In the sixth century ce, Christian theology matured both in the eastern and western parts of the Empire. In the East, the works of the unknown and pseudonymously named Dionysius the Areopagite aimed to transpose into a Christian theological context the systematic version of Platonism found in Proclus. In the West, the three hypostases of Platonism are transformed into the persons of the Trinity, gods become angels, and salvation becomes resurrection rather than permanent separation from a body. Boethius undertook a re-evaluation of the ancient Greek philosophical tradition from a refined Christian theological perspective. Boethius seems to have a clearly articulated vision of what can and cannot be accepted from Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic and Academic sources. His most influential work, The Consolation of Philosophy, acknowledges the feasibility and even perhaps the inevitability of a Christian philosophy. Writing in Latin, Boethius provided a bridge for the renaissance of Christian thought in the West in the ninth century. Maximus the Confessor refined further the Christianized Platonism of Pseudo-Dionysius. He wrote not only on narrowly theological problems, but on the full panoply of ecclesiastical and spiritual issues. The idea of Christian philosophy as a way of life explicitly in opposition to the ways of life recommended within the ancient Greek philosophical tradition comes to the fore in Maximus. The last philosopher treated in this section, John Scotus Eriugena, brings us to the Carolingian Renaissance.

In the fourth century ce we can begin to see the tide shifting in favour of Christianity over paganism. The murder of Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon of Alexandria, in 415, is emblematic of the ominous turn from mere intellectual controversy to political power struggles begun a century earlier. Prior to the tipping point that was Constantine’s conversion around 312, Alexandria flourished as a polyglot and multicultural intellectual centre of the Mediterranean world. We have considerable evidence of Christians and non-Christians studying together under some of the famous philosophers of the time. Probably in early Alexandria even more than in Rome, there were genuine encounters of philosophy and religion. The writings of Philo and Clement are only two early examples of these. Lamentably, there is a dearth of extant philosophical material from Alexandria in our period, though we have accounts of an extremely active academic community. With regard to the natural and mathematical sciences, however, there is a substantial amount of material, focused principally on development of the scientific heritage of Ptolemy. Here we see, for example, in the practice of astrology a focal point for the confluence of philosophy, religion and science. The enduring theme of providence and fate, too, will be a battleground for opposing world views. It is natural to see in the Christian responses to the Hellenic views on these matters the lineaments of Biblical theology.

LIFE

Ammonius the son of Hermeias (c. 435/45–517/26) was the most important – at times, perhaps, the only important – pagan teacher of pagan philosophy in Alexandria from the late fifth into the early sixth century. He numbered among his students Asclepius of Tralles, John Philoponus, Simplicius and probably Olympiodorus, all known at least in part for their commentaries on Aristotle, and the first two of whom published commentaries said to be ‘from the voice’ or ‘from the lectures’ of Ammonius, while Olympiodorus considered himself, and perhaps was also officially, Ammonius’ successor in the Alexandrian chair of philosophy. In the concrete, personal sense, at least, Ammonius was the founder of an ‘Alexandrian’ school of Aristotelian interpretation.

Whether and in what sense Ammonius also made significant alterations in the philosophical system he inherited from his own teacher Proclus in Athens, and thereby originated an Alexandrian variant of late Platonism, has been widely debated. This question, forcefully raised by K. Praechter in 1910, hangs closely together with the conditions of Ammonius’ life and teaching in Alexandria.

After the murder of Hypatia by a mob of Alexandrian Christians in 415, the most authoritative professor of philosophy in Alexandria was Hierocles. But Athens’ older philosophical school headed by Hierocles’ teacher Plutarch and Plutarch’s young Alexandrian pupil Syrianus was apparently more attractive for ambitious Alexandrians. Accordingly, Hermeias, among others, left his native Alexandria for Athens to study with Syrianus, who was head of the school there from 429 until 436.

LIFE AND WORK

Not much is known about Olympiodorus’ life apart from what we can derive from the surviving works. A student of Ammonius the son of Hermias, but probably not his direct successor, he was active in Alexandria in the sixth century. If Olympiodorus heard Ammonius lecture his year of birth can hardly have been later than 505. He was still lecturing in March/April 565, the date of the passing of a comet mentioned in the Commentary on the Meteorologica (52.31).

The commentators David and Elias are held to be the pupils of Olympiodorus, because their works display the formal peculiarities of Olympiodorus’ commentaries; in addition their texts reproduce entire passages from Olympiodorus; David occasionally mentions him by name. The names David and Elias suggest a Christian background. This would make Olympiodorus the last representative of the non-Christian Platonic tradition. It is, however, not so clear whether David and Elias were really Christians: their works do not betray a commitment to specifically Christian doctrines, even where one would have expected this, and their names could also be mere parts of a disguise that allowed them to continue practising philosophy in an intellectual environment that was no longer hospitable towards non-Christians.

EXTANT WORKS

Olympiodorus’ surviving commentaries are all apo phōnēs, i.e., lecture notes by students. We have commentaries on two works of Aristotle and three Platonic dialogues (the latter are all transmitted through Marcianus gr. 196), more precisely commentaries on: Categories, Meteorologica, Alcibiades I (henceforth Alcibiades, considered genuine by the later Platonists), Gorgias, Phaedo (incomplete, the extant lectures are on Phaed. 61c–79e).

In the late fifth or early sixth century, a Christian writer, most likely a monk, probably from the Syrian region of the eastern Roman Empire, composed a body of works in which the philosophy of Plotinus, Proclus and other thinkers in the Platonic tradition is united with Christian belief. The works appeared under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, and in them the author apparently identifies himself as this first-century figure, who is named in the Acts of the Apostles as an Athenian converted to Christianity after hearing St Paul’s sermon on ‘the unknown God’ (Acts 17.34) and who is said to have become the first bishop of Athens. The author is now generally referred to as ‘Pseudo-Dionysius’, or, in order to avoid the pejorative connotations of the prefix ‘pseudo-’, simply as ‘Dionysius’ or ‘Denys’. Attempts have been made to discover his true identity, but none has received general acceptance, and in the absence of any solid evidence such efforts necessarily remain merely speculative and inconclusive. What seems clear, however, is that the author’s concealment of his own name is related to the philosophical content of his works. Like the God of whom he writes, the author remains nameless, inaccessible, hidden behind his works and knowable only as he is manifest in them. His choice of pseudonym, moreover, links him both with the idea of ‘the unknown God’ and with the integration between Greek philosophy and Christianity which is at play in Paul’s sermon.

INTRODUCTION TO PART I

In this section, we aim to provide a survey of philosophy as it was generally understood and practised around 200 ce. One may imagine the array of material confronting an advanced student of philosophy in, say, Rome or Alexandria at this time. We assume that the student would already be acquainted with what were then thought to be the major works of the founders of the great philosophical schools of antiquity – Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and Zeno. In any case, he or she would have available various doxographical accounts of the ancient practitioners of philosophy. With this acquaintance must have come a considerable degree of perplexity, not the least owing to the apparent conflicts among the conclusions of these giants and the obscurity of many of their writings. Our student, however, would soon discover that these conflicts and obscurities had in fact been the subject of intense philosophical reflection and commentary for the intervening 500 years since the early days of the philosophical schools. Depending on the master whom the student chose to follow, he or she would encounter a complex tradition of defensive explication of one school’s positions against those of opponents. The student would also encounter various philosophical strategies employed to demonstrate that philosophical positions that seemed to be at odds were in fact in harmony. This approach, which certainly antedates our starting point by at least 300 years, will eventually take on an increasing urgency in the minds of Greek philosophers when faced with the growing dominance of Christianity.

LIFE AND WORK

There are no reasons to doubt that Philoponus bore the Christian name of John from birth, and that he was born in Alexandria. Simplicius informs us that John called himself ‘the Grammarian’ (Simpl. In Cael. 119.7). As regards the surname ‘Philoponus’ (literally ‘the lover of labour’), it is often considered to mean that John was at a certain moment a member of a group of philoponoi, i.e., a militant Christian brotherhood. Probably, however, it only refers to the author’s diligence as a writer. He was born c. 490 or a few years earlier, and first studied philology before engaging in philosophy. His master in philosophy was Ammonius. Somehow Philoponus succeeded in becoming the principal editor of Ammonius’ commentaries on Aristotle, and we may assume that this was his main philosophical activity before 529. In 529, the year of Justinian’s decree prohibiting the teaching of pagan philosophy, Philoponus published De aeternitate mundi contra Proclum, a violent attack against the Platonic (and his own earlier) doctrine of the eternity of the world. After 529 he probably taught philosophy for some time, without, however, being the head of the Alexandrian school himself. In this period he revised his earlier commentaries on the Posterior Analytics, the Physics and the Meteorology in the light of his new Christian philosophy. Philoponus’ Christian about-turn, however, did not involve the Alexandrian school in its entirety. Even before 529, the scholarch Ammonius had been succeeded by the mathematician Eutocius, and Eutocius himself was later succeeded by Olympiodorus, who made no secret of his paganism.