The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Roman Empire

Title picture above: detail of a beautiful frescoe from Pompeii of a young woman holding a stylus and writing-tablet - see below for the full image (Naples Museum, Italy - with thanks to Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0).

The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Roman Empire - an online study-morning with Charles Freeman (specialist on the ancient world and its legacy).

The remarkable story of how Greek-speaking writers and thinkers sustained and developed the intellectual legacy of Classical Greece under the rule of Rome. These include Plutarch the historian, Galen the polymathic physician, Lucian the satirist (author of the fantasy-novel, True History - see below), Ptolemy the Alexandrian geographer and astronomer, and Dioscorides the soldier-botanist. The story extends from the second century BC to the fifth century AD and helped to shape the intellectual landscape of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Below: (c.125 - after 180 AD) was a satirist with an extraordinary lively mind. He is often seen as the founder of science fiction. Here is an illustration of his fantasy of a nautical journey to the moon ("Suddenly a waterspout came upon them" by Ruth Cobb from the Chatterbox Children’s Annual (Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., London 1926) from his book,

About Charles Freeman

Charles Freeman is a specialist on the ancient world and its legacy. He has worked on archaeological digs on the continents surrounding the Mediterranean and develops study tour programs in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. He is Historical Consultant to the Blue Guides series and the author of numerous books, including the bestseller The Closing of the Western Mind; Holy Bones, Holy Dust; The Awakening; and, most recently, The Children of Athena: Greek Writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome, 150BC-AD400; see the full references in the 'Suggestions for Optional Background Reading' section further below.

Some Suggestions for Optional Background Reading

• Peter Brown, The Ransom of the Soul, Afterlife and Wealth in early Western Christianity (Harvard University Press 2015).
• Charles Freeman, The Closing of the Western Mind, The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason (2003, now available in various formats).
• Charles Freeman, AD 381, Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State (2009, now available in various formats).
• Charles Freeman, The Awakening, A History of the Western Mind, AD 500-1700 (Head of Zeus, London 2020 - now available in paperback).

• Charles Freeman, The Children of Athena: Greek Writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome, 150BC-400AD (Bloomsbury 2023 - due out in paperback on 7th November 2024).
• Ryan Holiday, Lives of the Stoics (Profile 2022).
• John Sellars, Lessons in Stoicism (Penguin 2020).
• Robin Waterfield, Plato of Athens: A Life in Philosophy (Oxford University Press 2023).

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Event Venue

Online