Lux Esoterica (Nifiluz)

The Last Pagan Master of Alexandria In the mid-sixth century of the common era, as the Byzantine Emperor Justinian was consolidating his Christian empire by closing the Platonic Academy of Athens and persecuting pagan philosophers, a small community of scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, managed to survive. At the center of this final philosophical refuge was Olympiodorus the Younger , the last pagan Scholarch of the Alexandrian school of Neoplatonism. Olympiodorus operated in a highly precarious political environment: he had to teach the works of Plato and Aristotle to class of increasingly Christian students without triggering the wrath of the imperial authorities or the local bishop. Olympiodorus's historical significance lies in his role as the preservationist of the ancient school. Unlike his Athenian contemporaries who fled to Persia or went into hiding, Olympiodorus adapted his teaching style, replacing the overt, theurgical rituals of paganism with a more academic, moral, and...