The exact place of Plato’s burial in the Academy in Athens emerges from the Herculaneum papyri: it was located in the garden reserved for him (a private area intended for the Platonic school) near the so-called Museion or sacellum sacred to the Muses. This was revealed by papyrologist Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa, presenting the medium-term results of the ‘GreekSchools’ research project conducted with the National Research Council at the National Library of Naples.
The discovery is contained in a thousand new or differently read words of the papyrus containing the History of the Academy of Philodemus of Gadara.
The increase in the text (equal to 30% more than the previous 1991 edition) corresponds approximately to the discovery of 10 new medium-sized papyrus fragments.
The text reveals that Plato was sold into slavery on the island of Aegina as early as perhaps 404 BC, when the Spartans conquered the island or, alternatively in 399 BC, immediately after the death of Socrates. Until now it had been believed that Plato had been sold into slavery in 387 BC during his stay in Sicily at the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse.
The lyrics also talk about his last night, but not only that.
Several new readings provide new insight into the circumstances of the corruption of the Delphic oracle by the academic philosopher Heraclides Ponticus. The name of Philo of Larissa is also corrected to ‘Philion’ (student of the grammarian Apollodorus of Athens for two years and of the stoic Mnesarchus for seven years), who died at the age of 63 in Italy during an influenza pandemic.
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