WATTS - Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action - Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists.pdf

8/11/2019 WATTS - Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action - Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists.pdf

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Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c.430c. 550 C.E.)Author(s): Edward WattsReviewed work(s):Source: Classical Philology, Vol. 106, No. 3 (July 2011), pp. 226-244Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/661544.

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Classical Philology106 (2011): 22644

[ 2011 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved] 0009-837X/11/10603-0003$10.00

DOCTRINE, ANECDOTE, AND ACTION: RECONSIDERING THESOCIAL HISTORY OF THE LAST PLATONISTS(C. 430C. 550 C.E.)

TWOPARALLELNARRATIVES have tended to dominate modern recon-structions of the final century and a half of Platonisms long ancienthistory. The first ties the dramatic intersection of pagan-Christian

conflict, imperial policy, and philosophical principles to the end of Platonic

teaching in the Eastern Roman Empire.1

A second, distinct narrative analyzesLatin philosophical writings and traces the gradual unraveling of the ties thatbound Latin philosophical culture and its Greek counterpart. 2Each of thesenarratives has its own unique way of viewing and understanding Platonism.The first story culminates with the emperor Justinians closing of the Athe-nian Platonic school. It tends to present the affected philosophers as a small,isolated group of pagan intellectuals whose conflict with an increasingly as-sertive Christian political order pushed them to the empires margins. Thesecond narrative ends with Boethius and Cassiodorus and stresses how theirphilosophical efforts both underlined Graeco-Latin philosophical separation

and planted the seeds of medieval scholasticism. It sees Platonism primarilyas a movement held together by scholastic practices and doctrinal continuitiesin which Latin writers participated only at some remove.

This paper proposes a different, more expansive way to think about lateantique philosophical life. Ancient philosophical culture was not defined ex-clusively by religious concerns and doctrinal ties. Beginning with the OldAcademy of Xenocrates, Platonists shaped themselves into an intellectualcommunity held together by doctrinal commonalities, a shared history, anddefined personal relationships.3 As the Hellenistic world developed andPlatonism spread beyond its Athenian center, doctrine, history, and social

ties stopped being conterminous. Platonists remained connected by a sharedintellectual genealogy, but Platonisms social and doctrinal aspects became

Earlier versions of this paper were delivered at the Late Antique Network meeting in Knoxville, Tennesseein 2009 and at a symposium in Uppsala University. I wish to thank the participants in these meetings as well asthe anonymous referees of CPfor their suggestions and criticism.

1. Numerous studies have been written arguing about the closing of the Athenian school. Among the mostprominent are Cameron 1969, 729; Blumenthal 1978, 36985; and Hllstrm 1994, 14160. For a moredetailed 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 aboutBoethius use of contemporary Greek philosophy, one should note the important corrective offered by Shiel1990, 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.


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227SOCIALHISTORYOFTHELASTPLATONISTS

decentralized as individual schools with their own interests grew up in vari-ous cities.4Although no direct institutional connection joined them to theAcademy, 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 anindividual circles past mingled with that of the larger intellectual tradition itclaimed to have inherited. This amalgamated tradition was handed down fromteachers to students in personal conversations that had a number of important,community-building effects. They attracted students to Platonic philosophy,encouraged them to identify with the movements past leaders, and influ-enced their ideas and actions once they joined a specific group. As this paperwill show, the Platonic circles that these men and women formed were thendefined as much by the relationships they formed and by the behaviors theyexhibited as by the doctrines they espoused.

1. S S

Before speaking about the men and women who used Platonic ideas to guidetheir actions, it is first important to emphasize that the classrooms of Platonicteachers contained many students who studied philosophy only as a supple-ment to a different sort of education. Some of these people ultimately choseto order their lives according to Platonic principles, but many (and perhapsmost) simply absorbed Platonic ideas and moved on to law schools, adminis-trative positions, or other pursuits.6It is also important to note that a numberof 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 Aristoteliancommentator and Orphic hymnist who preceded Proclus as head of the Athe-nian Platonic school, and Horapollon, the scion of an Alexandrian Platonicdynasty at the turn of the sixth century, also offered regular classes in gram-mar.8It is probable, then, that some of the students who studied under thesemen never received any Platonic instruction at all.9

These diverse interests complicated the social organization of a Platoniccommunity, 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 PhilosophicalHistoriesassembled by both Numenius and Porphyry. For the role of Numenius, in particular, in crafting abroad 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 fifth- and sixth-century Athenian luminaries Proclus and Damascius. Proclus first took instruction in philosophy while pursu-ing a course of study that he hoped would lead to law school (Marinus Vita Procli8). Damascius, for his part,seems to have sat in on the philosophical lectures of Ammonius Hermeiou while preparing himself for a careerin 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 ZachariasAmmonius12, 2831.

7. Eunap. VS503, 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 VitaSeveri1527. His grammatical teaching is described at Vita Severi15. For Horapollons position as head of aphilosophical school in the 490s, see Maspero 1914, 16395.

9. Eunapius, for example, studied both grammar and philosophy with Chrysanthius but seems to havereceived philosophical instruction after he returned to Sardis following his rhetorical training in Athens.


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helped to resolve some of this complexity. Late antique Platonic schools seemto 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 wayto understand in spatial terms how late Platonists set their public instructionapart from the activities of a schools inner circle. The first, unearthed at Komel-Dikka in Alexandria, seems to have been a sort of publicly-commissionedclassroom complex. In the mid-to-late fifth century, perhaps as many astwenty-five lecture halls were constructed in the center of the city abutting alate Roman bath.10Each of these contained rows of seats arranged along threewalls 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 fifth- and sixth-century Alexandria suggests that the Komel-Dikka classrooms may have been used by the most prominent AlexandrianPlatonists of the period. In the early sixth century, Zacharias Scholasticuswrote about the Platonist Ammonius Hermeiou sitting on a high seat in themanner of a pompous sophist, expounding and clarifying to us Aristotlesdoctrines.11He 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 whichstudents could go to further discuss issues raised in class.12This could cor-respond to the large open space next to the classrooms at Kom el-Dikka. 13Similarly, in the later sixth century, the philosopher Elias spoke about theclassrooms of his day as not unlike theaters with a rounded plan in orderfor the students to be able to see one another as well as the teachers.14Hereagain, an Alexandrian teacher describes his teaching space in terms that seemto 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 different type of scholastic

building. One group of structures located along the north side of the hillhad distinctive architectural features (like apsidal rooms) that have promptedsome to speculate that these were the residences and schools of teachers oper-ating in the city.15More 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 theirurban 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 final two references. Note now the detailed recon-structions in McKenzie 2007a, 20820.

11. ZachariasAmmonius9299. All translations in this article are my own, unless otherwise noted.12. ZachariasAmmonius36169.

13. On this space see Majcherek 2007, 1415; McKenzie 2007b, 79. Elsewhere McKenzie (2007a, 214)explicitly connects the temenosof the Muses with the teaching complex of Kom el-Dikka.

14. Elias in Porphyrii Isagogen21.2930 (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 wasabandoned around the turn of the sixth century remains an intriguing one. On the House of Proclus, see more


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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.16Like those on the other side of the hill, this buildingcontained a large central hall with a mosaic floor and an apse at the floor level.

A passage in Eunapius Lives of the Sophists states that the house of theAthenian sophist Prohaeresius contained a marble theater in which he heldclass, an arrangement that Prohaeresius and other Athenian teachers adoptedbecause scholastic violence had reached such a level that it was unsafe toteach in public.17On the basis of this description, it has been assumed thatthe apsidal rooms in the Areopagus houses were constructed to serve thesame instructional purpose as the private theater that Eunapius mentions.18There are a couple of difficulties with this idea, however. First, Eunapiusdescription 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.19In addition, Eunapius highlights the arrangement created by Julianusand continued by Prohaeresius because it was exceptional.20This suggeststhat Eunapius evidence may not necessarily provide a helpful parallel forunderstanding how these later constructions were utilized. Secondly, the apsesin both the house of Proclus and its cousins on the Areopagus north side arerelatively small in size and do not contain the sort of theater arrangement thatEunapius describes. This is especially important to note because, at roughlythe same time as their construction, the Metroon on the west side of the Agorawas refitted 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.21The size and shape of the apsidal rooms in the Areopagus houses suggestthat 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 grandfatherPlutarch, 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 beseen and was otherwise perceptible to the senses from the Acropolis of Athens (Vita Procli29). On the House

of Proclus, see Karivieri 1994, 11539.17. VS483.18. Frantz 1988, 45.19. It had once belonged to Prohaeresius teacher Julianus, who first 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 inAntioch. Once his school became viable, Libanius moved to larger, more public spaces; for discussion, seeCribiore 2007a, 30. Other teachers used their homes too, but most seem to have done so only until public spacebecame available (see Cribiore 2007b, 14447). I am skeptical of Cribiores identification (on p. 146) of thesmall school described by Himerius in Or. 64 as his home, though this is certainly possible. CTh14.9.3, a lawthat prohibits teachers who make use of public facilities in Constantinople from also teaching privately in theirhomes, shows the difficulty in distinguishing between informal gatherings in a home and actual teaching. Thespecific 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 generallyconcerned with the use of private facilities.

21. Thompson 1937, 195202. Because of its westward orientation, this cannot represent conversion intoa church. Thompson has proposed identifying the renovated building with a synagogue, an idea echoed byFrantz 1988, 5859. In light of the Kom el-Dikka remains, however, Majcherek 2007, 4243, has suggestedreinterpreting this site.


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than the teaching spaces of schools. Indeed, such features are typical of laterRoman villas found throughout the empire and often were part of the publicspace 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 suggeststhat this sort of semiprivate space may have served as a site for both publicscholastic activities and social interaction between philosophical initiates.When Proclus first arrived in Athens, he joined a small meeting (sunousia) ledby Syrianus and attended by Lachares, a professional rhetorician who wasdrenched with philosophical learning and a fellow student of the philosopherin these matters.23The conversation ran long and, as the moon began to rise,the two philosophical initiates tried to send [Proclus] outside, speaking to theyouth as a stranger [xenos],24so 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.26Lachares, who wasstruck by this free expression of the youth, spoke to the philosopher Syrianusthat statement divinely spoken by Plato about those of great character Thisman either will be a great good or quite the opposite.27

This scene offers rich material for understanding both the organization ofthe fifth-century Athenian Platonic school and the way in which differentstrata of the schools social hierarchy utilized its space. Although Marinusdoes not specify that this encounter took place in the so-called house of Pro-clus, this is the most likely location.28Marinus also implies that this area was

sometimes open to visitors to the Platonic circle while at other moments itsaccess was restricted only to initiates.29Our initial inclination may be to at-tribute this way of using space to a political climate that made open displaysof pagan piety risky in the 430s,30but a number of parallel situations suggestthat religious pressure is only a partial explanation for the exclusion of astranger from the communal space of the school. In the 480s, for example,some Alexandrian teachers who normally used public classrooms would holdtheir 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 theymay have become more important in elite entertaining (Hillner 2009).

23. Vita Procli11.24. 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 hisrecent arrival, he was not really an outsider at all.

25. Vita Procli11.26. Ibid.27. Ibid.; among the Platonic parallels areResp.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 whichthe encounter occurred.

29. Dillon (2007, 11718) understands this meeting as an interview. He suggests, quite rightly, that, hadProclus 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.


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their students.31Nor was this practice unique to the fifth century. A similardynamic can be seen in second-century Athenian schools of rhetoric as wellas in early fifth-century Alexandrian philosophical schools.32Each of theseinstitutions rewarded their more talented and dedicated students with greateraccess to the professor and his home. Indeed, even during the lifetime ofPlato, Platonists may have demarcated space depending upon ones degree ofattachment to the master.33These examples suggest that public auditoria (likethose 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 theculture of a scholastic circle more of the schools space opened up for them.

2. S R

The particular ways in which Platonists restricted access to some scholasticspace ensured that the ideas presented in a classroom played only a smallpart in defining ones experience of and standing in a Platonic community.Literary sources that speak about the social organization of schools confirmthis picture. Theoretically, late antique teachers and students saw themselvesas members of a scholastic family.34Reality often did not conform to thisrhetoric.35 Zacharias Scholasticus, for example, studied philosophy underAmmonius Hermeiou in Alexandria but later did not hesitate to attack thecharacter and credibility of his teacher.36More 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 hisown intellectual identity.37Many other students were more disinterested thanhostile, perhaps not unlike the students whose unwillingness to actually readassigned texts bemused a later Arabic scholar.38

The most dedicated members of a philosophical school, however, readilyembraced these familial relationships and the personal intimacy they enabled.

31. Zacharias Vita Severi23. 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 classmatebecause 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 hishome and that a large number of Horapollons students did not.32. E.g., Philostr. V S58586; Vita Procli8.33. 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 welcomedonly the most devoted of his followers (Ael. VH3.19).

34. E.g., Lib.Ep. 931, 1009, 1070, 1257; SynesiusEp. 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 evena three-year course of study (see Kaster 1988, 2627, based upon Petit 1957, 6265). See Lib. Ep. 379, for acase of a student who left his care before completing his course; note, however, the cautions of Cribiore 2007a,177.

36. E.g., ZachariasAmmonius1924, 2732.

37. Watts 2006a, 23755. On the ways in which this rebellion is manifested in his work, see Verrycken1990, 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 thedigressions and superfluous material which they contain. (Abu-l-Farag ibn Hindu,Miftanh al-Tibb63.1315,trans. Gutas). He is speaking about the works of Galen, but this attitude probably lies behind the productionof so many synthetic philosophical prolegomena in the later fifth and sixth centuries; for these, see Wildberg1990, 3351.


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Synesius, for example, spoke with reverence about his philosophical motherHypatia and compared his fellow student Herculianus to a brother. 39 Insome cases, this notion of an intellectual family extended into more tangiblerealms. When he took over the Athenian Platonic school, Proclus would goout to the Academy and perform rites in the defined place for the souls ofancestors [progonoi] and kindred souls.40 Syrianus, Proclus teacher andphilosophical 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 halfof the monument with an epigram that underlined the philosophers personaldevelopment 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 bySyrianus into a proper philosophical life. When he died, Proclus body wasplaced in the mausoleum of his philosophical family and, he hoped, his soulwould end up in the same realm as that of his philosophical father. No concernis expressed for a reunion with his biological ancestors.

Proclus and Syrianus took notions of philosophical lineage further thanmany late antique Platonists, but their actions were not unprecedented. In

the Old Academy, for example, the scholarch Polemo shared living quarterswith his appointed successor Crates and a common tomb with him when bothdied.42 Similarly, the Academics Arcesilaus and Crantor lived in the samehouse during their lives.43The pseudo-Platonic Theages, a dialogue likelycomposed during this period, suggests that Platonists understood this sort ofarrangement as one in which a young man traded the guidance of a biologicalfather for that of a teacher.44In an exchange near the end of the work, Theagesand his father Demodocus both appeal to Socrates to take the young man onas a pupil.45When Socrates expresses some reluctance, Demodocus begsSocrates 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.47Theages then answers his father: Now no longer have any fear for me, father,if you can persuade this man to accept my association [sunousia].48Sunou-siacan, of course, have erotic overtones and the Theages can certainly beread as a justification for the eros-driven educational theory advanced by the

39. SynesiusEp. 16.40. Vita Procli36.41. Ibid., 36. I thank an anonymous referee for offering 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. Theages12728.46. Ibid.,127b7b8.47. Ibid.,127b8c1.48. Ibid.,127c34.


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Old Academic Polemo,49but the paradigmatic teacher-disciple relationship itsets out remained important long after Polemos influence 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, theydo seem to have been greatly influenced by a model of intellectual mentorshipthat replaced ones biological family with a family of the soul.

Relationships between members of an intellectual family did not need tobecome quite so involved for them to have meaning. Less favored intellectualsons secured these quasi-familial ties through a set of regular, informal inter-actions with their teachers. The most common mechanism in antiquity seemsto have been the teacher-student dinner (a tendency that perhaps explains theprominent dining rooms of the Areopagus houses). The invitation to dine witha teacher welcomed a student into a schools restricted space. As such, it rep-

resented a significant reward that bestowed upon him an elevated status withinan intellectual community. Damascius describes his brothers invitation todine with Severianus, their teacher of rhetoric, as a reward for his enthusiasmthat was befitting a member of his inner circle.50Other schools in otherperiods accorded the same significance to an invitation to dine with a teacher.Herodes Atticus offered regular lunches to his most promising pupils,51andtwo of Proclus early teachers gave him standing dinner invitations in recogni-tion of his scholastic achievements.52At the same time, these meetings oftenengendered a close personal bond between teacher and student that broughttangible meaning to the familial language of a school. When Proclus first

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 togetherwith his wife and children, as if he were his own legitimate child.53Dam-ascius teacher Isidore similarly enjoyed meals with his Egyptian teachers ofphilosophy Asclepiades and Heraiscus.54

In his Lives of the Sophists, Eunapius describes a relationship built upona different sort of interaction that involved personal conversations in pub-lic spaces. When Eunapius returned to Sardis to teach rhetoric, he began toaudit 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 teacherAedesius, and one that Aedesius had appropriated from his own mentor Iam-blichus.55Eunapius vividly describes these walks: He would take along theauthor of this text. He would stretch these into long and leisurely walks. And

49. Polemo defined erosas 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 erosbetween a parentand a child but a different sort of relationship.

50. Isid. 108. I am here interpreting hetairosas member of a schools inner circle, the most commonmeaning in theLife of Isidore. The word could also simply mean companion.

51. Philostr. V S58586.52. Vita Procli8, 9.53. Ibid.,8.54. Isid. 72E.55. In Aedesius case, Eunapius (VS481) suggests that the walks also were designed to teach his students

how to behave toward others. As for Iamblichus, see Fowden 1977, 374.


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one would forget the soreness of his feet, because he would become enchantedby the stories Chrysanthius told.56

3. P S, S H, D

The stories that Eunapius heard from Chrysanthius as they walked in andaround Sardis play an important role in showing how abstract doctrine couldintersect with ones experiences in the world. As they walked, the two mendiscussed their philosophical progonoi. Indeed, much of the material thatcame to make up the philosophical lives in Eunapius Lives of the Soph-ists came from these conversations with Chrysanthius. But these were noidle reminiscences. The anecdotes that Chrysanthius shared demonstrated theways in which his philosophical ancestors brought to life the religious andtheological ideas that played such a central role in the Iamblichan Platonic

system.57Eunapius heard about how Iamblichus levitated when he prayed,discerned the presence of corpses from an extreme distance, and communi-cated with divine figuresall attributes that showed how theurgy enabled itspractitioners to unite their souls with related divine figures.58He also cameto know quite a bit about Maximus of Ephesus, a philosophical uncle whoselife demonstrated both what a theurgist could accomplish and the problemsthat came about when theurgic teachings were inappropriately applied.59Thepower of these stories came from the personal and intellectual relationshipthat enabled their transmission. These accounts had been passed to Eunapiusby his philosophical father and, as such, they were valued as tokens of a

cherished personal relationship and mementoes of a shared lineage.60

Eunapius Liveshighlight one way that informal interactions could rein-force the theological doctrines that a school presented. Damascius Life ofIsidoreshows how these conversations not only shaped a students under-standing of theology but also influenced his views about the appropriate waysin which to apply a schools ethical teachings. For Damascius, teacher-studentmeals represented one of the most important settings in which these storiescould be shared. The anecdotes told on these occasions could involve theo-logical content,61but, just as often, they modeled appropriate behaviors. Atone such dinner, for example, the teacher Severianus spoke to Damascius andhis brother Julian about his public career. Severianus told them that he hadonce served in the imperial government but saw his career end prematurely

56. VS502.57. 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 (VS475).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 providespecific advice for how ethical teaching could be implemented in the world. Among the most notable suchfragments areEp. 6, frag. 2, a text that instructs a governor in the correct ways to distribute benefactions andEp. 16, a letter that describes in rather precise terms how a father should prepare his son for an education invirtue.

61. E.g.,Isid. 72E.


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because of his paganism.62 He then passed around an imperial letter thatpromised high office in exchange for his conversion to Christianity. Severia-nus, of course, refused this offer. Severianus later took part in a plot to killthe emperor Zeno and restore paganisman act for which he barely escapedexecution.63For Damascius, these informal conversations illustrated how anintellectual ought to act in the Christian empire of the 470s.

Another set of stories that Damascius heard while a student showed the in-fluence of a Platonic interpretation of Epictetus that would become influentialat the turn of the sixth century.64These were anecdotes recounted to him byTheosebius, an Epictetan scholar who worked to regulate his outward way oflife and reform the personal behaviors of others.65Theosebius told a numberof stories to Damascius that illustrated how Epictetan ethics could be appliedin the world,66but the most powerful narrative he shared emphasized the need

to live philosophically even under the most dangerous conditions. This taleconcerned Theosebius teacher Hierocles:

Once in Byzantium, he gave offence to the ruling party and, being taken to court, he was

savagely beaten up. As he flowed 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 flesh. 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 thatdescribe how pagan intellectuals lived philosophically even in the face ofChristian pressure. These include an account of the murder of Hypatia and adiscussion of the teacher Olympus leadership during the Christian siege ofthe Serapeum in 391.68Hierocles exile from the capital in order to escapethe rule of a tyrant, however, illustrated Epictetus ideas about the appropriatepolitical behavior of a philosopher and imitated Epictetus own actions underDomitian.69

4. C, S, A E

The Epictetan ethical trend exemplified by Theosebius stories shows how

personal communication between teachers and students helped to define the

62. Vita Severi108.63. Damascius seems to have left for Alexandria around 478 (on the basis of Photius comments inBibl.

181.8189), meaning that he would likely have heard about this from Severianus sometime between 476(Zenos restoration) and 478.

64. The significance 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 areIsid. 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 amore 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 Encheiridion65.3739. This passage will bediscussed in more detail below.


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236 EDWARDWATTS

proper application of philosophical teaching. At the same time that thesestories were circulating among Platonists, the Stoic ethical ideas advancedby Epictetus found their way into the early stages of Platonic instruction.Epitectus was read by a number of fifth-century Platonists, 70but he came toplay an important role in at least one version of the Platonic curriculum inthe 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 inthe 530s. Simplicius calls Epictetus words very effective and moving so thatanyone not totally deadened would be goaded by them, become aware of hisown afflictions, and be energized to correct them.72Simplicius also praisesthe 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 appropriateactions), what Epictetus does now is explain the technical method of dealing with appro-

priate actions by showing how to find them and put them into practice . . . [these things]

our philosopher explained in a few lines using effective illustrations and soul-stirring viv-

idness.73

Despite Epictetus virtues as a writer, Simplicius needed to adapt this Stoicwork to make it fit into a Platonic curriculum. The Encheiridion took somepositions that a Platonist could not support and lacked other ideas that Sim-plicius felt belonged in a proper introduction to Platonism. Simplicius thenhad to clarify some problematic Epictetan ideas and discuss other topicsnot mentioned by Epictetus. Notably, he chose to incorporate seven lengthydigressions into the commentary in order to introduce important Platonicideas that were otherwise missing.74

The best known of these insertions describes the appropriate behavior ofa philosopher living in a morally corrupt state,75an expansion upon Epicte-tus discussion of the need for a philosopher to be unconcerned about politi-cal position and public honors.76Simplicius speaks about the philosophersobligation to serve as a father and teacher for all in common, their corrector,counselor, and guardian.77In a good state, the philosopher will be chosen

as a ruler . . . and as an advisor, because he is sensible.78

In a corruptstate, however, the philosopher will abstain from public affairs . . . Indeed,he ought to ask to be an exile from these incurable affairs, and, if indeed it ispossible, he will go to another, better state.79

70. Hierocles, Proclus, and Olympiodorus all knew theEncheiridion. For discussion of this, see Brennanand 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 Simpliciusaims in laying it out, see Baltussen 2008.

72. Simplicius inEncheiridion1.3033, trans. Brennan and Brittain, with slight adaptation.73. In Encheiridion83.12.

74. Brennan and Brittain 2002, 718. For the way in which this was consistent with the conventions ofPlatonic 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 theEncheiridion.77. In Encheiridion65.3.78. Ibid.,1315.79. Ibid., 65.35.


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Simplicius comments here correspond quite closely to the practical ethicalsystem illustrated by Damascius in hisLife of Isidore, a text probably writtenby the scholarch in the early 520s. 80This connection is already apparent inDamascius discussion of Hierocles, but it becomes clearest when one consid-ers Damascius portrait of Isidore, his own intellectual father. According toDamascius, Isidore was involved in public life to the degree that conditionspermitted.81He criticized vice and offered correction to those who he feltbehaved inappropriately.82He never had any contact with Christian leaders,however, because he could not bear their corruption.83When political condi-tions were relatively benign in the 470s and early 480s, Isidore behaved withthe modesty and restraint that Simplicius says a philosopher should show inan unjust but not irredeemably corrupt state. When Christian leaders began toapply 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 politicalvirtues parallels many of the ideal behaviors illustrated by Damascius in theLife of Isidore. In addition, Damascius, Simplicius, and their peers actuallylived according to the paradigms illustrated by both their doctrinal teach-ing and their exemplary anecdotes. As is well known, in 529 the emperorJustinian issued an edict that led to the cessation of teaching at the AthenianPlatonic school.85Around 531, a second set of laws restricting the propertyrights and legal position of pagans prompted Damascius, Simplicius, and fiveother philosophers to go into exile at the Persian court of Chosroes. They

fled, 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 followedconventions.86 In good quasi-Epictetan fashion, the philosophers decidedthat the Roman Empire had become so irredeemably corrupt that they werecompelled to exile themselves from it. In this way, their journey to the Per-sian Empire then mirrored Isidores voyage from Alexandria to Athens andHierocles from Constantinople to Alexandria.

5. T N V L A P

Simplicius brings us to a model of philosophical paideiathat is quite differ-ent from the traditional one that has often guided investigations of the lastgenerations of ancient Platonism. It reveals a nuanced Platonic system that, inits fullest sense, shaped students involvement in the larger world by bringingthem into a living community of scholars and inculcating in them a set of idealbehaviors. Although Platonism functioned in this way, it is still important togauge the scope of its importance. On first 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 flight from Constantinople to a more hospitable Alexandrianenvironment in the 430s.

85. For discussion of this sequence of events, see Watts 2004, 16882.86. Agathias 2.30.34.


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demonstrated, the first three decades of the sixth century saw antiquitys mostsophisticated and expansive attempt to harmonize all Greek philosophy intoa diverse and well-developed Platonic system.93One should not then be sur-prised that Damascius includes characters like Sallustius (who, according toDamascius, lived the life of a Cynic) and Hierocles in this work. 94 Thesemen were Platonists, despite their interest in thinkers other than Plato. In thissense, we can see a broad Platonic umbrella that covered philosophers whopursued a range of topics in much the same way that we might understandimperial Platonism serving as a category that joined such diverse figures asAtticus, Gaius, and Albinus.95

Damascius describes some people whose surviving writings leave no doubtabout their philosophical standing. These figures are outnumbered by otherswho (as far as we know) neither wrote about nor taught Platonic philosophy.

They did, however, live according to its tenets. Their ranks included men suchas 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 cameto virtue, he was good and fair to behold: worthy indeed of being called aphilosopher.96Gessius was a below average and indifferent philosopher,97but Damascius nevertheless applauded the noble courage of his virtuoussoul because Gessius hid the philosopher Heraiscus from imperial agentslooking to arrest him.98Asclepiodotus, a leading citizen of the city of Aph-

rodisias, enjoyed strong enough ties to the philosophical schools of Athensthat Proclus dedicated his Commentary on the Parmenidesto him.99To ourknowledge, Asclepiodotus never wrote any philosophical works, but heshowed that he belonged in the ranks of philosophers through his piety and hisaffection with other Platonists.100Damascius profiles indicate that these menwere 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 exilein 531 could be described, to borrow Agathias words, as the greatest flower

of those who philosophized during our time.101They were not, however, a

93. Baltussen2008, 811, 5487. Like Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus, Simplicius presented a broadlyintegrative Platonism that incorporated Aristotelian, Stoic, and Pythagorean ideas. He went beyond them inalso including figures such as Empedocles, Parmenides, and Anaximander.

94. Damascius makes it clear that he considered Sallustius a Platonist (e.g., the comment atIsid. 66A thatSallustius called belief in the gods a fifth Platonic virtue). This was true despite the fact that he worshippedonly a small number of gods and lived the life of a Cynic (on his Cynic lifestyle, seeIsid. 66B). Hierocles hadEpictetan and Pythagorean interests, though again he is clearly a part of the larger Platonic community thatDamascius describes.

95. For these men and the differences 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 influence 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.


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240 EDWARDWATTS

small group of pagan religious stalwarts holding out like the last dinosaursin a shattered world. Agathias description instead suggests that these sevenwere only among the brightest members of a still-vibrant philosophical land-scape. Their peers who continued teaching in Alexandria are the best knownmid-sixth century Platonists, but traces of the wider Platonic movement towhich these men belonged turn up in other contexts as well.102Among theintimates of Damascius who remained in the Roman Empire during his ex-ile were Theodora, a woman learned in philosophy, poetics, and grammarand certain others who joined in her request that Damascius write downthe activities and tales about many people, both his contemporaries andpredecessors [progegonotn].103The nature of their request suggests thatTheodora and these others were members of Damascius extended intellectualfamily who already had heard some of the oral traditions that would find

their way into Damascius text. All of these people then had an interest inphilosophy 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 Greekcultural worlds. Even into the late fifth century, Latin figures participatedin Greek intellectual circles, familiarized themselves with their illustrativeanecdotes, and adapted their own actions to the standards these circles set.These men then offer an important measure of the degree to which Greekcultural life continued to penetrate the Latin world. Indeed, if we use thismeasure, we uncover figures such as Marcellinus of Dalmatia who, according

to Damascius, received a Roman education and was a man of great generalculture. He was, Damascius continued, the independent leader of Dalmatiaand a Hellene in doxa. Sallustius the philosopher was his intimate [sunn].105

Flavius Messius Phoebus Severus, consul of the West in 470,106presents amore remarkable case. Severus moved to Alexandria after the fall of the em-peror Anthemius in 472. Once he arrived, Severus set up an intellectual salonin which he read philosophical works from his personal library and discussedideas with the many intellectuals who called upon him.107On one occasion,Damascius heard Severus describe the visit of certain Indian Brahmans.108Severus 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 Szabatsexcellent prosopography of teachers in the Eastern Roman Empire shows, Damascius Life of Isidore standsout as the one source that dominates any reconstruction of late fifth- and early sixth-century intellectual net-works; see Szabat 2007, 177345; cf. Ruffini 2004, 24157. The relative paucity of names and locations afterDamascius main narrative breaks off in the early sixth century should be taken not as evidence of a dramaticdecline in the philosophical life at that moment but instead as the end of the information provided by a sourceof unequaled breadth. Here, I am advocating an approach to late Platonism not unlike that adopted by thescholars who acknowledge how the dominant position of Philostratus Lives of the Sophistscan distort ourview 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 (PLRE2: 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.


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role at home (framed in proper quasi-Epictetan terms), and their ability to useprayer to cure droughts (a skill they shared with Proclus).109Severus also sug-gested to Damascius that the emperor Anthemius was a pagan and indicatedthat he had agreed to serve as consul under Anthemius as part of a secretplan to restore paganism.110 If we view Severus as a Platonist philosopher,this plan anticipates Simplicius notions of the proper role of a philosopherin 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 prominencethat was disproportionate to their intellectual achievements. Damascius makesno claim that Marcellinus had extensive philosophical training. Severus canbe said to have some detailed knowledge of Platonic doctrine (though heapparently never wrote commentaries) but, like his Dalmatian contemporary,

his real claim to membership in the community of philosophers derived fromhis association with Platonists and his willingness to guide his conduct bytheir principles. Nevertheless, Damascius places both men in his catalog ofthe intellectuals of the age because of how they lived and the men with whomthey associated.

If philosophicalpaideiadepended 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 inclusionin the roster of late antique Latin philosophers. Their examples show that,even into the late fifth century, Greek philosophy remained a real presence in

parts of the Latin world and this presence extended far beyond the randomcommentary or Platonic florilegium that hitched a ride to Italy.

C

All late antique Platonists were intellectually invested in a philosophical sys-tem founded upon an interpretation of Platonic teaching. Knowledge of thisteaching, however, did not necessarily mark one as a Platonist. Late Platonismwas instead characterized by communities of adherents who, despite differentlevels of intellectual and doctrinal sophistication, felt bound to one anotherby personal relationships and a set of behavioral standards governed by Pla-tonic philosophical principles. Defining late antique Platonists by their actionsand associations as well as by the quality of their philosophical writing hasimportant implications for how we view the cultural history of the ancientworld. By this measure, philosophy becomes a much more useful categoryfor understanding late antique society. If philosophically inclined men andwomen understood that they belonged to a community with defined standardsof conduct, this influenced how they would behave. Communal standards didnot always determine what a person did in a specific situation, but, by sug-gesting that certain behaviors would earn the praise or sanction of colleagues,

they could influence ones thought process when weighing a course of action.

109. Cf. Vita Procli28.110. Isid. 77A; one must note that this comes to us only through a Photian paraphrase of a longer section

of text.


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242 EDWARDWATTS

Philosophical schools were not unique in creating a social environment thatplayed this role in Late Antiquity,111but Platonists are explicit in explainingthe purpose of this system and sophisticated in theorizing its utility. Theirexample then suggests a different way of understanding how scholarly circlesunderstood their own membership. With luck, this approach will lead to a newmap 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 Romancultural contexts as well. Some of this is due to the fact that a number of Platonists taught other things inaddition to philosophy, but rhetoricians, grammarians, and even Christian ascetics (many of whom spoke ofthemselves 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, forexample,Historia Monachorum24.2, 3, 67, 8; Barsanuphius and JohnEp. 693.

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