pro-Aristotle and anti-Stoic (Dillon, 1977: 265; CHLG, 1967: 73–83). Some
of these syncretisms provoked opposition and led to restatement of the more
pointed doctrines. The famous Herodes Atticus polemicized against the syn-
cretism of Plato with other doctrines. Lucian of Samosata, a rhetor, philoso-
pher, and popular writer who settled in Athens around 150, made fun of
Platonists, Stoics, Cynics, and Skeptics alike, especially on the grounds of
encouraging superstition, and stood up for the materialist position of the
Epicureans (EP, 1967: 5:98–99).
The last notable Skeptic, Sextus Empiricus, appears in this context (ca.
200). Skepticism was a long-standing weapon in the dispute between medical
theorists, and Sextus came from an empiric medical lineage in Asia Minor (and
probably Alexandria), though he was known primarily at Rome. He thus
moved in the same circles as his near-contemporary Galen (fl. 160–190), the
last great constructive medical theorist. Whereas Galen was a synthesizer of
doctrines, Sextus took up the rival stance of criticizing them all, and Galen’s
medical theories in particular. Both Galen and Sextus seem to have spoken
primarily to lay audiences and ranged much more widely than medicine. Galen
defended Aristotelean logic and interpreted the works of Chrysippus and
Epicurus, while his synthesis reached out to reconcile Plato with the Hippo-
cratic medical doctrine of the four humors (DSB, 1981: 5:227–237; Frede,
1987: 279–298). Galen was operating in the world of the Second Sophistic,
where public lectures and debates in a popular style provided the material basis
for intellectual careers, and even medical professionals got their patronage not
primarily through practice but through their impressiveness in exposition. As
if to show off his erudition, Sextus criticized all the arts and professions as
well as all intellectual positions; his Adversus Mathematicos piles on a veritable
overkill of skeptical arguments. As Figure 3.6 shows (see also unconnected
persons listed in the key), the intellectual world around 150–200 c.e. was
crowded with diverse positions, a situation which provided a slot for skepti-
cism.
This situation changed rapidly in the next century. The battle lines became
overwhelmingly aligned with religious positions, and both materialism and
skepticism disappeared as a grand pagan coalition formed against Christianity.
The Stimulus of Religious Polarization
In late antiquity, religion triumphed over secular philosophy. Nevertheless, it
included abstract philosophy of much greater long-term significance than any-
thing in the Roman period between the collapse of the Greek schools around
100 b.c.e. and the eminence of Christianity after 250 c.e.: the work of Plotinus,
Augustine, and a new level of rationalized theology including formal proofs of
Partitioning Attention Space: Ancient Greece^ •^119