Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition, 2011
By: Watts, Edward Jay, Lössl, Josef (Ed.), Watt, John W. (Ed.)
Title Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2011
Published in Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in Late Antiquity: The Alexandrian Commentary Tradition between Rome and Baghdad
Pages 137-150
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, Edward Jay
Editor(s) Lössl, Josef , Watt, John W.
Translator(s)
This paper explores the idea of translating the scholastic social experience by briefly considering the projects undertaken by four very different commentators active in the 520s and 530s. It begins by looking at Olympiodorus’ commentary on Plato’s Gorgias, one of the earliest and least polished works written by this productive and long-lived scholar. This commentary at times tends towards the informal and, because of this, it opens a window into the dynamics of an ancient classroom. Next, the argument turns to Simplicius’ commentary on Aristotle’s Physics, a work that attempts to divorce completely the writing of a commentary from actual classroom experience. Simplicius’ programme shows how an author could adapt the commentary genre so that it served as a purely literate endeavour that neither reflected lessons once given in a classroom nor suggested a line of interpretation that could be directly followed in teaching. Finally, the paper will touch upon the very different translation projects undertaken by two contemporary transmitters of the Greek commentary tradition. It will initially consider how some facets of the project undertaken by Boethius suggest that he anticipates that his ideas will not be interpreted in a traditional classroom setting. It will then examine the puzzling decision of Sergius of Reshaina to write a Syriac commentary of an Aristotelian work for which no Syriac translation existed. This discussion will build upon earlier scholarship to show that Sergius probably had direct experience studying philosophy in classrooms and expected his work to be used in a classroom setting. These observations should allow us to better contextualize and appreciate the foundations upon which the medieval Syriac and Latin commentary traditions rest. [introduction p. 140]

{"_index":"sire","_id":"440","_score":null,"_source":{"id":440,"authors_free":[{"id":590,"entry_id":440,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","free_first_name":"Edward Jay","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":591,"entry_id":440,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":359,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"},"free_name":"L\u00f6ssl, Josef","free_first_name":"Josef","free_last_name":"L\u00f6ssl","norm_person":{"id":359,"first_name":"Josef","last_name":"L\u00f6ssl","full_name":"L\u00f6ssl, Josef","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/1030028400","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":592,"entry_id":440,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":358,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"},"free_name":"Watt, John W.","free_first_name":"John W.","free_last_name":"Watt","norm_person":{"id":358,"first_name":"John W.","last_name":"Watt","full_name":"Watt, John W.","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131435531","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition","main_title":{"title":"Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition"},"abstract":"This paper explores the idea of translating the scholastic social experience by \r\nbriefly considering the projects undertaken by four very different commentators \r\nactive in the 520s and 530s. It begins by looking at Olympiodorus\u2019 commentary \r\non Plato\u2019s Gorgias, one of the earliest and least polished works written by this \r\nproductive and long-lived scholar. This commentary at times tends towards the \r\ninformal and, because of this, it opens a window into the dynamics of an ancient \r\nclassroom. Next, the argument turns to Simplicius\u2019 commentary on Aristotle\u2019s \r\nPhysics, a work that attempts to divorce completely the writing of a commentary \r\nfrom actual classroom experience. Simplicius\u2019 programme shows how an author \r\ncould adapt the commentary genre so that it served as a purely literate endeavour \r\nthat neither reflected lessons once given in a classroom nor suggested a line of \r\ninterpretation that could be directly followed in teaching. Finally, the paper will \r\ntouch upon the very different translation projects undertaken by two contemporary \r\ntransmitters of the Greek commentary tradition. It will initially consider how some \r\nfacets of the project undertaken by Boethius suggest that he anticipates that his \r\nideas will not be interpreted in a traditional classroom setting. It will then examine \r\nthe puzzling decision of Sergius of Reshaina to write a Syriac commentary of an \r\nAristotelian work for which no Syriac translation existed. This discussion will \r\nbuild upon earlier scholarship to show that Sergius probably had direct experience \r\nstudying philosophy in classrooms and expected his work to be used in a classroom \r\nsetting. These observations should allow us to better contextualize and appreciate \r\nthe foundations upon which the medieval Syriac and Latin commentary traditions \r\nrest. [introduction p. 140]","btype":2,"date":"2011","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/tWH1ZboTbhA72ad","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":359,"full_name":"L\u00f6ssl, Josef","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":358,"full_name":"Watt, John W.","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":440,"section_of":271,"pages":"137-150","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":271,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"en","title":"Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in Late Antiquity: The Alexandrian Commentary Tradition between Rome and Baghdad","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"L\u00f6ssl2011b","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2011","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2011","abstract":"This book brings together sixteen studies by internationally renowned scholars on the origins and early development of the Latin and Syriac biblical and philosophical commentary traditions. It casts light on the work of the founder of philosophical biblical commentary, Origen of Alexandria, and traces the developments of fourth- and fifth-century Latin commentary techniques in writers such as Marius Victorinus, Jerome and Boethius. The focus then moves east, to the beginnings of Syriac philosophical commentary and its relationship to theology in the works of Sergius of Reshaina, Probus and Paul the Persian, and the influence of this continuing tradition in the East up to the Arabic writings of al-Farabi. There are also chapters on the practice of teaching Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy in fifth-century Alexandria, on contemporaneous developments among Byzantine thinkers, and on the connections in Latin and Syriac traditions between translation (from Greek) and commentary. With its enormous breadth and the groundbreaking originality of its contributions, this volume is an indispensable resource not only for specialists, but also for all students and scholars interested in late-antique intellectual history, especially the practice of teaching and studying philosophy, the philosophical exegesis of the Bible, and the role of commentary in the post-Hellenistic world as far as the classical renaissance in Islam.","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/kR9UCCsaG87xlqQ","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":271,"pubplace":"Surrey \u2013 Burlington","publisher":"Ashgate","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":[2011]}

Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430–c. 550 C.E.), 2011
By: Watts, Edward Jay
Title Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430–c. 550 C.E.)
Type Article
Language English
Date 2011
Journal Classical Philology
Volume 106
Issue 3
Pages 226-244
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, Edward Jay
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
Two Parallel narratives have tended to dominate modern recon- structions of the final century and a half of Platonism’s long ancient history. The first ties the dramatic intersection of pagan-Christian conflict, imperial policy, and philosophical principles to the end of Platonic teaching in the Eastern Roman Empire. 1 A second, distinct narrative analyzes Latin philosophical writings and traces the gradual unraveling of the ties that bound Latin philosophical culture and its Greek counterpart. 2 Each of these narratives has its own unique way of viewing and understanding Platonism. The first story culminates with the emperor Justinian’s closing of the Athe- nian Platonic school. It tends to present the affected philosophers as a small, isolated group of pagan intellectuals whose conflict with an increasingly as- sertive Christian political order pushed them to the empire’s margins. The second narrative ends with Boethius and Cassiodorus and stresses how their philosophical efforts both underlined Graeco-Latin philosophical separation and planted the seeds of medieval scholasticism. It sees Platonism primarily as a movement held together by scholastic practices and doctrinal continuities in which Latin writers participated only at some remove. This paper proposes a different, more expansive way to think about late antique philosophical life. Ancient philosophical culture was not defined ex- clusively by religious concerns and doctrinal ties. Beginning with the Old Academy of Xenocrates, Platonists shaped themselves into an intellectual community held together by doctrinal commonalities, a shared history, and defined personal relationships. 3 As the Hellenistic world developed and Platonism spread beyond its Athenian center, doctrine, history, and social ties stopped being conterminous. Platonists remained connected by a shared intellectual genealogy, but Platonism’s social and doctrinal aspects became decentralized as individual schools with their own interests grew up in vari- ous cities. 4 Although no direct institutional connection joined them to the Academy, late antique Platonists saw themselves as part of an old philosophi- cal lineage that reached back to Plato. 5 In their schools, the history of an individual circle’s past mingled with that of the larger intellectual tradition it claimed to have inherited. This amalgamated tradition was handed down from teachers to students in personal conversations that had a number of important, community-building effects. They attracted students to Platonic philosophy, encouraged them to identify with the movement’s past leaders, and influ- enced their ideas and actions once they joined a specific group. As this paper will show, the Platonic circles that these men and women formed were then defined as much by the relationships they formed and by the behaviors they exhibited as by the doctrines they espoused. [introduction p. 226-227]

{"_index":"sire","_id":"443","_score":null,"_source":{"id":443,"authors_free":[{"id":595,"entry_id":443,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","free_first_name":"Edward Jay","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430\u2013c. 550 C.E.)","main_title":{"title":"Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430\u2013c. 550 C.E.)"},"abstract":"Two Parallel narratives have tended to dominate modern recon-\r\nstructions of the final century and a half of Platonism\u2019s long ancient \r\nhistory. The first ties the dramatic intersection of pagan-Christian \r\nconflict, imperial policy, and philosophical principles to the end of Platonic \r\nteaching in the Eastern Roman Empire. 1 A second, distinct narrative analyzes \r\nLatin philosophical writings and traces the gradual unraveling of the ties that \r\nbound Latin philosophical culture and its Greek counterpart. 2 Each of these \r\nnarratives has its own unique way of viewing and understanding Platonism. \r\nThe first story culminates with the emperor Justinian\u2019s closing of the Athe-\r\nnian Platonic school. It tends to present the affected philosophers as a small, \r\nisolated group of pagan intellectuals whose conflict with an increasingly as-\r\nsertive Christian political order pushed them to the empire\u2019s margins. The \r\nsecond narrative ends with Boethius and Cassiodorus and stresses how their \r\nphilosophical efforts both underlined Graeco-Latin philosophical separation \r\nand planted the seeds of medieval scholasticism. It sees Platonism primarily \r\nas a movement held together by scholastic practices and doctrinal continuities \r\nin which Latin writers participated only at some remove.\r\nThis paper proposes a different, more expansive way to think about late \r\nantique philosophical life. Ancient philosophical culture was not defined ex-\r\nclusively by religious concerns and doctrinal ties. Beginning with the Old \r\n\r\nAcademy of Xenocrates, Platonists shaped themselves into an intellectual \r\ncommunity held together by doctrinal commonalities, a shared history, and \r\ndefined personal relationships. 3 As the Hellenistic world developed and \r\nPlatonism spread beyond its Athenian center, doctrine, history, and social \r\nties stopped being conterminous. Platonists remained connected by a shared \r\nintellectual genealogy, but Platonism\u2019s social and doctrinal aspects became decentralized as individual schools with their own interests grew up in vari-\r\nous cities. 4 Although no direct institutional connection joined them to the \r\nAcademy, late antique Platonists saw themselves as part of an old philosophi-\r\ncal lineage that reached back to Plato. 5 In their schools, the history of an \r\nindividual circle\u2019s past mingled with that of the larger intellectual tradition it \r\nclaimed to have inherited. This amalgamated tradition was handed down from \r\nteachers to students in personal conversations that had a number of important, \r\ncommunity-building effects. They attracted students to Platonic philosophy, \r\nencouraged them to identify with the movement\u2019s past leaders, and influ-\r\nenced their ideas and actions once they joined a specific group. As this paper \r\nwill show, the Platonic circles that these men and women formed were then \r\ndefined as much by the relationships they formed and by the behaviors they \r\nexhibited as by the doctrines they espoused. [introduction p. 226-227]","btype":3,"date":"2011","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/rilfF7I9t8ywGlp","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":443,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Classical Philology","volume":"106","issue":"3","pages":"226-244"}},"sort":[2011]}

City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria, 2006
By: Watts, E. J.
Title City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria
Type Monograph
Language English
Date 2006
Publication Place Berkeley – London – Los Angeles
Publisher University of California Press
Series The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature 41
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, E. J.
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
This lively and wide-ranging study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieux in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries to shed new light on the interaction between the pagan cultural legacy and Christianity. While previous scholarship has seen Christian reactions to pagan educational culture as the product of an empire-wide process of development, Edward J. Watts crafts two narratives that reveal how differently education was shaped by the local power structures and urban contexts of each city. Touching on the careers of Herodes Atticus, Proclus, Damascius, Ammonius Saccas, Origen, Hypatia, and Olympiodorus; and events including the Herulian sack of Athens, the closing of the Athenian Neoplatonic school under Justinian, the rise of Arian Christianity, and the sack of the Serapeum, he shows that by the sixth century, Athens and Alexandria had two distinct, locally determined, approaches to pagan teaching that had their roots in the unique historical relationships between city and school.

{"_index":"sire","_id":"193","_score":null,"_source":{"id":193,"authors_free":[{"id":249,"entry_id":193,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, E. J.","free_first_name":"E. J.","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria","main_title":{"title":"City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria"},"abstract":"This lively and wide-ranging study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieux in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries to shed new light on the interaction between the pagan cultural legacy and Christianity. While previous scholarship has seen Christian reactions to pagan educational culture as the product of an empire-wide process of development, Edward J. Watts crafts two narratives that reveal how differently education was shaped by the local power structures and urban contexts of each city. Touching on the careers of Herodes Atticus, Proclus, Damascius, Ammonius Saccas, Origen, Hypatia, and Olympiodorus; and events including the Herulian sack of Athens, the closing of the Athenian Neoplatonic school under Justinian, the rise of Arian Christianity, and the sack of the Serapeum, he shows that by the sixth century, Athens and Alexandria had two distinct, locally determined, approaches to pagan teaching that had their roots in the unique historical relationships between city and school.","btype":1,"date":"2006","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/OpuRY87kdA6jtIi","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":193,"pubplace":"Berkeley \u2013 London \u2013 Los Angeles","publisher":"University of California Press","series":"The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature 41","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":[2006]}

Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia, 2005
By: Watts, Edward Jay
Title Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia
Type Article
Language English
Date 2005
Journal Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
Volume 45
Issue 3
Pages 285-315
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, Edward Jay
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
The closing of the Neoplatonic school in Athens by Justinian in 532 was not the end of classical philosophy, for when they returned to the Empire from Persia two years later the philosophers did not need to reconstitute the school at Harran or at any particular city in order to continue their philosophical activities. [author's abstract]

{"_index":"sire","_id":"441","_score":null,"_source":{"id":441,"authors_free":[{"id":593,"entry_id":441,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","free_first_name":"Edward Jay","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia","main_title":{"title":"Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia"},"abstract":"The closing of the Neoplatonic school in Athens by Justinian in 532 was not the end of classical philosophy, for when they returned to the Empire from Persia two years later the philosophers did not need to reconstitute the school at Harran or at any particular city in order to continue their philosophical activities. [author's abstract]","btype":3,"date":"2005","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/EoZ3BSOdBPuEnet","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":441,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies","volume":"45","issue":"3","pages":"285-315"}},"sort":[2005]}

  • PAGE 1 OF 1
City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria, 2006
By: Watts, E. J.
Title City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria
Type Monograph
Language English
Date 2006
Publication Place Berkeley – London – Los Angeles
Publisher University of California Press
Series The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature 41
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, E. J.
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
This lively and wide-ranging study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieux in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries to shed new light on the interaction between the pagan cultural legacy and Christianity. While previous scholarship has seen Christian reactions to pagan educational culture as the product of an empire-wide process of development, Edward J. Watts crafts two narratives that reveal how differently education was shaped by the local power structures and urban contexts of each city. Touching on the careers of Herodes Atticus, Proclus, Damascius, Ammonius Saccas, Origen, Hypatia, and Olympiodorus; and events including the Herulian sack of Athens, the closing of the Athenian Neoplatonic school under Justinian, the rise of Arian Christianity, and the sack of the Serapeum, he shows that by the sixth century, Athens and Alexandria had two distinct, locally determined, approaches to pagan teaching that had their roots in the unique historical relationships between city and school.

{"_index":"sire","_id":"193","_score":null,"_source":{"id":193,"authors_free":[{"id":249,"entry_id":193,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, E. J.","free_first_name":"E. J.","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria","main_title":{"title":"City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria"},"abstract":"This lively and wide-ranging study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieux in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries to shed new light on the interaction between the pagan cultural legacy and Christianity. While previous scholarship has seen Christian reactions to pagan educational culture as the product of an empire-wide process of development, Edward J. Watts crafts two narratives that reveal how differently education was shaped by the local power structures and urban contexts of each city. Touching on the careers of Herodes Atticus, Proclus, Damascius, Ammonius Saccas, Origen, Hypatia, and Olympiodorus; and events including the Herulian sack of Athens, the closing of the Athenian Neoplatonic school under Justinian, the rise of Arian Christianity, and the sack of the Serapeum, he shows that by the sixth century, Athens and Alexandria had two distinct, locally determined, approaches to pagan teaching that had their roots in the unique historical relationships between city and school.","btype":1,"date":"2006","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/OpuRY87kdA6jtIi","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":{"id":193,"pubplace":"Berkeley \u2013 London \u2013 Los Angeles","publisher":"University of California Press","series":"The Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature 41","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"booksection":null,"article":null},"sort":["City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria"]}

Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430–c. 550 C.E.), 2011
By: Watts, Edward Jay
Title Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430–c. 550 C.E.)
Type Article
Language English
Date 2011
Journal Classical Philology
Volume 106
Issue 3
Pages 226-244
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, Edward Jay
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
Two  Parallel  narratives  have  tended  to  dominate  modern  recon-
structions  of  the  final  century  and  a  half  of  Platonism’s  long  ancient  
history.  The  first  ties  the  dramatic  intersection  of  pagan-Christian  
conflict, imperial policy, and philosophical principles to the end of Platonic 
teaching in the Eastern Roman Empire. 1 A second, distinct narrative analyzes 
Latin philosophical writings and traces the gradual unraveling of the ties that 
bound Latin philosophical culture and its Greek counterpart. 2 Each of these 
narratives has its own unique way of viewing and understanding Platonism. 
The  first  story  culminates  with  the  emperor  Justinian’s  closing  of  the  Athe-
nian Platonic school. It tends to present the affected philosophers as a small, 
isolated group of pagan intellectuals whose conflict with an increasingly as-
sertive  Christian  political  order  pushed  them  to  the  empire’s  margins.  The  
second narrative ends with Boethius and Cassiodorus and stresses how their 
philosophical  efforts  both  underlined  Graeco-Latin  philosophical  separation  
and planted the seeds of medieval scholasticism. It sees Platonism primarily 
as a movement held together by scholastic practices and doctrinal continuities 
in which Latin writers participated only at some remove.
This  paper  proposes  a  different,  more  expansive  way  to  think  about  late  
antique philosophical life. Ancient philosophical culture was not defined ex-
clusively  by  religious  concerns  and  doctrinal  ties.  Beginning  with  the  Old  

Academy  of  Xenocrates,  Platonists  shaped  themselves  into  an  intellectual  
community  held  together  by  doctrinal  commonalities,  a  shared  history,  and  
defined  personal  relationships. 3  As  the  Hellenistic  world  developed  and  
Platonism  spread  beyond  its  Athenian  center,  doctrine,  history,  and  social  
ties stopped being conterminous. Platonists remained connected by a shared 
intellectual  genealogy,  but  Platonism’s  social  and  doctrinal  aspects  became  decentralized as individual schools with their own interests grew up in vari-
ous  cities. 4  Although  no  direct  institutional  connection  joined  them  to  the  
Academy, late antique Platonists saw themselves as part of an old philosophi-
cal  lineage  that  reached  back  to  Plato. 5  In  their  schools,  the  history  of  an  
individual circle’s past mingled with that of the larger intellectual tradition it 
claimed to have inherited. This amalgamated tradition was handed down from 
teachers to students in personal conversations that had a number of important, 
community-building  effects.  They  attracted  students  to  Platonic  philosophy,  
encouraged  them  to  identify  with  the  movement’s  past  leaders,  and  influ-
enced their ideas and actions once they joined a specific group. As this paper 
will show, the Platonic circles that these men and women formed were then 
defined as much by the relationships they formed and by the behaviors they 
exhibited as by the doctrines they espoused. [introduction p. 226-227]

{"_index":"sire","_id":"443","_score":null,"_source":{"id":443,"authors_free":[{"id":595,"entry_id":443,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","free_first_name":"Edward Jay","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430\u2013c. 550 C.E.)","main_title":{"title":"Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430\u2013c. 550 C.E.)"},"abstract":"Two Parallel narratives have tended to dominate modern recon-\r\nstructions of the final century and a half of Platonism\u2019s long ancient \r\nhistory. The first ties the dramatic intersection of pagan-Christian \r\nconflict, imperial policy, and philosophical principles to the end of Platonic \r\nteaching in the Eastern Roman Empire. 1 A second, distinct narrative analyzes \r\nLatin philosophical writings and traces the gradual unraveling of the ties that \r\nbound Latin philosophical culture and its Greek counterpart. 2 Each of these \r\nnarratives has its own unique way of viewing and understanding Platonism. \r\nThe first story culminates with the emperor Justinian\u2019s closing of the Athe-\r\nnian Platonic school. It tends to present the affected philosophers as a small, \r\nisolated group of pagan intellectuals whose conflict with an increasingly as-\r\nsertive Christian political order pushed them to the empire\u2019s margins. The \r\nsecond narrative ends with Boethius and Cassiodorus and stresses how their \r\nphilosophical efforts both underlined Graeco-Latin philosophical separation \r\nand planted the seeds of medieval scholasticism. It sees Platonism primarily \r\nas a movement held together by scholastic practices and doctrinal continuities \r\nin which Latin writers participated only at some remove.\r\nThis paper proposes a different, more expansive way to think about late \r\nantique philosophical life. Ancient philosophical culture was not defined ex-\r\nclusively by religious concerns and doctrinal ties. Beginning with the Old \r\n\r\nAcademy of Xenocrates, Platonists shaped themselves into an intellectual \r\ncommunity held together by doctrinal commonalities, a shared history, and \r\ndefined personal relationships. 3 As the Hellenistic world developed and \r\nPlatonism spread beyond its Athenian center, doctrine, history, and social \r\nties stopped being conterminous. Platonists remained connected by a shared \r\nintellectual genealogy, but Platonism\u2019s social and doctrinal aspects became decentralized as individual schools with their own interests grew up in vari-\r\nous cities. 4 Although no direct institutional connection joined them to the \r\nAcademy, late antique Platonists saw themselves as part of an old philosophi-\r\ncal lineage that reached back to Plato. 5 In their schools, the history of an \r\nindividual circle\u2019s past mingled with that of the larger intellectual tradition it \r\nclaimed to have inherited. This amalgamated tradition was handed down from \r\nteachers to students in personal conversations that had a number of important, \r\ncommunity-building effects. They attracted students to Platonic philosophy, \r\nencouraged them to identify with the movement\u2019s past leaders, and influ-\r\nenced their ideas and actions once they joined a specific group. As this paper \r\nwill show, the Platonic circles that these men and women formed were then \r\ndefined as much by the relationships they formed and by the behaviors they \r\nexhibited as by the doctrines they espoused. [introduction p. 226-227]","btype":3,"date":"2011","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/rilfF7I9t8ywGlp","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":443,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Classical Philology","volume":"106","issue":"3","pages":"226-244"}},"sort":["Doctrine, Anecdote, and Action: Reconsidering the Social History of the Last Platonists (c. 430\u2013c. 550 C.E.)"]}

Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition, 2011
By: Watts, Edward Jay, Lössl, Josef (Ed.), Watt, John W. (Ed.)
Title Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition
Type Book Section
Language English
Date 2011
Published in Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in Late Antiquity: The Alexandrian Commentary Tradition between Rome and Baghdad
Pages 137-150
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, Edward Jay
Editor(s) Lössl, Josef , Watt, John W.
Translator(s)
This paper explores the idea of translating the scholastic social experience by 
briefly considering the projects undertaken by four very different commentators 
active in the 520s and 530s. It begins by looking at Olympiodorus’ commentary 
on Plato’s Gorgias, one of the earliest and least polished works written by this 
productive and long-lived scholar. This commentary at times tends towards the 
informal and, because of this, it opens a window into the dynamics of an ancient 
classroom.  Next, the  argument turns  to  Simplicius’ commentary  on Aristotle’s 
Physics, a work that attempts to divorce completely the writing of a commentary 
from actual classroom experience. Simplicius’ programme shows how an author 
could adapt the commentary genre so that it served as a purely literate endeavour 
that neither reflected lessons once given in a classroom nor suggested a line of 
interpretation that could be directly followed in teaching. Finally, the paper will 
touch upon the very different translation projects undertaken by two contemporary 
transmitters of the Greek commentary tradition. It will initially consider how some 
facets of the project undertaken by Boethius suggest that he anticipates that his 
ideas will not be interpreted in a traditional classroom setting. It will then examine 
the puzzling decision of Sergius of Reshaina to write a Syriac commentary of an 
Aristotelian work for which no Syriac translation existed. This discussion will 
build upon earlier scholarship to show that Sergius probably had direct experience 
studying philosophy in classrooms and expected his work to be used in a classroom 
setting. These observations should allow us to better contextualize and appreciate 
the foundations upon which the medieval Syriac and Latin commentary traditions 
rest. [introduction p. 140]

{"_index":"sire","_id":"440","_score":null,"_source":{"id":440,"authors_free":[{"id":590,"entry_id":440,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","free_first_name":"Edward Jay","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":591,"entry_id":440,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":359,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"},"free_name":"L\u00f6ssl, Josef","free_first_name":"Josef","free_last_name":"L\u00f6ssl","norm_person":{"id":359,"first_name":"Josef","last_name":"L\u00f6ssl","full_name":"L\u00f6ssl, Josef","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/1030028400","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}},{"id":592,"entry_id":440,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":358,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"},"free_name":"Watt, John W.","free_first_name":"John W.","free_last_name":"Watt","norm_person":{"id":358,"first_name":"John W.","last_name":"Watt","full_name":"Watt, John W.","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131435531","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition","main_title":{"title":"Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition"},"abstract":"This paper explores the idea of translating the scholastic social experience by \r\nbriefly considering the projects undertaken by four very different commentators \r\nactive in the 520s and 530s. It begins by looking at Olympiodorus\u2019 commentary \r\non Plato\u2019s Gorgias, one of the earliest and least polished works written by this \r\nproductive and long-lived scholar. This commentary at times tends towards the \r\ninformal and, because of this, it opens a window into the dynamics of an ancient \r\nclassroom. Next, the argument turns to Simplicius\u2019 commentary on Aristotle\u2019s \r\nPhysics, a work that attempts to divorce completely the writing of a commentary \r\nfrom actual classroom experience. Simplicius\u2019 programme shows how an author \r\ncould adapt the commentary genre so that it served as a purely literate endeavour \r\nthat neither reflected lessons once given in a classroom nor suggested a line of \r\ninterpretation that could be directly followed in teaching. Finally, the paper will \r\ntouch upon the very different translation projects undertaken by two contemporary \r\ntransmitters of the Greek commentary tradition. It will initially consider how some \r\nfacets of the project undertaken by Boethius suggest that he anticipates that his \r\nideas will not be interpreted in a traditional classroom setting. It will then examine \r\nthe puzzling decision of Sergius of Reshaina to write a Syriac commentary of an \r\nAristotelian work for which no Syriac translation existed. This discussion will \r\nbuild upon earlier scholarship to show that Sergius probably had direct experience \r\nstudying philosophy in classrooms and expected his work to be used in a classroom \r\nsetting. These observations should allow us to better contextualize and appreciate \r\nthe foundations upon which the medieval Syriac and Latin commentary traditions \r\nrest. [introduction p. 140]","btype":2,"date":"2011","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/tWH1ZboTbhA72ad","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}},{"id":359,"full_name":"L\u00f6ssl, Josef","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}},{"id":358,"full_name":"Watt, John W.","role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"}}],"book":null,"booksection":{"id":440,"section_of":271,"pages":"137-150","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":271,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":null,"type":4,"language":"en","title":"Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in Late Antiquity: The Alexandrian Commentary Tradition between Rome and Baghdad","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"L\u00f6ssl2011b","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2011","edition_no":null,"free_date":"2011","abstract":"This book brings together sixteen studies by internationally renowned scholars on the origins and early development of the Latin and Syriac biblical and philosophical commentary traditions. It casts light on the work of the founder of philosophical biblical commentary, Origen of Alexandria, and traces the developments of fourth- and fifth-century Latin commentary techniques in writers such as Marius Victorinus, Jerome and Boethius. The focus then moves east, to the beginnings of Syriac philosophical commentary and its relationship to theology in the works of Sergius of Reshaina, Probus and Paul the Persian, and the influence of this continuing tradition in the East up to the Arabic writings of al-Farabi. There are also chapters on the practice of teaching Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy in fifth-century Alexandria, on contemporaneous developments among Byzantine thinkers, and on the connections in Latin and Syriac traditions between translation (from Greek) and commentary. With its enormous breadth and the groundbreaking originality of its contributions, this volume is an indispensable resource not only for specialists, but also for all students and scholars interested in late-antique intellectual history, especially the practice of teaching and studying philosophy, the philosophical exegesis of the Bible, and the role of commentary in the post-Hellenistic world as far as the classical renaissance in Islam.","republication_of":null,"online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/kR9UCCsaG87xlqQ","translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"doi_url":null,"book":{"id":271,"pubplace":"Surrey \u2013 Burlington","publisher":"Ashgate","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":null,"valid_from":null,"valid_until":null}}},"article":null},"sort":["Translating the Personal Aspect of Late Platonism in the Commentary Tradition"]}

Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia, 2005
By: Watts, Edward Jay
Title Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia
Type Article
Language English
Date 2005
Journal Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
Volume 45
Issue 3
Pages 285-315
Categories no categories
Author(s) Watts, Edward Jay
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
The closing of the Neoplatonic school in Athens by Justinian in 532 was not the end of classical philosophy, for when they returned to the Empire from Persia two years later the philosophers did not need to reconstitute the school at Harran or at any particular city in order to continue their philosophical activities. [author's abstract]

{"_index":"sire","_id":"441","_score":null,"_source":{"id":441,"authors_free":[{"id":593,"entry_id":441,"agent_type":null,"is_normalised":null,"person_id":357,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","free_first_name":"Edward Jay","free_last_name":"Watts","norm_person":{"id":357,"first_name":"Edward Jay","last_name":"Watts","full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/131826530","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null}}],"entry_title":"Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia","main_title":{"title":"Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia"},"abstract":"The closing of the Neoplatonic school in Athens by Justinian in 532 was not the end of classical philosophy, for when they returned to the Empire from Persia two years later the philosophers did not need to reconstitute the school at Harran or at any particular city in order to continue their philosophical activities. [author's abstract]","btype":3,"date":"2005","language":"English","online_url":"","online_resources":"https:\/\/uni-koeln.sciebo.de\/s\/EoZ3BSOdBPuEnet","doi_url":null,"categories":[],"authors":[{"id":357,"full_name":"Watts, Edward Jay","role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"}}],"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":441,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies","volume":"45","issue":"3","pages":"285-315"}},"sort":["Where to Live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia"]}

  • PAGE 1 OF 1