BMCR 2009.02.34, Edward J. Watts, City and School in Late Antique

Edward J. Watts, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria
(First paperback printing, originally published 2006). The
Transformation of the Classical Heritage; 41.  Berkeley/London:
University of California Press, 2008.  Pp. xii, 288.  ISBN
9780520258167.  $27.50 (pb).

Reviewed by Jerker Blomqvist, Lund University
([email protected])
Word count:  1932 words
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Table of Contents
(http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0641/2005005830-t.html)

The volume under review is the paperback edition of a book that
appeared in hardcover in 2006. It is an enlarged and considerably
reworked Yale University Ph.D. thesis of 2002. No changes have been
made between the 2006 and 2008 editions.

The main theme of the book is the relationship between teachers of
rhetoric and, in particular, philosophy with the political and
religious powers of the surrounding late antique society. Watts has
chosen to compare the situations developing in two centers of learning
of the period, viz. Athens and Alexandria. The choice of these two
cities for closer investigation is a natural one, given that, beside
the emerging rival Constantinople, they were the most important
providers of advanced teaching in the period under scrutiny. But a
comparison between precisely these two localities proves to be
particularly rewarding, since the conditions for philosophical
activities in them developed in different ways in the final stage of
antiquity. In Athens, philosophy was in conflict with the Christian
ambiance and could, after AD 529, lead only a highly precarious
existence, whereas in Alexandria, although conflict was not unheard of,
the coexistence of philosophy with the new religion was more peaceful;
the Alexandrian philosophical school (or schools) flourished for more
than a century after the fateful year of 529 and came to an end only
after the Arab invasion of Egypt in the 640s. Broadly speaking, the
purpose of Watts' study is to define the differences between Athens and
Alexandria in this context and to establish the causes of those
divergences. But Watts offers much more: the book becomes a detailed
study of nearly all aspects of higher education in the two cities in
the relevant centuries and will have a lasting importance as an
authoritative reference book for anyone interested in late antique
cultural life.

The book consists of nine chapters, plus a short conclusion. The first
chapter discusses the general conditions for advanced studies and
academic life in the Greek-speaking parts of the Roman Empire. The
pages of the eight following chapters are equally divided between the
two cities under discussion, ch. 2-5 being devoted to Athens and 6-9 to
Alexandria. The bibliography (pp. 263-279) is rich, although it
includes only such scholarly publications as are explicitly cited in
the footnotes; the numerous editions of ancient texts from which Watts
must have excerpted most of his data are not listed there. A usable
index (pp. 281-288) concludes the work.

In Athenian history the Herulian invasion of AD 267-268 is generally
thought to mark the city's transition from relative prosperity to
economic, artistic and political decline. According to Watts, the
destruction caused by the invaders also affected the intellectual
activities in the city, but not in an entirely unfavorable way. He
assumes that not only the urbanized area suffered destruction, as
clearly indicated by the archaeological excavations in central Athens,
but also the countryside was subject to widespread devastation with
disastrous consequences for its productivity. Watts concludes that this
also had an impact on the demographic structure of the city's elite.
Before the 260s, the leading families of Athens based their position on
landed property in Attica and on commerce with the agrarian products.
When the countryside was ravaged, the landowning families lost much of
their income and, consequently, their influence on the affairs of the
city. Instead, another group of people gained in importance; they were,
according to Watts, the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy. Those
people were the owners of the spacious urban villas that were built in
Athens in the latter half of the fourth century and the remains of
which bear witness to a new prosperity of the city. It is evident from
contemporary sources, such as Eunapius' biographies of philosophers and
sophists, that the professors were in many cases well-to-do immigrants
from the east, who presumably could see their wealth increased from
fees paid by a steady influx of students.

It could be argued that the image painted by Watts of an Athenian
economy largely dependent on the rhetorical and philosophical schools
is not quite without problems. Literary sources for the third-century
history of the Roman Empire are scanty and provide only fragmentary
information on the effects of the barbarian invasions. The
fourth-century texts are more numerous, but those regarding Athens are
written either by teachers (Eunapius, Himerius) or by their students
(Libanius, Gregory Nazianzen). They give us lively descriptions of
student life, sometimes riotous, and of the professors' affairs,
including their rivalries, but little is said about Athenian life in
general. The only contemporary source mentioning the economic situation
is a passage in ch. 52 of the anonymous Expositio totius mundi et
gentium (quoted by Watts p. 24), where the whole province of Achaea is
described as small, mountainous and unable to support itself; Athens is
contrasted with the commercial center of Corinth and depicted as
possessing learning and ancient traditions but little else. The
situation described in the Expositio has been thought to be an effect
of the Herulian invasion by Day, whom Watts follows.[[1]]
Archaeological surveys of the Attic countryside--scanty as they
are--partly point in a different direction: The decline of agricultural
productivity set in already in the Hellenistic period and continued
into the first centuries AD, whereas a slight revival is indicated by
remains of the fourth and fifth centuries.[[2]]

However, the fourth century was a period of lively intellectual
activity in Athens; so much is clear from the literary sources. Athens
could perhaps also be described as "an otherwise stagnant city" (p.
128), for the food supply still seems to have been problematic in c.
345, when the emperor Constans, on the behest of Prohaeresius,
designated a number of islands as grain suppliers of Athens. The
century was also a relatively peaceful period, for we hear only little
about such conflicts with the Christian religion that would eventually
bring about the closing of the Platonist school of Athens. The case of
Prohaeresius, as Watts points out, is illustrative. He was a Christian
but had studied under pagan professors and had among his own students
in Athens both pagans and Christians. As a consequence of his professed
faith he was supported by Constans but had a problematic relationship
to Julian. Although the latter exempted Prohaeresius from his ban on
Christian professors, the matter of religion was, according to Watts,
now introduced on the intellectual scene of Athens. In the next
century, when Neo-Platonist philosophy became dominant there, the
school of Athens obstinately defended pagan traditions and continued
its role as "a haven for unrepentantly religious pagan philosophers and
rhetoricians" (p. 259). Religious rites became a regular ingredient in
the school's activities, and the theurgical practices of leading
Athenian Platonists as Proclus, Hegias and Damascius eventually became
too overt a challenge to the powers of the Christian empire. After
carefully analyzing the text of John Malalas, which is our principal
source, Watts concludes that the legislation of 529 was directed
against certain specific religious practices, e.g. divination, going on
not only in the Athenian school. Thus, Watts rejects certain earlier
interpretations of the event, e.g. that Justinian's law was meant as an
attack on philosophy in general or at least on its Athenian variety, or
that the closing of the Athenian school was an attempt to favor the
capital's educational institutions by transferring some of the Athenian
intellectual funds to the imperial metropolis. It becomes clear that it
was the local situation in Athens and the reaction of the regional
authorities to the imperial directive that triggered the intervention
against the school.

In contrast to Athens, Alexandria was a big city, and Watts makes the
point that the learned institutions with their professors and students
can never have been as dominant in the city life as in Athens. The
learned institutions established by the Ptolemaic kings still
functioned in the Roman period, although under altered conditions.
Watts gives a full treatment of the evidence for those changes in the
source texts. In Alexandria also a more diversified program of
education was available than in Athens, for since Hellenistic times the
exact sciences, in particular mathematics and astronomy, had a haven
there, and also medical training was offered. These scientific
disciplines were more neutral in religious and ideological matters than
the teachings of the purely philosophical schools, so the environment
may seem to have favored a peaceful coexistence between Christian and
pagan intelligentsia. However, the population of Alexandria was a mixed
one, the mobs were unruly, and the city had long been notorious for the
riots that disturbed its peace from time to time, as evidenced by Dio
Chrysostom's Alexandrian speech (cited by Watts p. 143). The
Christianization brought new actors into this play: orthodox believers
versus adherents of what were deemed to be heresies, congregations of
monks who could be persuaded to fight for the right cause, whatever it
was.

Christianity established itself at an early stage in Alexandria--in
contrast to Athens. It is evident that the earliest known leaders of
the catechetical school (Pantaenus, Clement, Origen) had taken
advantage of the teaching offered by the pagan philosophers and
scientists. Christians of the upper classes were regularly attending
the philosophy classes in the third and fourth centuries, but in the
decades around AD 400 there came to a crisis. The most spectacular
events were the destruction of the Serapeum in 391 and the lynching of
the philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob in 415. Hypatia had
represented the scientific and religiously more neutral orientation
among the pagan teachers. She was more acceptable to Christians--as
e.g. to her devotee Synesius of Cyrene, the future bishop of
Ptolemais--than the orthodox Neo-Platonists, who had established
themselves in Alexandria too. With Hypatia gone, the Christians had few
uncontroversial options when seeking traditional learning, and the
Neo-Platonists found it wise to leave Alexandria for Athens. When they
returned in the latter half of the century, they brought with them the
Iamblichean variety of Neo-Platonism, with its focus on religious
belief and ritualistic practices; the scene was set for new conflicts
with the Christian establishment of Alexandria. Conflicts did occur,
but what eventually came out of it in the 490's was a concordat between
the orthodox patriarch Peter Mongus and the leader of the philosophical
school (probably Ammonius, Hermeias' son). The precise stipulations of
that agreement cannot be ascertained, Watts points out, but the
important consequence of it was that Christian students could acquire
philosophical schooling of the highest level, with time establish
themselves as first-rank philosophers, and efficiently defend both the
importance of philosophical schooling against their Christians
detractors and their Christian interpretation of Platonism against
pagan adversaries. John Philoponus is the best example of those
Christian Platonists of the sixth century, and Watts, in the concluding
chapter on Alexandria, portrays his person with due detail.

This is an important book. The above summary has given only a
fragmentary picture of its rich contents. What impresses the reviewer
most is Watts' seemingly complete mastering of the rich and variegated
literary sources of the history he tells: not only does he find
significant details in all sorts of texts, he also succeeds in
integrating the information gathered from the sources to form a
coherent and believable representation of the historical totality. On
some individual points a reviewer may feel inclined to hesitate but,
considering the evidence brought forward and Watts' analyses of it, it
is hard to disagree with his universal conclusion: "Pagan philosophy in
late antiquity lived and died based upon the abilities of its teachers
to adapt to the religious climate of the city around them" (p. 259).


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Notes:


1.   John Day, An Economic History of Athens under Roman Domination.
New York: Columbia University Press 1942, pp. 252-270.

2.   Garth Fowden, 'City and Mountain in Late Roman Attica', The
Journal of Hellenic Studies, 108,1988, pp. 48-59; Hans Lohmann,
'Agriculture and Country Life in Classical Athens', in: Agriculture in
Ancient Greece. Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium at
the Swedish Institute at Athens, 16-17 May, 1990. Ed. by Berit Wells.
Stockholm, 1992 (Acta Instituti Atheniensis Regni Sueciae Ser. in 4*
42), pp. 29-57.