Finding Plato's Final Resting Place
Some exciting news from the world of ancient history: a researcher has discovered the final resting place of the 4th century BCE Greek philosopher Plato. Well, sort of.
Inevitably, news headlines are over-exaggerating what has actually been found. But the truth it is no less exciting!
Prof. Graziano Ranocchia of the Università di Pisa is the lead researcher for a project called Greek Schools: The Greek philosophical schools according to Europe's earliest 'history of philosophy'. It should be said, as people are confusing the projects, that this was funded by the European Research Council and is not part of the recent private cash prize: the Vesuvius Challenge.
Ranocchia’s team is using a variety of different scanning methods to be able to read charred papyri discovered at the site of Herculaneum, the partner site to Pompeii that likewise was devastated by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Their particular focus is the historical writings of Philodemus of Gadara (1st century BCE), a resident of Herculanem, whose work is thus far the oldest history of Greek philosophers that we have, but it is in such a poor that it could not be properly read.
While we await publication of the text, or passage of text in question, the excitement of what the team have recently uncovered was too much for them to keep to themselves. Emerging from the newy revealed words of Philodemus’s History of the Academy is possibly new information about the life of its founder, Plato.
New evidence about his life
In his recent interviews Prof. Ranocchia highlighted two particularly striking elements of what has been found in Philodemus’ text. The first is that it says that Plato had been enslaved as a young man, either whilst living on the island of Aegina in 404 BCE or in Athens immediately after the death of his teacher Socrates in 399 BCE. Scholars already knew that Plato was enslaved at one point in his life, but all previous evidence suggested it was as an older man during his time in Sicily (ca. 387 BCE).
Another highlight is that Philodemus gives us an account of Plato’s death - or at least his final few hours. He was unwell and running a fever, so it was arranged for a musician to play “sweet notes” of a flute to create a nice peaceful ambiance, but Plato was clearly not in the mood and grumpily complained of the fluteplayer’s “scant sense of rhythm”. He was a critic to the very end!
Now, no single discovery ever rewrites the history of an ancient individual. But it adds more context and potentially new perspectives. For instance, the story of his early enslavement is new, but comes with issues. If it was in 404 BCE when the Spartans took control of Aegina, then Plato would likely not have seen much of what happened in Athens between then and the death of Socrates 5 years later, which raises problems about how he has been used as a historical source - indeed it could bring into question whether he spent much time with Socrates at all. The date of 399 BCE is more preferable, but again not without its issues. Namely, we don’t know why he, an adult, aristocratic, Athenian citizen in his 20s, was sold into slavery at a time when Athens was no longer under the control of the Spartans. This is is highly unlikely - not impossible, but unlikely. It certainly needs more context.
Our main source until now for the life of Plato - excluding his own works - has been the work of biographer Diogenes Laertius (3rd century CE), whose biography of Plato actually references Philodemus’ work as a source of information. In it he describes Plato being enslaved in Sicily and given to the Spartans, to be sold in a market on the island of Aegina. So we have the same elements of the story: Plato being sold, the Spartans being involved, and Aegina as a location. Perhaps there is a confusion in our modern reading of the text, or maybe Diogenes used other sources he deemed more reliable on this aspect of the story. We will have to wait for the full text from Philodemus to be released to really understand any more.
New evidence about his burial
The part of the annoucement that has attracted the most attention is the location of Plato’s burial.
We have always known that Plato was buried in the grounds of his Academy. Diogenes Laertius explicitly tells us this in his biography. What the new text from Philodemus gives us is a little bit more detail about where in the Academy his grave might be.
He is apparently buried in a small garden, in a private area of the Academy, near to the shrine of the Muses. A shrine that we know Plato had erected, so perhaps it was a particularly special place to him. But before anyone wonders why we don’t just go there and dig it up (ignoring for a moment the issue of whether this is an ethical thing to do!) - we haven’t actually found the shrine to the Muses. In fact, the remains of Plato’s original Academy is sparse on the ground, due in no small part to the actions of the Roman commander Sulla who destroyed it in 86 BCE. And even if we do locate the shrine in the future, the vague description of it being nearby is not exactly a clear X on a map, so it will take time.
The discovery of his burial, if it ever occurs, will no doubt make a lot of headlines around the world. But such a discovery will not tell us much more about life in ancient Greece than the many others already excavated. Nor will it necessarily reveal much that is new about Plato. Much like the newly read work of Philodemus, a single find or discovery rarely rewrites the history books anymore. They become just another piece in an ever growing and ever more complex tapestry depicting the ancient world.
It is still exciting though!