The Formation of Philosophical Identity

Like Julian, many people in the fourth century were constantly on the lookout for "true philosophers,"^[148] but the means used to find them varied with the seeker. At a time when haireseis had declined in importance and coherence and when diadochai or philosophical successions were not yet firmly established, there were no easy institutional markers or credentials that could set off "true" philosophers from pretenders to the title. Broad public recognition was of uncertain value. Ammonius Saccas, for example, who later enjoyed an enormous reputation as a philosopher (gained in part through the accomplishments of his students), was not known to Plotinus as one of the "approved" philosophers (: individuals normally honored with statues and other civic privileges) in Alexandria when Plotinus was searching for a more fulfilling preceptor.

The problem of philosophical identity gradually resolved itself. By the fifth century, the notion of a Platonic diadoche as a holy race had become firmly entrenched in the work of Hierocles, who attempted to harmonize the entire philosophical tradition.^[149] Later, Marinus traced a "Golden Chain" all the way back to Solon.^[150] Even Eunapius tried to create a "true" diadoche of philosophers who could trace their lineage through Iamblichus to Plotinus and beyond to Plato. The crop of philosophers after the reign of Septimius Severus (d. 211) constituted for Eunapius the fourth and most current generation of philosophers.^[151] Establishing this purified genealogy was not an easy task because the philosophers Eunapius wished to include did not always have a fixed abode and thus could not be classified according to locality. Iamblichus taught that, though the philosopher's body dwelled in one city, his dianoia traveled everywhere ().^[152] The geographical specificity of philosophical holiness underscored by Garth Fowden in his admirable study of late Platonists was a later fifth-century development that be-

[148] See Julian, Ep . 1 (Wright, ed., 3:2-3), a letter to Priscus. See also Dio Cassius 52.36.4.

[149] Hierocles, in Photius, Bibliotheca 214 [173a] (Henry, ed., 3:129-30). See Lynch, Aristotle's School , 184-89, and Fowden, "Pagan Holy Man," 33.

[150] Marinus, Vita Procli 26.

[152] See Protrepticus 14 (Des Places, ed., 104).

speaks the desirability of formal signs of recognition and authority derived from association with places that could boast a distinguished philosophical past.^[153]

Before most popular audiences, whoever wore the tribonion , the philosopher's cloak, and carried sakkia crammed with books could lay claim to being a philosopher. Even Christians began to appropriate the name in earnest. But Eunapius took pains to distinguish his philosophers from the common lot by mentioning in passing, for example, that certain people who professed to be philosophers exploited the fame of the philosophical couple Eustathius and Sosipatra by repeatedly quoting their sayings.^[154] Eunapius' decision to censure by silence has effectively denied us knowledge of those whom he considered unworthy to be named philosophers.