchy utilized its space. Although Marinus
does not specify that this encounter took place in the so-called house of Pro-
clus, this is the most likely location.
28
Marinus also implies that this area was
sometimes open to visitors to the Platonic circle while at other moments its
access was restricted only to initiates.
29
Our initial inclination may be to at-
tribute this way of using space to a political climate that made open displays
of pagan piety risky in the 430s,
30
but a number of parallel situations suggest
that religious pressure is only a partial explanation for the exclusion of a
stranger from the communal space of the school. In the 480s, for example,
some Alexandrian teachers who normally used public classrooms would hold
their Friday lessons in their homes and open them to only a small subset of
22. See Fowden 1990, 496; Sodini 1984, 34450, 35960, 37583. Indeed, Julia Hillner has recently dem-
onstrated that the size and complexity of these apsidal rooms increased in Late Antiquity, suggesting that they
may have become more important in elite entertaining (Hillner 2009).
23. Vita Procli 11.
24. Marinus choice of words here is deliberate and designed to contrast the outsider status of Proclus with
that of Lachares, Syrianus fellow-student. In the end, of course, Proclus prayer showed that, despite his
recent arrival, he was not really an outsider at all.
25. Vita Procli 11.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.; among the Platonic parallels are Resp. 491e, Cri. 44d, Grg. 525a, Hp. Mi. 375e.
28. The prayers that Syrianus and Lachares want to perform in the meeting space make it clear that this
encounter did not take place in a public auditorium or, indeed, in a place easily seen by passersby. Because
Syrianus then occupied the house that would eventually be left to Proclus, this is the most likely place in which
the encounter occurred.
29. Dillon (2007, 11718) understands this meeting as an interview. He suggests, quite rightly, that, had
Proclus shown himself to be a Christian, he would likely have been allowed to listen to lectures but not admit-
ted to the schools restricted religious activities.
30. E.g., Dillon 2007, 117.
231 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
their students.
31
Nor was this practice unique to the ffth century. A similar
dynamic can be seen in second-century Athenian schools of rhetoric as well
as in early ffth-century Alexandrian philosophical schools.
32
Each of these
institutions rewarded their more talented and dedicated students with greater
access to the professor and his home. Indeed, even during the lifetime of
Plato, Platonists may have demarcated space depending upon ones degree of
attachment to the master.
33
These examples suggest that public auditoria (like
those in Alexandria) and private houses (like the one belonging to Proclus)
could serve as two complementary components of a scholastic physical plant.
As students progressed from casual auditors of lectures to initiates into the
culture of a scholastic circle more of the schools space opened up for them.
2. Social Relationships
The particular ways in which Platonists restricted access to some scholastic
space ensured that the ideas presented in a classroom played only a small
part in defning ones experience of and standing in a Platonic community.
Literary sources that speak about the social organization of schools confrm
this picture. Theoretically, late antique teachers and students saw themselves
as members of a scholastic family.
34
Reality often did not conform to this
rhetoric.
35
Zacharias Scholasticus, for example, studied philosophy under
Ammonius Hermeiou in Alexandria but later did not hesitate to attack the
character and credibility of his teacher.
36
More intriguing is John Philopo-
nus, a member of Ammonius philosophical family who, like a rebellious
son, disavowed some of the circles core ideas in an attempt to establish his
own intellectual identity.
37
Many other students were more disinterested than
hostile, perhaps not unlike the students whose unwillingness to actually read
assigned texts bemused a later Arabic scholar.
38
The most dedicated members of a philosophical school, however, readily
embraced these familial relationships and the personal intimacy they enabled.
31. Zacharias Vita Severi 23. Zacharias here describes the beating of a student of the teacher Horapol-
lon by his fellow students. He says that the students of Horapollon chose Friday to set upon their classmate
because Horapollon would be away owing to the fact that all the teachers used to lecture and give instruction
in their homes on that day. This suggests both that some of Horapollons students studied with him at his
home and that a large number of Horapollons students did not.
32. E.g., Philostr. V S 58586; Vita Procli 8.
33. If Epicrates and Aelian are to be believed, it seems that discussions held in the Academy grove were
apparently open to all (Epicrates, frag. 11), while Plato led other seminars in his home to which he welcomed
only the most devoted of his followers (Ael. VH 3.19).
34. E.g., Lib. Ep. 931, 1009, 1070, 1257; Synesius Ep. 16. For a discussion of these terms, see Petit 1957,
3536; and Cribiore 2007a, 13843.
35. This seems to have been a particular problem in schools of grammar and rhetoric. Late antique evi-
dence suggests that only a minority of those attending classes in rhetoric at any one time would complete even
a three-year course of study (see Kaster 1988, 2627, based upon Petit 1957, 6265). See Lib. Ep. 379, for a
case of a student who left his care before completing his course; note, however, the cautions of Cribiore 2007a,
177.
36. E.g., Zacharias Ammonius 1924, 2732.
37. Watts 2006a, 23755. On the ways in which this rebellion is manifested in his work, see Verrycken
1990, 23374, though note as well the comments of Scholten 1996, 11843, and Lang 2001, 810.
38. These synopses obviate the need for the original texts . . . and save one the trouble of reading the
digressions and superfuous material which they contain. (Abu-l-Farag ibn Hindu, Miftanh al-Tibb 63.1315,
trans. Gutas). He is speaking about the works of Galen, but this attitude probably lies behind the production
of so many synthetic philosophical prolegomena in the later ffth and sixth centuries; for these, see Wildberg
1990, 3351.
232 EDWARD WATTS
Synesius, for example, spoke with reverence about his philosophical mother
Hypatia and compared his fellow student Herculianus to a brother.
39
In
some cases, this notion of an intellectual family extended into more tangible
realms. When he took over the Athenian Platonic school, Proclus would go
out to the Academy and perform rites in the defned place for the souls of
ancestors [progonoi] and kindred souls.
40
Syrianus, Proclus teacher and
philosophical father, even asked Proclus to arrange to be buried in a double-
vaulted memorial tomb that Syrianus had constructed for the two of them.
Before he died, Proclus arranged for this to be done and inscribed his half
of the monument with an epigram that underlined the philosophers personal
development in particularly succinct fashion:
I am Proclus, born of the Lycian race, whom Syrianus
raised [threpse] here to succeed him in his teaching.
A common tomb has received both our bodies,
may a single place receive our souls.
41
Proclus there described himself as born into an earthly family but raised by
Syrianus into a proper philosophical life. When he died, Proclus body was
placed in the mausoleum of his philosophical family and, he hoped, his soul
would end up in the same realm as that of his philosophical father. No concern
is expressed for a reunion with his biological ancestors.
Proclus and Syrianus took notions of philosophical lineage further than
many late antique Platonists, but their actions were not unprecedented. In
the Old Academy, for example, the scholarch Polemo shared living quarters
with his appointed successor Crates and a common tomb with him when both
died.
42
Similarly, the Academics Arcesilaus and Crantor lived in the same
house during their lives.
43
The pseudo-Platonic Theages, a dialogue likely
composed during this period, suggests that Platonists understood this sort of
arrangement as one in which a young man traded the guidance of a biological
father for that of a teacher.
44
In an exchange near the end of the work, Theages
and his father Demodocus both appeal to Socrates to take the young man on
as a pupil.
45
When Socrates expresses some reluctance, Demodocus begs
Socrates to be willing to associate with [Theages] and implores Theages
to not seek to associate with anyone other than Socrates.
46
If this happens,
both will be freeing [Demodocus] from numerous and fearsome concerns.
47

Theages then answers his father: Now no longer have any fear for me, father,
if you can persuade this man to accept my association [sunousia].
48
Sunou-
sia can, of course, have erotic overtones and the Theages can certainly be
read as a justifcation for the eros-driven educational theory advanced by the
39. Synesius Ep. 16.
40. Vita Procli 36.
41. Ibid., 36. I thank an anonymous referee for ofering some suggestions for improving this translation.
42. Diog. Laert. 4.21.
43. Ibid., 4.30.
44. On the dating and purpose of the Theages, see Tarrant 2005, 13155 (dating on p. 144).
45. Theages 12728.
46. Ibid., 127b7b8.
47. Ibid., 127b8c1.
48. Ibid., 127c34.
233 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
Old Academic Polemo,
49
but the paradigmatic teacher-disciple relationship it
sets out remained important long after Polemos infuence had faded. Indeed,
while there is no evidence that Proclus and Syrianus shared the sexual ele-
ments of the relationship apparently envisioned by the Old Academics, they
do seem to have been greatly infuenced by a model of intellectual mentorship
that replaced ones biological family with a family of the soul.
Relationships between members of an intellectual family did not need to
become quite so involved for them to have meaning. Less favored intellectual
sons secured these quasi-familial ties through a set of regular, informal inter-
actions with their teachers. The most common mechanism in antiquity seems
to have been the teacher-student dinner (a tendency that perhaps explains the
prominent dining rooms of the Areopagus houses). The invitation to dine with
a teacher welcomed a student into a schools restricted space. As such, it rep-
resented a signifcant reward that bestowed upon him an elevated status within
an intellectual community. Damascius describes his brothers invitation to
dine with Severianus, their teacher of rhetoric, as a reward for his enthusiasm
that was beftting a member of his inner circle.
50
Other schools in other
periods accorded the same signifcance to an invitation to dine with a teacher.
Herodes Atticus ofered regular lunches to his most promising pupils,
51
and
two of Proclus early teachers gave him standing dinner invitations in recogni-
tion of his scholastic achievements.
52
At the same time, these meetings often
engendered a close personal bond between teacher and student that brought
tangible meaning to the familial language of a school. When Proclus frst
received a dinner invitation from Leonas, one of his Alexandrian teachers,
it meant that Leonas would not only share his knowledge with Proclus but
[that] he even deemed Proclus worthy to share his house and dine together
with his wife and children, as if he were his own legitimate child.
53
Dam-
ascius teacher Isidore similarly enjoyed meals with his Egyptian teachers of
philosophy Asclepiades and Heraiscus.
54
In his Lives of the Sophists, Eunapius describes a relationship built upon
a diferent sort of interaction that involved personal conversations in pub-
lic spaces. When Eunapius returned to Sardis to teach rhetoric, he began to
audit philosophy lectures given by the Platonist Chrysanthius. Chrysanthius
often invited Eunapius to accompany him on walks following these classes.
This was a custom that Chrysanthius had evidently learned from his teacher
Aedesius, and one that Aedesius had appropriated from his own mentor Iam-
blichus.
55
Eunapius vividly describes these walks: He would take along the
author of this text. He would stretch these into long and leisurely walks. And
49. Polemo defned eros as a service to the gods for the care and salvation of the young (Plut. Mor.
780d). As both Dillon (2002, 165) and Tarrant (2005, 144) note, this does not refer to the eros between a parent
and a child but a diferent sort of relationship.
50. Isid. 108. I am here interpreting hetairos as member of a schools inner circle, the most common
meaning in the Life of Isidore. The word could also simply mean companion.
51. Philostr. V S 58586.
52. Vita Procli 8, 9.
53. Ibid., 8.
54. Isid. 72E.
55. In Aedesius case, Eunapius (VS 481) suggests that the walks also were designed to teach his students
how to behave toward others. As for Iamblichus, see Fowden 1977, 374.
234 EDWARD WATTS
one would forget the soreness of his feet, because he would become enchanted
by the stories Chrysanthius told.
56
3. Philosophical Society, Shared History, and Doctrine
The stories that Eunapius heard from Chrysanthius as they walked in and
around Sardis play an important role in showing how abstract doctrine could
intersect with ones experiences in the world. As they walked, the two men
discussed their philosophical progonoi. Indeed, much of the material that
came to make up the philosophical lives in Eunapius Lives of the Soph-
ists came from these conversations with Chrysanthius. But these were no
idle reminiscences. The anecdotes that Chrysanthius shared demonstrated the
ways in which his philosophical ancestors brought to life the religious and
theological ideas that played such a central role in the Iamblichan Platonic
system.
57
Eunapius heard about how Iamblichus levitated when he prayed,
discerned the presence of corpses from an extreme distance, and communi-
cated with divine fguresall attributes that showed how theurgy enabled its
practitioners to unite their souls with related divine fgures.
58
He also came
to know quite a bit about Maximus of Ephesus, a philosophical uncle whose
life demonstrated both what a theurgist could accomplish and the problems
that came about when theurgic teachings were inappropriately applied.
59
The
power of these stories came from the personal and intellectual relationship
that enabled their transmission. These accounts had been passed to Eunapius
by his philosophical father and, as such, they were valued as tokens of a
cherished personal relationship and mementoes of a shared lineage.
60
Eunapius Lives highlight one way that informal interactions could rein-
force the theological doctrines that a school presented. Damascius Life of
Isidore shows how these conversations not only shaped a students under-
standing of theology but also infuenced his views about the appropriate ways
in which to apply a schools ethical teachings. For Damascius, teacher-student
meals represented one of the most important settings in which these stories
could be shared. The anecdotes told on these occasions could involve theo-
logical content,
61
but, just as often, they modeled appropriate behaviors. At
one such dinner, for example, the teacher Severianus spoke to Damascius and
his brother Julian about his public career. Severianus told them that he had
once served in the imperial government but saw his career end prematurely
56. VS 502.
57. On the central role of religious ideas and practices in late Platonism, see Dillon 2007, 11738.
58. Shaw 1995, 12126; and Cox Miller 2000, 243.
59. The force of such anecdotes is shown by Eunapius suggestion that the emperor Julian was drawn to
Maximus because he heard a story about a wonder Maximus performed at a temple of Hecate (VS 475).
60. The Letters of Iamblichus show another way in which the practical application of Platonic doctrine
could be communicated to Platonists in a personalized fashion. These have been assembled in Dillon and
Polleichtner 2009. The surviving fragments usually preserve somewhat abstract discussions, but some provide
specifc advice for how ethical teaching could be implemented in the world. Among the most notable such
fragments are Ep. 6, frag. 2, a text that instructs a governor in the correct ways to distribute benefactions and
Ep. 16, a letter that describes in rather precise terms how a father should prepare his son for an education in
virtue.
61. E.g., Isid. 72E.
235 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
because of his paganism.
62
He then passed around an imperial letter that
promised high ofce in exchange for his conversion to Christianity. Severia-
nus, of course, refused this ofer. Severianus later took part in a plot to kill
the emperor Zeno and restore paganisman act for which he barely escaped
execution.
63
For Damascius, these informal conversations illustrated how an
intellectual ought to act in the Christian empire of the 470s.
Another set of stories that Damascius heard while a student showed the in-
fuence of a Platonic interpretation of Epictetus that would become infuential
at the turn of the sixth century.
64
These were anecdotes recounted to him by
Theosebius, an Epictetan scholar who worked to regulate his outward way of
life and reform the personal behaviors of others.
65
Theosebius told a number
of stories to Damascius that illustrated how Epictetan ethics could be applied
in the world,
66
but the most powerful narrative he shared emphasized the need
to live philosophically even under the most dangerous conditions. This tale
concerned Theosebius teacher Hierocles:
Once in Byzantium, he gave ofence to the ruling party and, being taken to court, he was
savagely beaten up. As he fowed with blood he gathered some of it into the hollow of his
hand and sprinkled it over the judge, exclaiming: There, Cyclops, drink the wine now
that you have devoured the human fesh. He was condemned to exile and, after returning
to Alexandria some time later, he continued to teach philosophy to his disciples just as
before.
67
This account forms part of a larger collection of Alexandrian narratives that
describe how pagan intellectuals lived philosophically even in the face of
Christian pressure. These include an account of the murder of Hypatia and a
discussion of the teacher Olympus leadership during the Christian siege of
the Serapeum in 391.
68
Hierocles exile from the capital in order to escape
the rule of a tyrant, however, illustrated Epictetus ideas about the appropriate
political behavior of a philosopher and imitated Epictetus own actions under
Domitian.
69
4. Curriculum, Society, and Applied Ethics
The Epictetan ethical trend exemplifed by Theosebius stories shows how
personal communication between teachers and students helped to defne the
62. Vita Severi 108.
63. Damascius seems to have left for Alexandria around 478 (on the basis of Photius comments in Bibl.
181.8189), meaning that he would likely have heard about this from Severianus sometime between 476
(Zenos restoration) and 478.
64. The signifcance of these Epictetan ideas in the 500s will be discussed in more detail below.
65. Isid. 46D.
66. E.g., Isid. 46E.
67. Isid. 45B (trans. Athanassiadi). This material must have come to Damascius from Theosebius, his only
named source for materials related to Hierocles. In the preceding fragment, Damascius records some informa-
tion from Theosebius about Hierocles interpretations of Platos Gorgias. Earlier in this fragment, Theosebius
is also mentioned as a source for Hierocles view of Socrates.
68. These are Isid. 43AE (Hypatia) and 42AF (Olympus). The Hypatia material certainly comes from
more than one source, with some elements coming from ignorant legends (frag. 43A) and others from a
more secure scholastic tradition. On the pagan traditions associated with Hypatias murder, see Watts 2006b,
33537.
69. For this model in a Platonic framework, see Simplicius in Encheiridion 65.3739. This passage will be
discussed in more detail below.
236 EDWARD WATTS
proper application of philosophical teaching. At the same time that these
stories were circulating among Platonists, the Stoic ethical ideas advanced
by Epictetus found their way into the early stages of Platonic instruction.
Epitectus was read by a number of ffth-century Platonists,
70
but he came to
play an important role in at least one version of the Platonic curriculum in
the 520s and 530s.
71
The evidence for his increased prominence comes from Simplicius, a stu-
dent of Damascius who wrote a commentary on Epictetus Encheiridion in
the 530s. Simplicius calls Epictetus words very efective and moving so that
anyone not totally deadened would be goaded by them, become aware of his
own afictions, and be energized to correct them.
72
Simplicius also praises
the Epictetan tactic of illustrating his precepts with concrete examples:
Proper education in both ethics and politics turns on appropriate actions . . . so, while he
has educated the reader so far by using precepts (which themselves concerned appropriate
actions), what Epictetus does now is explain the technical method of dealing with appro-
priate actions by showing how to fnd them and put them into practice . . . [these things]
our philosopher explained in a few lines using efective illustrations and soul-stirring viv-
idness.
73
Despite Epictetus virtues as a writer, Simplicius needed to adapt this Stoic
work to make it ft into a Platonic curriculum. The Encheiridion took some
positions that a Platonist could not support and lacked other ideas that Sim-
plicius felt belonged in a proper introduction to Platonism. Simplicius then
had to clarify some problematic Epictetan ideas and discuss other topics
not mentioned by Epictetus. Notably, he chose to incorporate seven lengthy
digressions into the commentary in order to introduce important Platonic
ideas that were otherwise missing.
74
The best known of these insertions describes the appropriate behavior of
a philosopher living in a morally corrupt state,
75
an expansion upon Epicte-
tus discussion of the need for a philosopher to be unconcerned about politi-
cal position and public honors.
76
Simplicius speaks about the philosophers
obligation to serve as a father and teacher for all in common, their corrector,
counselor, and guardian.
77
In a good state, the philosopher will be chosen
as a ruler . . . and as an advisor, because he is sensible.
78
In a corrupt
state, however, the philosopher will abstain from public afairs . . . Indeed,
he ought to ask to be an exile from these incurable afairs, and, if indeed it is
possible, he will go to another, better state.
79
70. Hierocles, Proclus, and Olympiodorus all knew the Encheiridion. For discussion of this, see Brennan
and Brittain 2002, 4 and 28 n. 18; as well as the larger discussion of Boter 1999.
71. This is the curriculum represented in Simplicius commentaries. For this curriculum and Simplicius
aims in laying it out, see Baltussen 2008.
72. Simplicius in Encheiridion 1.3033, trans. Brennan and Brittain, with slight adaptation.
73. In Encheiridion 83.12.
74. Brennan and Brittain 2002, 718. For the way in which this was consistent with the conventions of
Platonic commentary, see Baltussen 2007, 27375.
75. For a detailed discussion of this section of the text, see OMeara 2004, 8998.
76. This discussion is found in chap. 24 of the Encheiridion.
77. In Encheiridion 65.3.
78. Ibid., 1315.
79. Ibid., 65.35.
237 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
Simplicius comments here correspond quite closely to the practical ethical
system illustrated by Damascius in his Life of Isidore, a text probably written
by the scholarch in the early 520s.
80
This connection is already apparent in
Damascius discussion of Hierocles, but it becomes clearest when one consid-
ers Damascius portrait of Isidore, his own intellectual father. According to
Damascius, Isidore was involved in public life to the degree that conditions
permitted.
81
He criticized vice and ofered correction to those who he felt
behaved inappropriately.
82
He never had any contact with Christian leaders,
however, because he could not bear their corruption.
83
When political condi-
tions were relatively benign in the 470s and early 480s, Isidore behaved with
the modesty and restraint that Simplicius says a philosopher should show in
an unjust but not irredeemably corrupt state. When Christian leaders began to
apply pressure to the Alexandrian pagan philosophical community, however,
Isidore left Alexandria for the more hospitable political climate of Athens.
84
Simplicius theoretical discussion of the proper expressions of political
virtues parallels many of the ideal behaviors illustrated by Damascius in the
Life of Isidore. In addition, Damascius, Simplicius, and their peers actually
lived according to the paradigms illustrated by both their doctrinal teach-
ing and their exemplary anecdotes. As is well known, in 529 the emperor
Justinian issued an edict that led to the cessation of teaching at the Athenian
Platonic school.
85
Around 531, a second set of laws restricting the property
rights and legal position of pagans prompted Damascius, Simplicius, and fve
other philosophers to go into exile at the Persian court of Chosroes. They
fed, Agathias tells us, because it was impossible for them to live with-
out fear of the laws, since they did not conform to the commonly followed
conventions.
86
In good quasi-Epictetan fashion, the philosophers decided
that the Roman Empire had become so irredeemably corrupt that they were
compelled to exile themselves from it. In this way, their journey to the Per-
sian Empire then mirrored Isidores voyage from Alexandria to Athens and
Hierocles from Constantinople to Alexandria.
5. Toward a New View of Late Antique Platonism
Simplicius brings us to a model of philosophical paideia that is quite difer-
ent from the traditional one that has often guided investigations of the last
generations of ancient Platonism. It reveals a nuanced Platonic system that, in
its fullest sense, shaped students involvement in the larger world by bringing
them into a living community of scholars and inculcating in them a set of ideal
behaviors. Although Platonism functioned in this way, it is still important to
gauge the scope of its importance. On frst glance, the two most important
80. Cf. OMeara 2004, 97.
81. Isid. 26B,
82. Ibid., 15A.
83. Ibid., 20AB.
84. On the Athenian conditions at this time, see Watts 2006a, 11123. It is worth noting that this also
resembles Theosebius account of Hierocles fight from Constantinople to a more hospitable Alexandrian
environment in the 430s.
85. For discussion of this sequence of events, see Watts 2004, 16882.
86. Agathias 2.30.34.
238 EDWARD WATTS
narrative texts to survive from ffth and sixth century Platonic authors seem
to give diferent pictures of the size of Platonic circles and the extent of their
infuence. The earlier text, Marinus Life of Proclus, suggests a small com-
munity of devotees clustered around Proclus in Athens. Marinus gives few
names of students and associates. On this basis, some scholars have surmised
that Proclus inherited and led a small circle that had only a limited impact
on the larger world.
87
Marinus aim, however, was to argue that Proclus
life embodied the virtues that late Platonists saw as collectively producing
a happy life.
88
Proclus was his focus and the world around Proclus entered
the text only when it illuminated his character. Consequently, one should not
expect this work to yield a comprehensive profle of late Platonism.
Damascius Life of Isidore ofers a very diferent picture. Instead of writing
a simple account of Isidores life, Damascius sought to highlight the achieve-
ments of his subject by critically examining the intellectual and tangible
achievements of a large number of pagan thinkers.
89
The resulting portrait
reveals a vibrant philosophical movement with outposts sprinkled throughout
the Mediterranean world. There are three reasons to think that the philosophi-
cal world described by Damascius in the Life of Isidore better represents the
way that his contemporaries would have understood their community of intel-
lectual relations. First, the characterizations of individual philosophers in the
Life of Isidore usually draw upon either Damascius own experiences or oral
traditions that he heard from his intellectual father and uncles.
90
Because it
depends so heavily upon orally-transmitted Platonic family history, the text
conveys the limits of Platonism as Platonists themselves set them and captures
many of the themes they thought important.
91
Second, despite the difer-
ent centers in which these people studied, Damascius used a common set of
criteria to evaluate their philosophical achievements. Damascius found most
of these men lackingsome severely sobut he highlighted their defcien-
cies not to exclude them from the Platonic community but to show the gener-
ally base condition of philosophy at the time.
92
This suggests that even men
criticized by Damascius should be understood to belong to the same broad
philosophical community that he did. Finally, as Han Baltussen has recently
87. E.g., Lamberton 2001, 45051, who argues, largely on the basis of this text, that Syrianus had only two
students at the time of his death.
88. Blumenthal 1984, 47193.
89. On Damascius authorial aims, note Athanassiadi 1999, 2427. Photius twice says that he read Dam-
ascius regarding the Life of Isidore the Philosopher (Cod. 181.125b30; and Cod. 242.335a21). In Codex 181,
Photius also discusses the oddity of this title when the work covers a whole host of other intellectuals as well.
90. Damascius states at the beginning of the text that the things he will tell about Isidore and his associates
are those things which I believe to be true and which I have heard from my master (Isid. 6A; note as well
Isid. 84E). The other sources he mentions include the ex-consul Severus (Isid. 7, 51AE), the philosopher
Theosebius (Isid. 45B), an older contemporary philosopher named Hierax (Isid. 58B), Asclepiodotus of Alex-
andria (Isid. 96D), Marinus (Isid. 98B), and Severianus (Isid. 108).
91. For discussion of how thematic elements of oral discourse refect a communitys values, see Vansina
1985, 1821 as well as the comments of Nasson 1990, 11126, at 12425.
92. On the aims of Damascius work and the reasons for his criticism, see Athanassiadi 2006, 2058. At
the same time, misinterpretation of a text or a bad line of argument did not rob one of his or her status as a
Platonist. Damascius, for example, systematically undermined Proclus reading of Iamblichus (e.g., Simpl. in
Phys. 795.1117; cf. Athanassiadi 2006, 21417). The same is true of Asclepiodotus, who Damascius saw as
defcient in his understanding of the Chaldean Oracles (e.g., Isid. 85; cf. Simpl. in Phys. 795.1117). Neverthe-
less, Damascius counted both men as Platonists.
239 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
demonstrated, the frst three decades of the sixth century saw antiquitys most
sophisticated and expansive attempt to harmonize all Greek philosophy into
a diverse and well-developed Platonic system.
93
One should not then be sur-
prised that Damascius includes characters like Sallustius (who, according to
Damascius, lived the life of a Cynic) and Hierocles in this work.
94
These
men were Platonists, despite their interest in thinkers other than Plato. In this
sense, we can see a broad Platonic umbrella that covered philosophers who
pursued a range of topics in much the same way that we might understand
imperial Platonism serving as a category that joined such diverse fgures as
Atticus, Gaius, and Albinus.
95
Damascius describes some people whose surviving writings leave no doubt
about their philosophical standing. These fgures are outnumbered by others
who (as far as we know) neither wrote about nor taught Platonic philosophy.
They did, however, live according to its tenets. Their ranks included men such
as the rhetorician Lachares, the physician Gessius, and the patrician Asclepi-
odotus. Damascius assesses each man on the basis of his intellectual skill,
personal behavior, and ability to maintain philosophical integrity. Lachares,
Damascius indicates, was slow in intellectual pursuits but, when it came
to virtue, he was good and fair to behold: worthy indeed of being called a
philosopher.
96
Gessius was a below average and indiferent philosopher,
97

but Damascius nevertheless applauded the noble courage of his virtuous
soul because Gessius hid the philosopher Heraiscus from imperial agents
looking to arrest him.
98
Asclepiodotus, a leading citizen of the city of Aph-
rodisias, enjoyed strong enough ties to the philosophical schools of Athens
that Proclus dedicated his Commentary on the Parmenides to him.
99
To our
knowledge, Asclepiodotus never wrote any philosophical works, but he
showed that he belonged in the ranks of philosophers through his piety and his
afection with other Platonists.
100
Damascius profles indicate that these men
were neither philosophical commentators nor especially accomplished think-
ers. They were, however, viewed as philosophical peers by contemporaries.
This yields a portrait of late antique philosophical life that belies the tra-
ditional narrative. The seven philosophers who left Rome for a Persian exile
in 531 could be described, to borrow Agathias words, as the greatest fower
of those who philosophized during our time.
101
They were not, however, a
93. Baltussen 2008, 811, 5487. Like Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus, Simplicius presented a broadly
integrative Platonism that incorporated Aristotelian, Stoic, and Pythagorean ideas. He went beyond them in
also including fgures such as Empedocles, Parmenides, and Anaximander.
94. Damascius makes it clear that he considered Sallustius a Platonist (e.g., the comment at Isid. 66A that
Sallustius called belief in the gods a ffth Platonic virtue). This was true despite the fact that he worshipped
only a small number of gods and lived the life of a Cynic (on his Cynic lifestyle, see Isid. 66B). Hierocles had
Epictetan and Pythagorean interests, though again he is clearly a part of the larger Platonic community that
Damascius describes.
95. For these men and the diferences between their ideas, see Dillon 1990, 231340.
96. Isid. 62A.
97. Ibid., 128.
98. Ibid., 128 (trans. Athanassiadi).
99. Asclepiodotus is described by Rouech 1989, 8692. Asclepiodotus wealth and infuence are at-
tested to by a set of inscriptions put up in his honor in Aphrodisias (Rouech 1989, nos. 53, 54).
100. Isid. 86AB.
101. Agathias 2.30.3.
240 EDWARD WATTS
small group of pagan religious stalwarts holding out like the last dinosaurs
in a shattered world. Agathias description instead suggests that these seven
were only among the brightest members of a still-vibrant philosophical land-
scape. Their peers who continued teaching in Alexandria are the best known
mid-sixth century Platonists, but traces of the wider Platonic movement to
which these men belonged turn up in other contexts as well.
102
Among the
intimates of Damascius who remained in the Roman Empire during his ex-
ile were Theodora, a woman learned in philosophy, poetics, and grammar
and certain others who joined in her request that Damascius write down
the activities and tales about many people, both his contemporaries and
predecessors [progegonotn].
103
The nature of their request suggests that
Theodora and these others were members of Damascius extended intellectual
family who already had heard some of the oral traditions that would fnd
their way into Damascius text. All of these people then had an interest in
philosophy that was manifested in their associations.
104
A greater awareness of Platonisms social aspect also allows for a reassess-
ment of the degree to which Platonism joined the late antique Latin and Greek
cultural worlds. Even into the late ffth century, Latin fgures participated
in Greek intellectual circles, familiarized themselves with their illustrative
anecdotes, and adapted their own actions to the standards these circles set.
These men then ofer an important measure of the degree to which Greek
cultural life continued to penetrate the Latin world. Indeed, if we use this
measure, we uncover fgures such as Marcellinus of Dalmatia who, according
to Damascius, received a Roman education and was a man of great general
culture. He was, Damascius continued, the independent leader of Dalmatia
and a Hellene in doxa. Sallustius the philosopher was his intimate [sunn].
105
Flavius Messius Phoebus Severus, consul of the West in 470,
106
presents a
more remarkable case. Severus moved to Alexandria after the fall of the em-
peror Anthemius in 472. Once he arrived, Severus set up an intellectual salon
in which he read philosophical works from his personal library and discussed
ideas with the many intellectuals who called upon him.
107
On one occasion,
Damascius heard Severus describe the visit of certain Indian Brahmans.
108

Severus told his listeners about the diet of his visitors, their political advisory
102. On the Alexandrians, see Watts 2006a, 23262.
103. Phot. Bibl. Cod. 181.1921.
104. As this suggests, one should not be too concerned about the decrease in the number of philosophers
we can identify for the period after Damascius narrative ends. As even a brief glance at Elbieta Szabats
excellent prosopography of teachers in the Eastern Roman Empire shows, Damascius Life of Isidore stands
out as the one source that dominates any reconstruction of late ffth- and early sixth-century intellectual net-
works; see Szabat 2007, 177345; cf. Rufni 2004, 24157. The relative paucity of names and locations after
Damascius main narrative breaks of in the early sixth century should be taken not as evidence of a dramatic
decline in the philosophical life at that moment but instead as the end of the information provided by a source
of unequaled breadth. Here, I am advocating an approach to late Platonism not unlike that adopted by the
scholars who acknowledge how the dominant position of Philostratus Lives of the Sophists can distort our
view of the size, scope, importance, and durability of the Second Sophistic. For this view of Philostratus, see,
for example, the discussion of Eshleman 2008, 395413.
105. Isid. 69D.
106. Consul of the West in 470 (PLRE 2: 10056). On his general reputation, see Malchus, frag. 5 (Block-
ley). For his consular diptych, see Volbach 1976, no. 4.
107. Isid. 51C. Damascius must have been one of these visiting intellectuals.
108. Isid. 51D.
241 SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS
role at home (framed in proper quasi-Epictetan terms), and their ability to use
prayer to cure droughts (a skill they shared with Proclus).
109
Severus also sug-
gested to Damascius that the emperor Anthemius was a pagan and indicated
that he had agreed to serve as consul under Anthemius as part of a secret
plan to restore paganism.
110
If we view Severus as a Platonist philosopher,
this plan anticipates Simplicius notions of the proper role of a philosopher
in the state by 60 years.
Neither of these men were philosophical initiates in the traditional sense.
Their political and social positions allowed them to gain a level of prominence
that was disproportionate to their intellectual achievements. Damascius makes
no claim that Marcellinus had extensive philosophical training. Severus can
be said to have some detailed knowledge of Platonic doctrine (though he
apparently never wrote commentaries) but, like his Dalmatian contemporary,
his real claim to membership in the community of philosophers derived from
his association with Platonists and his willingness to guide his conduct by
their principles. Nevertheless, Damascius places both men in his catalog of
the intellectuals of the age because of how they lived and the men with whom
they associated.
If philosophical paideia depended upon the knowledge of a set of doctrines,
the practical application of them to daily life, and membership in a commu-
nity of like-minded colleagues, then Marcellinus and Severus merit inclusion
in the roster of late antique Latin philosophers. Their examples show that,
even into the late ffth century, Greek philosophy remained a real presence in
parts of the Latin world and this presence extended far beyond the random
commentary or Platonic forilegium that hitched a ride to Italy.
Conclusion
All late antique Platonists were intellectually invested in a philosophical sys-
tem founded upon an interpretation of Platonic teaching. Knowledge of this
teaching, however, did not necessarily mark one as a Platonist. Late Platonism
was instead characterized by communities of adherents who, despite diferent
levels of intellectual and doctrinal sophistication, felt bound to one another
by personal relationships and a set of behavioral standards governed by Pla-
tonic philosophical principles. Defning late antique Platonists by their actions
and associations as well as by the quality of their philosophical writing has
important implications for how we view the cultural history of the ancient
world. By this measure, philosophy becomes a much more useful category
for understanding late antique society. If philosophically inclined men and
women understood that they belonged to a community with defned standards
of conduct, this infuenced how they would behave. Communal standards did
not always determine what a person did in a specifc situation, but, by sug-
gesting that certain behaviors would earn the praise or sanction of colleagues,
they could infuence ones thought process when weighing a course of action.
109. Cf. Vita Procli 28.
110. Isid. 77A; one must note that this comes to us only through a Photian paraphrase of a longer section
of text.
242 EDWARD WATTS
Philosophical schools were not unique in creating a social environment that
played this role in Late Antiquity,
111
but Platonists are explicit in explaining
the purpose of this system and sophisticated in theorizing its utility. Their
example then suggests a diferent way of understanding how scholarly circles
understood their own membership. With luck, this approach will lead to a new
map that better captures the nuanced topography of late antique cultural life.
Indiana University
111. As we have already seen, the social system of Platonic schools was replicated in other later Roman
cultural contexts as well. Some of this is due to the fact that a number of Platonists taught other things in
addition to philosophy, but rhetoricians, grammarians, and even Christian ascetics (many of whom spoke of
themselves as philosophers) encouraged the same sort of master-disciple bond and carefully structured hier-
archy as philosophical schools. Ascetic master-disciple relationships framed in this way are a common feature
of Christian hagiographical texts. For some of the most explicit discussion of this sort of relationship, see, for
example, Historia Monachorum 24.2, 3, 67, 8; Barsanuphius and John Ep. 693.
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