City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria

Catholic Historical Review, The, April, 2008 by Edwards, Mark J

City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria. By Edward J. Watts. [The Tranformation of the Classical Heritage, XLL] (Berkeley: University of California Press. 2006. Pp. xii, 288. $55.00.)

This book finds the pagan teacher of philosophy at his acme in Roman Athens and Alexandria, and escorts him to the oblivion of the sixth century. The Athens depicted in chapter 2 is a city that retained little of its past except its schools. As trade declined in the second century, wealth ebbed into the hands of a few proprietors, who sought influence through the patronage of learned institutions. ...