TheAcademy (Ancient Greek:Ἀκαδημία,romanized: Akadēmia) was founded byPlato in ca. 387 BC inAthens.Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367 BC – 347 BC) before founding his own school, theLyceum. The Academy persisted throughout theHellenistic period as askeptical school, until coming to an end after the death ofPhilo of Larissa in 83 BC. Although philosophers continued to teach Plato's philosophy in Athens during theRoman era, it was not until AD 410 that a revived Academy was re-established as a center forNeoplatonism, persisting until 529 AD when it was closed down byJustinian I.
Ancient road to the Academy.Map ofAncient Athens. The Academy is north of Athens.
Before theAkademia was a school, and even beforeCimon enclosed its precincts with a wall,[1] itcontained a sacred grove of olive trees dedicated toAthena, the goddess ofwisdom, outside the city walls of ancientAthens.[2] The archaic name for the site wasHekademia (Ἑκαδήμεια), which by classical times evolved intoAkademia and was explained, at least as early as the beginning of the 6th century BC, by linking it to an Athenianhero, a legendary "Akademos".
The site of the Academy was sacred toAthena and other immortals; it had sheltered her religious cult since theBronze Age, a cult that was perhaps also associated with thehero-gods theDioscuri (Castor and Polydeuces), for the hero Akademos associated with the site was credited with revealing to the Divine Twins whereTheseus had hiddenHelen. Out of respect for its long tradition and the association with the Dioscuri, theSpartans would not ravage these original "groves of Academe" when they invaded Attica,[3] a piety not shared by the RomanSulla, who axed the sacred olive trees of Athena in 86 BC to buildsiege 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.Funeral games also took place in the area as well as a Dionysiac procession from Athens to the Hekademeia and then back to the polis.[4] The road to Akademeia was lined with the gravestones of Athenians.
The site of the Academy[5] is located nearColonus, approximately, 1.5 km north of Athens'Dipylon gates.[6] The site was rediscovered in the 20th century, in modernAkadimia Platonos neighbourhood; considerable excavation has been accomplished and visiting the site is free.[citation needed]
What was later to be known as Plato's school probably originated around the time Plato acquired inherited property at the age of thirty, with informal gatherings which includedTheaetetus of Sunium,Archytas of Tarentum,Leodamas of Thasos, and Neoclides.[7] According to Debra Nails,Speusippus "joined the group in about 390." She claims, "It is not untilEudoxus of Cnidos arrives in the mid-380s thatEudemus 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, when Plato is thought to have returned from his first visit to Italy and Sicily.[8] Originally, the location of the meetings was Plato's property as often as it was the nearby Academy gymnasium; this remained so throughout the fourth century.[9]
Though the Academic club was exclusive, not open to the public,[10] it did not, during at least Plato's time, charge fees for membership.[11] 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.[12] There was, however, a distinction between senior and junior members.[13] Two women are known to have studied with Plato at the Academy,Axiothea of Phlius andLasthenia of Mantinea.[14]
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.[15] There is evidence of lectures given, most notably Plato's lecture "On the Good"; but probably the use ofdialectic was more common.[16] 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."[17]
Many have imagined that the Academic curriculum would have closely resembled the one canvassed in Plato'sRepublic.[18] Others, however, have argued that such a picture ignores the obvious peculiar arrangements of the ideal society envisioned in that dialogue.[19] 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.[20] 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."[21] (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.[22] 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."[23]
Diogenes Laërtius 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 andCharmadas of the fourth;Antiochus of the fifth.Cicero recognised only two Academies, the Old and New, and made the latter commence with Arcesilaus.[24]
The New or Third Academy begins withCarneades, 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 byClitomachus (129 – c. 110 BC) andPhilo of Larissa ("the last undisputed head of the Academy," c. 110–84 BC).[25][26] According toJonathan Barnes, "It seems likely that Philo was the last Platonist geographically connected to the Academy."[27]
Around 90 BC, Philo's studentAntiochus of Ascalon began teaching his own rival version of Platonism rejecting Skepticism and advocatingStoicism, which began a new phase known asMiddle Platonism.
When theFirst Mithridatic War began in 88 BC, Philo of Larissa left Athens, and took refuge inRome, where he seems to have remained until his death.[28] 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 theLyceum."[29]
The destruction of the Academy seems to have been so severe as to make the reconstruction and re-opening of the Academy impossible.[30] When Antiochus returned to Athens fromAlexandria, 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 calledPtolemy. Cicero describes a visit to the site of the Academy one afternoon, which was "quiet and deserted at that hour of the day"[31]
Philosophers continued to teachPlatonism in Athens during theRoman era, but it was not until the early 5th century (c. 410) that a revived Academy was established by some leadingNeoplatonists.[32] The origins of Neoplatonist teaching in Athens are uncertain, but whenProclus arrived in Athens in the early 430s, he foundPlutarch of Athens and his colleagueSyrianus 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.[33] The school seems to have been a private foundation, conducted in a large house which Proclus eventually inherited from Plutarch and Syrianus.[34] The heads of the Neoplatonic Academy were Plutarch of Athens, Syrianus, Proclus,Marinus,Isidore, and finallyDamascius. The Neoplatonic Academy reached its apex under Proclus (died 485).
EmperorJustinian I. In 529 A.D. the Academy was placed under state control by order of Justinian, effectively strangling this training-school forHellenism.
The last Greek philosophers of the revived Academy in the 6th century were drawn from various parts of theHellenistic cultural world and suggest the broadsyncretism of the common culture (seekoine): Five of the seven Academy philosophers mentioned byAgathias wereSyriac in their cultural origin: Hermias and Diogenes (both from Phoenicia), Isidorus of Gaza, Damascius of Syria, Iamblichus of Coele-Syria and perhaps evenSimplicius of Cilicia.[33] TheemperorJustinian closed the school in 529 A.D.. The last Scholarch of the Academy wasDamascius (d. 540). According to the sole witness, the historianAgathias, its remaining members looked for protection under the rule ofSassanid kingKhosrau I in his capital atCtesiphon, 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 offreedom of religion) was guaranteed.
It has been speculated that the Academy did not altogether disappear.[33][35] After his exile, Simplicius (and perhaps some others), may have travelled toHarran, nearEdessa. From there, the students of an Academy-in-exile could have survived into the 9th century, long enough to facilitate the Arabic revival of the Neoplatonist commentary tradition inBaghdad.[35]
^pp. 5–6, D. Nails, "The Life of Plato of Athens", in H. Benson (ed.),A Companion to Plato, Blackwell Publishing 2006.
^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).
^M. Schofield, "Plato", in E. Craig (Ed.),Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge 1998/2002, retrieved 13 Sept 2008, fromhttp://www.rep.routledge.com/article/A088 ; p. 32, Barnes,Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction.
^Simplicius,Commentary on Aristotle's "On the Heavens" 488.7–24, quoted on p. 174, Mueller, "Mathematical Method & Philosophical Truth".
^p. 23, Guthrie,A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 4; G. Field, "Academy", in theOxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed.
^p. 293, "Plato & Practical Politics", in Schofield & C. Rowe (eds.),Greek & Roman Political Thought, Cambridge University Press 2000.
