Platonic Academy

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This article is about the academy founded by Plato. For the 15th century school in
Florence, see Platonic Academy (Florence). For the Raphael painting, see The School
of Athens.
Coordinates: 37�59'33�N 23�42'29�E

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The Academy (Ancient Greek: ?????�??) was founded by Plato (428/427 BC � 348/347
BC) in ca. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle (384�322 BC) studied there for twenty years
(367�347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted
throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end
after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed
most likely by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BCE.[1] Many centuries later In 410
AD a sort of "revived" Academy, which had no institutional continuity with Plato's
school, was established as a center for Neoplatonism and mysticism, persisting
until 529 AD when it was finally closed by Justinian I. Other schools in
Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria, which were the centres of Justinian's
empire, continued.

Contents [hide]
1 Site
1.1 Today
2 History
2.1 The Three Platonic Eras
2.1.1 Old Academy
2.1.2 Middle Academy
2.1.3 New Academy
2.2 Destruction of the Academy
3 Neoplatonic Academy
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Site[edit]

Ancient road to the Academy.

Map of Ancient Athens. The Academy is north of Athens.

The Akademia was a school outside the city walls of ancient Athens. It was located
in or beside a grove of olive trees dedicated to the goddess Athena[2], which was
on the site even before Cimon enclosed the precincts with a wall.[3] The archaic
name for the site was ?????�??? (Hekademia), which by classical times evolved
into ?????�?? (Akademia) which was explained, at least as early as the beginning of
the 6th century BCE, by linking it to �Akademos�, a legendary Athenian hero.

The site of the Academy was sacred to Athena; it had sheltered her religious cult
since the Bronze Age. The site was perhaps also associated with the twin hero-gods
Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri), since the hero Akademos associated with the
site was credited with revealing to the brothers where the abductor Theseus had
hidden their sister Helen. Out of respect for its long tradition and its
association with the Dioscuri � who were patron gods of Sparta � the Spartan army
would not ravage these original �groves of Academe� when they invaded Attica.[4]
Their piety was not shared by the Roman Sulla, who axed the sacred olive trees of
Athena in 86 BCE to build siege engines.

Among the religious observances that took place at the Akademeia was a torchlit
night race from altars within the city to Prometheus� altar in the Akademeia. The
road to Akademeia was lined with the gravestones of Athenians, and funeral games
also took place in the area as well as a Dionysiac procession from Athens to the
Hekademeia and then back to the city.[5][6]

The site of the Academy[7] is located near Colonus, approximately, 1.5 km north of
Athens' Dipylon gates.[8]

Today[edit]
The site was rediscovered in the 20th century, in modern Akadimia Platonos
neighbourhood; considerable excavation has been accomplished and visiting the site
is free.[9]

Visitors today can visit the archaeological site of the Academy located on either
side of the Cratylus street in the area of Colonos and Plato's Academy (Postal Code
GR 10442). Either side of the Cratylus street are important monuments, like the
Sacred House Geometric Era, the Gymnasium (1st century BCE � 1st century CE), the
Proto-Helladic Vaulted House and the Peristyle Building (4th century BCE), which is
perhaps the only major building that belonged to the actual Academy of Plato.

History[edit]
What was later to be known as Plato's school probably originated around the time
Plato inherited the property at the age of thirty, with informal gatherings which
included Theaetetus of Sunium, Archytas of Tarentum, Leodamas of Thasos, and
Neoclides.[10] According to Debra Nails, Speusippus "joined the group in about 390
BC". She claims, "It is not until Eudoxus of Cnidos arrives in the mid-380s BC that
Eudemus recognizes a formal Academy." There is no historical record of the exact
time the school was officially founded, but modern scholars generally agree that
the time was the mid-380s, probably sometime after 387 BC, when Plato is thought to
have returned from his first visit to Italy and Sicily.[11] Originally, the
location of the meetings was on Plato's property as often as it was the nearby
Academy gymnasium; this remained so throughout the fourth century.[12]

Though the Academic club was exclusive, not open to the public,[13] it did not,
during at least Plato's time, charge fees for membership.[14] Therefore, there was
probably not at that time a "school" in the sense of a clear distinction between
teachers and students, or even a formal curriculum.[15] There was, however, a
distinction between senior and junior members.[16] Two women are known to have
studied with Plato at the Academy, Axiothea of Phlius and Lasthenia of Mantinea.
[17]

In at least Plato's time, the school did not have any particular doctrine to teach;
rather, Plato (and probably other associates of his) posed problems to be studied
and solved by the others.[18] There is evidence of lectures given, most notably
Plato's lecture "On the Good"; but probably the use of dialectic was more common.
[19] According to an unverifiable story, dated of some 700 years after the founding
of the school, above the entrance to the Academy was inscribed the phrase "Let None
But Geometers Enter Here."[20]

Many have imagined that the Academic curriculum would have closely resembled the
one canvassed in Plato's Republic.[21] Others, however, have argued that such a
picture ignores the obvious peculiar arrangements of the ideal society envisioned
in that dialogue.[22] The subjects of study almost certainly included mathematics
as well as the philosophical topics with which the Platonic dialogues deal, but
there is little reliable evidence.[23] There is some evidence for what today would
be considered strictly scientific research: Simplicius reports that Plato had
instructed the other members to discover the simplest explanation of the
observable, irregular motion of heavenly bodies: "by hypothesizing what uniform and
ordered motions is it possible to save the appearances relating to planetary
motions."[24] (According to Simplicius, Plato's colleague Eudoxus was the first to
have worked on this problem.)

Plato's Academy is often said to have been a school for would-be politicians in the
ancient world, and to have had many illustrious alumni.[25] In a recent survey of
the evidence, Malcolm Schofield, however, has argued that it is difficult to know
to what extent the Academy was interested in practical (i.e., non-theoretical)
politics since much of our evidence "reflects ancient polemic for or against
Plato."[26]

The Three Platonic Eras[edit]

The School of Athens by Raphael (1509�1510), fresco at the Apostolic Palace,

Vatican City.
Diogenes La�rtius divided the history of the Academy into three: the Old, the
Middle, and the New. At the head of the Old he put Plato, at the head of the Middle
Academy, Arcesilaus, and of the New, Lacydes. Sextus Empiricus enumerated five
divisions of the followers of Plato. He made Plato founder of the first Academy;
Arcesilaus of the second; Carneades of the third; Philo and Charmadas of the
fourth; Antiochus of the fifth. Cicero recognised only two Academies, the Old and
New, and made the latter commence with Arcesilaus.[27]

Old Academy[edit]
"Old Academy" redirects here. For the building in Munich, see Old Academy (Munich).
Plato's immediate successors as "Scholarch" of the Academy were Speusippus (347�339
BC), Xenocrates (339�314 BC), Polemo (314�269 BC), and Crates (c. 269�266 BC).
Other notable members of the Academy include Aristotle, Heraclides, Eudoxus, Philip
of Opus, and Crantor.

Middle Academy[edit]
Around 266 BC Arcesilaus became Scholarch. Under Arcesilaus (c. 266�241 BC), the
Academy strongly emphasized a version of Academic skepticism closely similar to
Pyrrhonism.[28] Arcesilaus was followed by Lacydes of Cyrene (241�215 BC), Evander
and Telecles (jointly) (205 � c. 165 BC), and Hegesinus (c. 160 BC).

New Academy[edit]
The New or Third Academy begins with Carneades, in 155 BC, the fourth Scholarch in
succession from Arcesilaus. It was still largely skeptical, denying the possibility
of knowing an absolute truth. Carneades was followed by Clitomachus (129 � c. 110
BC) and Philo of Larissa ("the last undisputed head of the Academy," c. 110�84 BC).
[29][30] According to Jonathan Barnes, "It seems likely that Philo was the last
Platonist geographically connected to the Academy."[31]

Around 90 BC, Philo's student Antiochus of Ascalon began teaching his own rival
version of Platonism rejecting Skepticism and advocating Stoicism, which began a
new phase known as Middle Platonism.
Destruction of the Academy[edit]

The archaeological site of Plato's academy.

When the First Mithridatic War began in 88 BC, Philo of Larissa left Athens, and
took refuge in Rome, where he seems to have remained until his death.[32] In 86 BC,
Lucius Cornelius Sulla laid siege to Athens, and conquered the city, causing much
destruction. It was during the siege that he laid waste to the Academy, for "he
laid hands upon the sacred groves, and ravaged the Academy, which was the most
wooded of the city's suburbs, as well as the Lyceum."[33]

The destruction of the Academy seems to have been so severe as to make the
reconstruction and re-opening of the Academy impossible.[34] When Antiochus
returned to Athens from Alexandria, c. 84 BC, he resumed his teaching but not in
the Academy. Cicero, who studied under him in 79/8 BC, refers to Antiochus teaching
in a gymnasium called Ptolemy. Cicero describes a visit to the site of the Academy
one afternoon, which was "quiet and deserted at that hour of the day"[35]

Neoplatonic Academy[edit]
Further information: Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism
Philosophers continued to teach Platonism in Athens during the Roman era, but it
was not until the early 5th century (c. 410) that a revived Academy was established
by some leading Neoplatonists.[36] The origins of Neoplatonist teaching in Athens
are uncertain, but when Proclus arrived in Athens in the early 430s, he found
Plutarch of Athens and his colleague Syrianus teaching in an Academy there. The
Neoplatonists in Athens called themselves "successors" (diadochoi, but of Plato)
and presented themselves as an uninterrupted tradition reaching back to Plato, but
there cannot have actually been any geographical, institutional, economic or
personal continuity with the original Academy.[37] The school seems to have been a
private foundation, conducted in a large house which Proclus eventually inherited
from Plutarch and Syrianus.[38] The heads of the Neoplatonic Academy were Plutarch
of Athens, Syrianus, Proclus, Marinus, Isidore, and finally Damascius. The
Neoplatonic Academy reached its apex under Proclus (died 485).

Emperor Justinian I.
The last "Greek" philosophers of the revived Academy in the 6th century were drawn
from various parts of the Hellenistic cultural world and suggest the broad
syncretism of the common culture (see koine): Five of the seven Academy
philosophers mentioned by Agathias were Syriac in their cultural origin: Hermias
and Diogenes (both from Phoenicia), Isidorus of Gaza, Damascius of Syria,
Iamblichus of Coele-Syria and perhaps even Simplicius of Cilicia.[37]

At a date often cited as the end of Antiquity, the emperor Justinian closed the
school in 529. The last Scholarch of the Academy was Damascius (d. 540). According
to Agathias, its remaining members looked for protection under the rule of Sassanid
king Khosrau I in his capital at Ctesiphon, carrying with them precious scrolls of
literature and philosophy, and to a lesser degree of science. After a peace treaty
between the Persian and the Byzantine empire in 532, their personal security (an
early document in the history of freedom of religion) was guaranteed.

It has been speculated that the Academy did not altogether disappear.[37][39] After
his exile, Simplicius (and perhaps some others) may have travelled to Harran, near
Edessa. From there, the students of an Academy-in-exile could have survived into
the 9th century, long enough to facilitate an Arabic revival of the Neoplatonist
commentary tradition in Baghdad,[39] beginning with the foundation of the House of
Wisdom in 832; one of the major centers of learning in the intervening period (6th
to 8th centuries) was the Academy of Gundishapur in Sassanid Persia.[clarification
needed]
See also[edit]
Academy of Athens (modern)
Cyrenaics
Agora
Hellenistic philosophy
Platonic Academy (Florence)
Platonism
Peripatetic school
Stoicism
Epicureanism
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Lindberg, David C. (2007). The Beginnings of Western Science. University
of Chicago Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780226482057.
Jump up ^ Thucydides. ii:34.
Jump up ^ Plutarch. Life of Cimon, xiii:7.
Jump up ^ Plutarch. Life of Theseus, xxxii.
Jump up ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece, i, 29.2, 30.2
Jump up ^ Plutarch. Life of Solon, i, 7.
Jump up ^ Herbert Ernest Cushma. (1910). A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Volume
1, pg 219. Houghton Mifflin.
Jump up ^ Ainian, A.M. & Alexandridou, A. (2007). The �sacred house� of the Academy
revisited. Acts of an International Symposium in Memory of William D.E. Coulson.
Volos, Greece: University of Thessaly.
Jump up ^ greeceathensaegeaninfo.com Plato academy, at
GreeceAthensAegeanInfo.com[unreliable source?]
Jump up ^ pp. 5�6, D. Nails, "The Life of Plato of Athens", in H. Benson (ed.), A
Companion to Plato, Blackwell Publishing 2006.
Jump up ^ pp. 19�20, W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 4,
Cambridge University Press 1975; p. 1, R. Dancy, "Academy", in D. Zeyl (ed.),
Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy, Greenwood Press 1997. I. Mueller gives a much
broader time frame � "...some time between the early 380s and the middle 360s..." �
perhaps reflecting our real lack of evidence about the specific date (p. 170,
"Mathematical Method & Philosophical Truth", in R. Kraut (ed.), The Cambridge
Companion to Plato, Cambridge University Press 1992).
Jump up ^ D. Sedley, "Academy", in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed.; p. 4,
J. Barnes, "Life and Work", in The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, Cambridge
University Press 1995; J. Barnes, "Academy", E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia
of Philosophy, Routledge 1998, accessed 13 Sept 2008, from
http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/A001.
Jump up ^ p. 31, J. Barnes, Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University
Press 2000.
Jump up ^ p. 170, Mueller, "Mathematical Method & Philosophical Truth"; p. 249, D.
Nails, The People of Plato, Hackett 2002.
Jump up ^ pp. 170�171, Mueller, "Mathematical Method & Philosophical Truth"; p.
248, Nails, The People of Plato.
Jump up ^ Barnes, "Academy".
Jump up ^ http://www.hackettpublishing.com/philosophy/women-in-the-academy
Jump up ^ p. 2, Dancy, "Academy".
Jump up ^ p. 2, Dancy, "Academy"; p. 21, Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy,
vol. 4; p. 34�36, Barnes, Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction.
Jump up ^ p. 67, V. Katz, History of Mathematics
Jump up ^ p. 22, Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 4.
Jump up ^ pp. 170�71, Mueller, "Mathematical Method & Philosophical Truth".
Jump up ^ M. Schofield, "Plato", in E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, Routledge 1998/2002, retrieved 13 Sept 2008, from
http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/A088 ; p. 32, Barnes, Aristotle: A Very Short
Introduction.
Jump up ^ Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's "On the Heavens" 488.7�24, quoted
on p. 174, Mueller, "Mathematical Method & Philosophical Truth".
Jump up ^ p. 23, Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 4; G. Field,
"Academy", in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed.
Jump up ^ p. 293, "Plato & Practical Politics", in Schofield & C. Rowe (eds.),
Greek & Roman Political Thought, Cambridge University Press 2000.
Jump up ^ Charles Anthon, (1855), A Classical Dictionary, page 6
Jump up ^ Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Book 1, Chapter 33, Section 232
Jump up ^ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. (1996), s.v. "Philon of Larissa."
Jump up ^ See the table in The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy
(Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 53�54.
Jump up ^ "Academy", E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
Routledge 1998, accessed 14 Sept 2008, from
http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/A001.
Jump up ^ Giovanni Reale, John R. Catan, 1990, A History of Ancient Philosophy: The
schools of the Imperial Age, page 207. SUNY Press
Jump up ^ Plutarch, Sulla 12; cf. Appian, Roman History xii, 5.30
Jump up ^ Giovanni Reale, John R. Catan, 1990, A History of Ancient Philosophy: The
schools of the Imperial Age, page 208. SUNY Press
Jump up ^ Cicero, De Finibus, book 5
Jump up ^ Alan Cameron, "The last days of the Academy at Athens," in Proceedings of
the Cambridge Philological Society vol 195 (n.s. 15), 1969, pp 7�29.
^ Jump up to: a b c Gerald Bechtle, Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Rainer Thiel,
Simplikios und das Ende der neuplatonischen Schule in Athen. Stuttgart, 1999 (in
English).
Jump up ^ The Cambridge Ancient History, (1970), Volume XIV, page 837. Cambridge
University Press.
^ Jump up to: a b Richard Sorabji, (2005), The Philosophy of the Commentators,
200�600 AD: Psychology (with Ethics and Religion), page 11. Cornell University
Press

Library resources about

Platonic Academy
Online books
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
References[edit]
Baltes, M. 1993. "Plato's School, the Academy." Hermathena, (155): 5-26.
Brunt, P. A. 1993. "Plato's Academy and Politics." In Studies in Greek History and
Thought. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cherniss, H. 1945. The Riddle of the Early Academy. Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press.
Dancy, R. M. 1991. Two Studies in the Early Academy. Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press.
Dillon, J. M. 1979. "The Academy in the Middle Platonic Period." Dionysius, 3: 63-
77.
Dillon, J. 2003. The Heirs of Plato. A Study of the Old Academy, 347�274 BC.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Dorandi, T. 1999. "Chronology: The Academy." In The Cambridge History of
Hellenistic Philosophy. Edited by Keimpe Algra, Jonathan Barnes, Jaap Mansfeld, and
Malcolm Schofield, 31�35. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Glucker, J. 1978. Antiochus and the Late Academy. G�ttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht.
Lynch, J. P. 1972. Aristotle's School: A Study of a Greek Educational Institution.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Murray, J. S. 2006. "Searching for Plato's Academy, 1929-1940." Mouseion: Journal
of the Classical Association of Canada, 6 (2): 219-56
Russell, J. H. 2012. "When Philosophers Rule: The Platonic Academy and
Statesmanship." History of Political Thought, 33 (2): 209-230.
Wallach, J. R. 2002. "The Platonic Academy and Democracy." Polis (Exeter), 19 (1-
2): 7-27
Watts, E. 2007. "Creating the Academy: Historical Discourse and the Shape of
Community in the Old Academy." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 127: 106�122.
Wycherley, R. 1961. "Peripatos: The Athenian Philosophical Scene--I." Greece &
Rome, 8(2), 152-163.
Wycherley, R. 1962. Peripatos: The Athenian Philosophical Scene--II. Greece & Rome,
9(1), 2-21.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Platonic Academy.
Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopadia Britannica article about
Platonic Academy.
"Academy". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
The Academy, entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Directions to the archaeological site of Plato's Academy, other useful information,
and some photos

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