Handbook of Platonism
Athens
A
Alcinous
Alcinous
c. 100 CE · Athens
Alcinous was a Greek philosopher of the Middle Platonist movement, active probably in the 2nd century CE. He is the author of the 'Didaskalikos' (often translated 'Handbook of Platonism'), a concise summary of Platonic doctrine in physics, ethics, and logic that became an important guide to how Plato was read in later antiquity. Almost nothing is known of his life.
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AthensAttica (Greece)
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About Athens
Athens, the capital of Greece since 1834, was the leading intellectual centre of the classical Greek world. Socrates taught there, and four major philosophical schools took root in the city: Plato's Academy, founded around 387 BCE, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Stoa of Zeno, and Epicurus' Garden. Under Hellenistic and Roman rule Athens remained a place of study that drew students from across the empire; in the 4th century CE the Christian writers Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus studied there together, while Neoplatonist teachers kept lecturing. Emperor Justinian's ban on pagan teaching of philosophy in 529 is generally taken to mark the end of the city's ancient history.
In Athens at the same time
Plutarch, Lucian of Samosata, Julius Pollux, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Philostratus Sophista, Philostratus the Athenian
Across the traditions, in Athens at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Alcinous’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Plutarch, Lucian of Samosata, Julius Pollux, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Philostratus Sophista, Philostratus the Athenian
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Alcinous’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.