THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYthe god on behalf of the invalid. For at that time the city still enjoyed the
use of this and retained intact the temple of the Saviour [i.e., Asclepius].
And while he was praying there in the ancient manner, a sudden change
was seen in the maiden and a sudden recovery occurred, for the Saviour,
being a god, healed her easily.
(Life of Proclus 29, trans. Edwards)When in 529 Justinian forbade the teaching of philosophy in Athens,^34 seven
Neoplatonist philosophers then active there, led by Damascius, the current
head of the school, are said to have made a voyage in search of Plato’s phi-
losopher-king to Persia, where, they had heard, the new king, Chosroes I, was
interested in Greek philosophy to the point of commissioning translations of
Plato (Chapter 5). When they reached the Persian court, they soon became dis-
appointed and returned, though not before securing a safe conduct for them-
selves under the terms of the peace treaty of 533. The story is told by Agathias
in the context of a denunciation of Chosroes and a certain Uranius who had,
according to Agathias, absurdly encouraged the king’s philosophical preten-
sions.^35 It has given rise to much discussion, both as to the fate of the Athenian
Academy itself and as to that of the philosophers, in particular Simplicius, who
went on to conduct a vigorous polemic against his rival, the Alexandrian John
Philoponus. One theory suggests that he spent the rest of his active life and
founded a Platonic school at Harran (Carrhae) in Mesopotamia, known as a
home of paganism until a late date. If correct (apart from possible local refer-
ences in Simplicius’ commentaries, it depends largely on a single statement in
a tenth-century Arabic writer which may suggest the presence of Platonists
there), this would have important consequences for the transmission of Greek
philosophy into the Islamic world.^36 Priscian, another of the seven, wrote a
treatise setting out the answers he had given to the questions of the Persian
king. Agathias tells the whole story from the point of view of Hellenic superi-
ority, but Chosroes was indeed known in eastern sources for his erudition and
curiosity, and himself composed a history of his achievements.^37
It was not least the intensity of philosophical debate even in the mid-sixth
century that is so notable. Nor was it confi ned only to philosophers them-
selves. Philosophical thought also extended to monastic and theological cir-
cles,^38 and John Philoponus, the leading philosopher at Alexandria at that
time, was himself a Christian. He wrote a long series of works in the course
of which he argued against the view of Proclus that the world had had no
beginning, though his own views were not fundamentalist enough for some
Christians. Philoponus also espoused a particular form of Monophysitism
known as Tritheism,^39 but there seems to have been room for a considerable
range of approaches within the philosophical circles of Alexandria. Unlike
Athens, which succumbed to the Slav invasions of 582 onwards, and where,
if any philosophical teaching continued, it had no chance of doing so on a
scale remotely comparable with its long past tradition, Alexandria was able to
preserve its philosophical tradition until the Arab conquest.