[174] Procopius, Anecd., 26. Olympiodorus (op. cit.), writing probably just before the closure of the schools, notices that these confiscations had been going on for some time. It seems that Justinian began systematically to seize on the property of all teachers he disapproved of.
[175] Zonaras, xiv, 6.
[176] The Pragmatic Sanction addressed to Pope Vigilius (554) indicates the restoration; sect. 22. It would seem that state aid must have been in abeyance for twenty years or more, as the evidence of Procopius extends to 550.
[177] Republic, vi, etc.
[178] The commentaries of Simplicius on Aristotle, besides being of considerable bulk, are the most valuable of that class of writings which have come down to us. They have been repeatedly published since 1499.
[179] The narrative of this migration to Persia is due to Agathias (ii, 28, et seq.), who does not, however, mention that they were driven out by legislation, but represents them merely as dissatisfied with the religion of the Empire. He speaks of them with the greatest respect; they were the "fine flower" of the philosophy of his age.
[180] Agathias, loc. cit. Quicherat (ad calc. Dübner's Plotinus, Paris, 1855) endeavours to refute Agathias in respect of his low estimate of the intellectual attainments of Chosroes. In the first place he relies on a Syrian MS. discovered by Renan in the British Museum, which is an epitome of Aristotle's Logic, purporting to have been made by Paul the Persian, a Nestorian priest, for the use of Chosroes. This neutralizes the objection of A. that the niceties of Greek philosophy could not be rendered in the rude Pahlavi, it being known that the Shahinshah was obliged to have recourse to translations. Syriac, however, is a language of considerable literary refinement. Further he publishes a MS.—not long unearthed at St. Germains—a Latin version by Scotus Erigena(?) of the solutions given by Priscian, one of the seven, to certain "doubts" entertained by Chosroes. The work is incomplete, but nine of the questions which puzzled the monarch are dealt with, viz. the soul, sleep, dreams; the routine of the seasons; why doctors differ; the tides; rain and lightning; variation of animal and plants after removal to a different climate; and the venom of serpents. Indisputably Chosroes was a very able ruler, and it is clear that he evinced great curiosity in every department of knowledge, but that he could have studied with the assiduity necessary for the attainment of erudition is a scarcely tenable supposition; and the episode of Uranius falls in very aptly with what we should predicate as likely to be the outcome of his desultory inquisitiveness.
[181] Damascius profited by his Persian experiences to give an account of Babylonian dualism in one of his treatises. This work has received considerable attention of late. See books by Ruelle, Paris, 1889, and Chaignet, Paris, 1898.
[182] See Bigg's Neoplatonism, Lond., 1892, for a tabulated synopsis. There were also earthly triads, which included the sacraments and the various orders of priests, etc.
[183] Simon and Zeller stop short at the fall of the school of Athens, but Vacherot has devoted a third volume to tracing out the diffusion of Neoplatonic ideas in Western thought throughout the Middle Ages until recent times. Mystics such as Jacob Boehme, Molinos, Madame Guyon, etc. (Quietists), are connected with this stage of the fantasy.