Viaggi formativi e migrazioni culturali: ‘geo-storia’ delle scuole platoniche nella tarda antichità

A study of the location and migration of schools, philosophers and students in Late Antiquity suggests a new way of reading and understanding Platonism. A philosophical and historical approach to the matter of philosophical migrations clearly shows that by charting schools and teaching activities, it is possible to demonstrate that the founding of schools is linked to Athens and its schools of Platonism, to its moments of crisis and of rebirth. The aim of this paper is to illustrate that, although Athens did indeed experience moments of crisis, it was also and especially at these moments that philosophy began its journey across the Mediterranean. A comparison between the new schools and those of Athens – even though the link between the two is not always explicit – and the political ideas that Plato associates with Athens in his texts are enough to justify the idea of these new schools of philosophy as Platonist schools.