Platonists are followers ofPlatonism, the philosophy ofPlato. Platonism can be said to have begun when Plato founded hisacademy c. 385 BC. Ancient Platonism went on to last until the end of the last remaining pagan school of Platonism in Alexandria which was brought on by theMuslim conquest of Egypt in 641, over a thousand years after the opening of the first Platonic school. Platonism had an immense impact on the intellectual life of the ancient world eventually becoming the dominant philosophy oflate antiquity.
