Plato's Academy: mosaic panel found near Pompeii (late second or first century B.C.). According to a recent theory, the figure at the left is Herachdes
Ponticus; the figure pointing to the globe would be Plato himself: and the whole scene would represent a discussion on astronomy. Platonic philosophy
continued to exercise influence, in modified form, on the thinkers of Roman times.
Of Antiochus we know very little, and that little is derived almost wholly from Cicero. He was born somewhere between 130 and 120 B.C., and his death
is put in 68. Our sources clearly regard him as a breakaway from the true Academy, largely if not entirely because he rejected the sceptical attitude to
truth, which had been received 'doctrine' since the days of Arcesilaus, if not before. In another respect also he heralds a new age. He believed that there
was fundamental agreement between the Old Academy of Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle. Again this was a revolutionary step; and as we shall see,