There and Back Again: Damascius’ Translatio of Neo-Platonism from

Athens to Persia and the attempt of the reestablishment of Plato’s

Academy in the East.

The sixth century A.D. is considered an age of transition and rapid evolution as

well as a time of political, social and religious turmoil for the Mediterranean world.

Within this era of change, uncertainty and anxiety the episode of Damascius, the

last head of the Academy of Athens, and his fellows stands as an example of the

challenges that the world of intellectuals and scholars was facing. This paper will

attempt to prove the paramount importance of the saga of the last Athenian

philosophers and the impact of their intellectual activity in geographical, cultural

and religious crossroads that marked the Late Antiquity and Early Medieval

Thought. It is a tale of survival and adaptation between two worlds that would

transplant and spread the Neoplatonic ideas and concepts from the Late Roman

oecoumeni to Sassanid Persia and later to the Islamic World.

By the time of Damascius’ active life c. 480-538, Neo-Platonism was incarnating

not only a philosophical doctrine but also the legacy of Greco-Roman paganism in a

time of increasing Christian intolerance. The last head of the Academy of Athens

was born in Damascus during the 460’s and studied oratory in Alexandria before

coming to Athens where he became head of the School by 510. There he wrote the

famous Life of Isidore (head of the Academy a generation before) which is generally

known as the Φιλόσοφος Ἱστορία (Philosophical History), preserved fragmentary by

Photius and the Suda Lexicon, and apart from its value as a Neo-Platonic

hagiography it is the only record for the intellectual activity in the Athenian School

and also in those of Alexandria and Aphrodisias during a very crucial period for the

Greek Philosophical thought. Neo-Platonism was gradually losing its classical

Greek context and was already from the time of Iamblichus (245-325 A.D.) mingling

with theurgy and transcendental mysticism. This reformed version of paganism

was containing elements from Greek, Egyptian, Syrian and Babylonian theologies

decoded in a form of revelatory wisdom that would guide human towards the union

with the divine.1 Additionally, the Philosophical History is a genealogy of

philosophers that continued the tradition of Flavius Philostratus (Lives of the

Sophists) and Eunapius Sardianus (Lives of the Philosophers), a ‘golden chain’ of

wisdom that was expanded generation by generation, starting from Plato and

including Plotinus, Ammonius Sacca, Plutarch of Athens and Proclus, setting the

ideal of the Θεῖος Ἀνήρ according to the Pythagorean and Stoic models, similar

works are Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus and Iamblichus’ On the Pythagorean Life. They

were Instruction manuals towards the Θέωσις, the union of Man and God through

mysticism and esoteric quest,2 pagan versions of the unio mystica. This activity

could be interpreted to some extent as a product of the gradual demand for a pagan

‘gospel’ in the evolution towards a monolithic doctrine of paganism and also as a

result of the anxiety and metaphysical insecurity that dominated the public and

private life, collectively and individually from the third century onwards,

characterised by the quest for a Holy Man, Mediator or Messiah that would

guarantee spiritual security in life and afterlife.

Already before Damascius’s time the Academy of Athens was evolving into

some kind of a pagan monastery or a theological institution, a place where the

divine knowledge could be inherited from father to son, establishing thus a

philosophical dynasty, consisting of members of a ‘sacred race’ or a caste where

men had to marry women who ought to have philosophical education and usually

1
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism: The Evidence of Damascius’, in The Journal
of Hellenic Studies, vol. 113 (1993), pp. 1-29, pp. 3-4.
2
See E. R. Dodds, Χριστιανοί και Εθνικοί σε μια Εποχή Αγωνίας: Όψεις της Θρησκευτικής Εμπειρίας από τον
Μάρκο Αυρήλιο ως τον Κωνσταντίνο (Athens: Αλεξάνδρεια, 1995), p. 122, 128. [Christians and Pagans in Age
of Anxiety].
were daughters of their teachers. 3 It was an intellectual club where terms like

‘father’ and ‘grandfather’ were signifying spiritual ancestry. Damascius for example

refers to Isisdore as his divine father while Chrysanthius of Sardis, according to

Eunapius named his son Aedesius to honour his teacher, 4 Olympiodorus as well,

offered to his student Proclus his daughter Aedesia who had received philosophical

education.5 Apart from the perpetuation of their philosophical doctrine (which was

perceived as their hereditary right and monopoly), this elite of intellectuals

considered as their duty the preservation of the pagan tradition by launching a

campaign of visiting and restoring holy places and encouraging the people to

preserve the mos maiorum. When Proclus had to flee from Athens, he visited

Adrotta in Lydia were he revived the local cults and converted one man to his

Neoplatonic doctrine who later accompanied him to Athens. 6 Damascius and his

teacher, Isidore, travelled from Alexandria to Athens and during their journey they

visited several holy places in Asia Minor as some sort of pagan pilgrimage.

By the second half of the fifth century the community of the philosophers was

experiencing a period of general optimism and hope for some kind of pagan

recovery, especially during the reign of the West Roman emperor Anthemius (467-

472). The west roman ruler appointed the philosopher Severus, who appeared to

be a champion of paganism, as Prefectus Urbi at Rome (470). The Philosophical

History portrays Marcellinus, the governor of Dalmatia, as a defensor of their

values and the old religion as well as patron of Philosophers. 7 Furthermore

Damascius recounts his teacher of oratory Severianus who unsuccessfully

attempted to overthrow the emperor Zeno in order, according to Damascius, to

restore paganism and later became praetorian prefect of the East and converted to

3
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in late Paganism’, pp. 5-6.
4
See Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers, 504.
5
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p. 6, n. 22.
6
See Marinus, Life of Proclus, 15, 29, 32, 36.
7
See Damascius, Philosophical History, fr. 157-159.
Christianity in exchange for the emperor’s pardon. 8 However this atmosphere of

(vain) hope and euphoria ended by the time that Damascius became head of the

Academy and was soon about to face the harsh realities of the sixth century and

the persecutions of the Justinianic regime.

In the mid-time the philosopher’s main priority as head of the school was

the quality level of the Academy’s teachers and for that reason he summoned many

scholars from the Eastern Mediterranean to come to Athens, aiming towards a

dynamic re-launch of the philosophical activity. It seems that for the needs of the

growing community Damascius used three premises at the north slope of the

Areopagus (Houses A, B, C,) as well as the house of Proclus located near the

Odeion of Herodes Atticus and the Asclepieion which, according to the conclusions

from the excavations in the Athenian Agora were used for educational purposes

and the activity there was interrupted c. 530AD, 9 the time of Justinian’s anti-pagan

measures. The revival in Athens did not go unnoticed. Despite the fact that the

young prince Julian said once with some pride that ‘Athens was wealthy in the only

thing where wealth is truly desired’ 10 , it appears that to a significant extent the

material wealth of the city was accumulated in the Academy for many

generations.11 The Neoplatonic community, being loyal to the old classical concept

of the amor civicus12 had been contributing to the public life in various ways. By the

first decade of the fifth century, Iamblichus, the grandson of the famous

philosopher, helped with the Academy’s resources to the erection of new defensive

constructions while Proclus himself donated some of the school’s property to the

8
See Damascius, Philosophical History, fr. 305.
9
See A. Frantz, The Athenian Agora: Results of Excavations conducted by the American School of Classical
Studies at Athens, vol. XXIV: Late Antiquity: AD 267-700 (Princeton, New Jersey: The American School of
Classical Studies at Athens, 1988), p. 90.
10
See Julian, Panegyric in Honour of the Empress Eusebia, 119, d.
11
See E. Watts, ‘Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth century? Damascius, Simplicius and the Return
from Persia’, in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, vol. 45 (2005), pp. 285-315, pp. 191-192.
12
See P. Brown, Through The Eye of a Needle: Wealth. The Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the
West, 350-550 AD (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012), pp. 64-65.
city.13 The decree of 529 was targeting to Athens only and was aiming to damage

the philosophers as professionals and academics. 14 The Law School of Beirut, the

Oratory School in Gaza and the Philosophical School of Alexandria continued to

function. Especially since the latter that was famous for the study of Aristotle

appeared to be less challenging and less provocative to the Christians than Plato. 15

The motives behind this legislation vary, it was a fact that the Athenian Academy

was accepting bequests and donations for centuries and thus it was a tempting

target for an emperor desperate for resources and known for his avarice. 16 It seems

that initially the philosophers stayed together in Athens since the School’s property

was more than enough to sustain themselves even without teaching. 17 However the

issuing of two laws in 531 that prevented pagan institutions from accepting

donations18 and the confiscation of property that they already possessed 19 left the

community with rather limited options.

Damascius had to act fast and decisively. He planned to transfer the

Academy to Ctesiphon which appeared to be a sanctuary of tolerance in

comparison to Justinian’s Constantinople. It seems that his idea was not new since

Isidore was planning to do the same as his pupil 20 and even before him, Proclus, as

we are informed by his biographer Marinus, had to live the city for about a year.

The only account of their journey is preserved in the History of Agathias

Scholasticus, writing a few decays later, narrates that seven philosophers,

Damascius of Syria, Simplicius of Cilicia, Eulamius of Phrygia, Priscian of Lydia,

13
See A. Frantz, ‘From Paganism to Christianity in the Temples of Athens’ in Dumbarton Oak Papers, vol. 19
(1965), pp. 185+187-205, pp. 191-192.
14
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p. 24.
15
See P. Chuvin, Οι Τελευταίοι Εθνικοί: Ένα Χρονικό της Ήττας του Παγανισμού (Thessalonica: Θύραθεν, 2003),
pp. 165-166. [A Chronicle of thee Last Pagans].
16
Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, IV, 30
17
See E. Watts, ‘Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth century? Damascius, Simplicius and the Return
from Persia’, p. 299.
18
See Codex Iustinianius, 1. 11. 9. 1
19
See Codex Iustinianus, 1, 11. 10.1
20
See E. Watts, ‘Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century?’, p. 152.
Hermeias and Diogenis of Phoenicia and Isidore of Gaza, left Athens and travelled

to the Persian capital since they were disagreeing with the religious ‘κρατοῦσα δόξα’

(‘dominant doctrine’) and thought of the Persian state as a better place to settle. 21

During their way which might appeared like a pilgrimage they must have stopped

in Harran (Carrhae), a distant frontier city in Northern Mesopotamia, to visit the

local temples and noticed its hospitable and liberal atmosphere. Later on, their

orientalist vision and idealism of the exotic and famously sophisticated otherness

appeared to be crushed by the realities of the Persian court. Again according to

Agathias, the philosophers, having heard of the enormous intellectual interest of

Chosroes I who had just ascended to the throne a year ago (531), realised after

several debates with him that his knowledge of the subject was rather inadequate

and twisted. The historian’s emphasis on this episode could be interpreted as an

attempt to prove that the Persian king’s wisdom was no match to the intellectual

capacity of the Roman scholars22 who happened to be the ‘ἄκρον ἄωτον τῶν ἐν τῷ

καθ’ ἡμᾶς χρόνῳ φιλοσοφησάντων’23 (‘the flowers of philosophy of our time’).

Furthermore the fact that there were seven fellows presented in the narrative could

clearly be allegorical since this symbolism is present in Platonic dialogues (seven

companions in Plato’s Protagoras)24 and more recently in the Christian context,

Athenais (Aelia Eudocia), daughter of the philosopher Leontius, member of the

Academy;25 the young lady was accompanied to Constantinople by seven

philosophers to marry the emperor Theodosius II (421) 26. Despite this rather

symbolic motive there is no doubt that three among the philosophers’ fellowship

21
See Agathias, Histories II, 30, 3.
22
See A. Cameron, Agathias (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 101.
23
See Agathias, Histories II, 30,3
24
Plato, Protagoras, 343.a
25
See Olympiodorus, 28, 3 and P. V. Nuffelen, ‘Olympiodorus of Thebes and eastern triumphalism’ in C. Kelly
(ed.), Theodosius II: Rethinking the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2013), pp. 130-152, p. 151.
26
See Parastaseis Syntomai Chronikai 64 and G. af Hällström, ‘The Closing of the Neoplatonic School in A.D.
529: An Additional Aspect’ in P. Castrén (ed.): Post-Herulian Athens: Aspects of Life and Culture in Athens A.D.
267-529 (Helsinki: Foundation of the Finnish Institute at Athens, 1994), pp. 141-160, p. 149.
were actual historical persons and active authors (Damascius, Priscian and

Simplicius) though we don’t have any evidence for the remaining four but that

doesn’t influence the credibility of Agathias’ history.

The philosophers were kindly welcomed in the Persian court and received

the King’s hospitality having been greatly benefited by the general cultural revival

that Chosroes was aiming for in his realm. After all they were not the only

intellectual refugees that fled from the Orbis Romanus; Procopius mentioned that

several persons had voluntarily abandoned the Empire or were exiled because of
27
their beliefs. The King was presenting himself as ‘λόγων ἐραστὴν καὶ φιλοσοφίας ἐς

ἄκρον ἐλθόντα’ (‘a devotee of literature and well educated in philosophy’) and

according to Agathias his was particularly interested on Aristotle and Plato,

especially in the latter’s Timaeus, Gorgias and Phaedon dialogues.28 Despite their

disappointment from the King’s approach on philosophical issues they managed to

convince him to include their case in the negotiations for the peace treaty of 532

(‘Eternal Peace’). According to one clause, the philosophers were from then on free

to return ‘ἐς τὰ σφέτερα ἤθη’ (‘to their own customs’) and live and travel in the

Christian Roman Empire, preserving their ‘πατρῴαν δόξαν’ (‘ancestral belief’)

unaltered, without fear of persecution.29 To this point, Agathias informs us that

they lived happily ever after, but this was not the end of the story. This episode was

a significant blow to Justinian’s authority and self-esteem. Since he could no

longer chase the Athenian philosophers, he attacked the last existing loci of

paganism within the Empire. The temple of Isis on the Nile island of Philae in

Upper Egypt which had been the Roman southern limes with the Blemmyae since

the time of Augustus30 and the temple of Ammon-Ra in Augila in the Libyan dessert

27
See Procopius, Secret History, XI, 23.
28
See Agathias, Histories, 28, 1.
29
See Agathias, Histories, 31, 4.
30
See L. P. Kirwan, ‘Rome beyond the Southern Egyptian Frontier’, The Geographical Journal, vol. 123 (1)
(1957), pp. 13-19, p. 15.
were the recipients of the emperor’s wrath and vengeance. They were converted to

churches, the images of the deities were destroyed and the pagan clergy was

exiled.31 Heterodoxy would no longer be tolerated. After the mutual validation of

the peace terms, the seven philosophers decided to return to Harran 32 and its

liberal atmosphere where Damascius decided to re-establish the Neo-Platonic

Academy in this intellectually fertile environment. The Nestorians did something

similar half a century earlier when the emperor Zeno closed their theological school

in the neighbouring Edessa (489); they found sanctuary in Nisibis (at that time

Persian territory)and returned only when the Persians captured the city in 609. 33

Harran (Κάρραι), located in Northern Mesopotamia, on the frontier zone

between Rome and Sassanid Persia, was a bilingual and bicultural environment.

Consisting mainly of Greek and Semitic communities was known during the fifth
34
century as ‘ Ἑλλήνων Πόλις’ (City of the Greeks) because of its strong pagan

resistance in an age of Christian expansion. The city according to Theodoretus ‘καί

35
νῦν ἔχουσα τῆς ἀσεβείας τὰ λείψανα’ (‘even now had the remains of impiety’). It was

a sacred locus significant enough so that Julian stopped there during his Persian

campaign to visit the local temple of the city’s patron deity, Sin, the Babylonian

moon-God, as Ammianus Marcellinus,36 Sozomen37 and Zosimus38 confirm.

Libanius also, mentions that in the city stood a temple of Zeus 39 which was of

equal importance to the Serapeum of Alexandria. In this political, cultural and

religious no man’s land, a sensitive zone far away from Constantinople and any

major administrative centre, the imposition of any unpopular measures would be

31
See Procopius, De Bellis, I, 19. 36-37 and Priscus, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, fr. 21.
32
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p.p. 25-26.
33
See J. B. Segal, Edessa: ‘The Blessed City’ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), p.95.
34
See Acts of the Council of Chalcedon in E. Schwartz (ed.) Acta Consiliorum Oecumenicorum ii, 1, (1933-35),
p.384, 3-4.
35
See Theodoretus, Historia Ecclesiastica, III, 26,1
36
See Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, XXIII, 2, 6 and.
37
See Sozomen, Historia Ecclesiastica, VI, 1,1
38
See Zosimus, Historia Nova, III, 12.
39
See Libanius, Oratio XVIII, 214 and XXX, 7.8
politically unwise and potentially dangerous for the stability of the limes. When in

540 and 544 Chosroes was marching in the area, he refused to accept tribute from

Harran because of its obvious pagan character. 40 Within this new environment of

tranquillity and peace, one of the seven, Simplicius, composed and sent to the

Persian king a philosophical treatise that is preserved to us with the Latin title

Solutiones eorum de quibus dubitavit Chosroes Persarum rex as an act of gratitude

for the inclusion of their case to the Peace treaty of 532. The philosophers were

engaged once more with their activities as they did in Athens and the cultural

osmosis of their new basis would soon be reflected in their writings, Simplicius, for

example, cited in an Arisotelian commentary the variety of calendars that were in

use in Harran.41 They also started to translate Greek works in Syriac and later in

Arabic, playing thus a crucial role to the transplanting of the (neo) platonic theology

to the Islamic world.

This vivid activity was consecutively targeted and persecuted by secular and

Church authorities. According to Michael the Syrian, the emperor Maurice (582-

602) ordered the bishop of Harran to convert, or else, he would have to persecute

the local pagan community. It was a rather unsuccessful attempt which resulted to

the ritual hanging of the victims’ cut limbs in the streets of the city. 42 Among them

was the city’s governor himself. 43 Later on, by the beginning of the seventh century

an anonymous work in Syriac entitled as ‘Prophecies of the pagan philosophers in

abbreviated form’44 was calling the pagans of Harran to convert to Christianity. It

was not the first work of this kind since there is an entire genre of Christian

literature that used compilations from various pagan philosophers, interpreted as

prophetic, to justify the Christian domination. Many famous such works include
40
See Procopius, De Bellis, II, 17, 1-8.
41
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p. 26.
42
See Michael the Syrian, Chronicle, II, 375.
43
See J. B. Segal, Edessa: ‘The Blessed City’, p. 108.
44
See S. Brock, ‘A Syriac Collection of Prophecies of the Pagan Philosophers’ in S. Brock, Studies in Syriac
Christianity: History, Literature and Theology (Brookfield, Vermont: Variorum, 1992), pp. 203-246, p. 205.
Clement’s of Alexandria Stromateis, Justin's Cohortatio ad Graecos, Lactantius’

Institutiones Divinae, Didymous’ De Trinitate, Cyril’s of Alexandria Contra Julianum,

Theodoret’s Graecarum affectionum curatio as well as the anonymous Theosophia in

late fifth century Alexandria. Despite this polemic, the philosophers’ community in

Harran remained quite irritating and persistently present. The Syriac polemic that

was targeting the Harranians is using passages from Plato, Porphyry and Plotinus

leaving no doubt that it was pointing directly to the philosophical activity in the

city.45

When in 639 a Muslim army was approaching the city, the people of Harran

consulted their fellow pagans from Edessa about the issue and they both saw the

opportunity to deliver their communities from the (Christian) Roman oppression

and relieve the region from its permanent role (until that time) as a battleground

between two Empires.46 Even under Islam, Harran’s distinctive pagan community

must have been quite attractive so that Marwan II (744-750) transferred the

Caliph’s see there because of its obvious Anti-Christian atmosphere. 47 When later

Al-Ma ‘mun visited the area in 830 was surprised by the influence of the so called

‘Chaldean Paganism’ which was also known as Sabism (after Muslim pressure so

that the community might be converted to one of the tolerated religions), which

continued to preserve its neoplatonic doctrines unaltered. 48 One of the Caliph’s

generals, Tahir b. Husein was one of the most distinguished patrons of the

Academy at Harran and he was himself engaged with the study of philosophy

there.49

45
See E. Watts, ‘Where to Live the Philosophical Life?’, p. 313.
46
See See J. B. Segal, Edessa: ‘The Blessed City’, p. 108. Also T. M. Green, The City of the Moon God: Religious
Traditions of Harran (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992), p. 54.
47
See T. M. Green, The City of the Moon God, p. 95.
48
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p. 27.
49
See Michael the Syrian, Chronicle, II, 375.
 By the beginning of the tenth century the Academy was influencing the court

at Baghdad through one of its most famous students, Tabit b. Kurra, philosopher,

astronomer and physician, fluent in Greek and Syriac, who was the main person

responsible for the transplantation of neoplatonic texts in the Abbasid Capital. It

appears that Tabit b. Kurra brought some students from Harran to the Capital

because the environment was not so hospitable there anymore. He composed a

work on the religious history of late Hellenism, some fragments of which are

preserved in the Chronography of Gregory Bar Hebraeus where Tabit b. Kurra

appears to recount the numerous persecutions that Harran went through and

admits with pride that this city was never ‘defiled with the error of Nazareth’ and he

adds that his people are the legitimate heirs of paganism and its message. 50 Some

decades later (947), the geographer and historian al-Mas ‘udi visited Harran and

reflected on the site’s importance, coming to the conclusion that in the time of the

Greeks and during the early times of the Empire of Rum (Romans) the sciences

were universally respected until the arrival of Christianity. 51 The historian was

guided around the Academy’s facilities by its headmaster, Malik b. Ukbun, who

helped him translate the Syriac inscription, carved upon the door of the main

building saying: ‘‘he who knows his nature becomes god’’, which in its core is of

Platonic origin52 and was interpreted by the Arab scholar as a definition of Man’s
53
divinity by the Greeks since they do not accept a revealed truth or a prophet. The

work of Al-Mas ‘udi is the last source to mention the Academy of Harran which

most probably did not survive the eleventh century and the coming of the Seljuk

Turks in the region.54

50
See Gregory Bar Hebraeus, Chronography, I, 153
51
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p. 28.
52
See Plato, Alcibiades, I, 133c
53
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p. 28.
54
See P. Athanassiadi, ‘Persecution and Response in Late Paganism’, p. 29 and P. Chuvin, Οι Τελευταίοι
Εθνικοί, p. 170.
 The legacy of Damascius and the last Neoplatonists of Athens found deep

roots in the Arabic world; towards that direction the role of Harran’s School was

paramount in this translatio sapientiae from the West to the East (for a change).

The transplantation of Greek philosophy in the Arabic dialecticism contributed to a

rationalisation of Islamic theology55 and played a significant role to the flowering of

Science and Literature during the Golden Age of the Arabic World.

Ioannis Papadopoulos (University of Leeds)

55
See T. M. Green, The City of the Moon God, p. 163.