Only 1,000 words have been enough to reveal one of the last great secrets around the figure of Plato: his burial place. The reading, thanks to new technologies, of the famous Herculaneum papyri has made it possible to know the exact place where the Athenian philosopher, a disciple of Socrates, was buried. Until now, it was only known that he had been buried in the Academy, but thanks to these writings it has been known that his tomb was in a garden reserved for him in the Platonic school, near the so-called Museion or sacellum, consecrated to the muses. .
All of this is in the Herculaneum papyri, a series of writings that were charred during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. which also devastated this city near Pompeii. Almost 2,000 years later, papyrologists from the “Greek Schools” project, carried out with the Italian National Research Council (CNR) at the National Library of Naples, have managed to decipher a part of these texts practically destroyed by the volcano.
The burned papyrus is justly preserved in the National Library of Naples and is of great importance, since it contains the History of the Academy of Philodemus of Gadara, which contains much unique information about Plato and the development of the academy under his successors. For example, he points out that the philosopher could have been sold as a slave on the island of Aegina perhaps as early as 404 BC, when the Spartans conquered this Saronic island, or, if not, in 399 BC. C., immediately after the death of Socrates. Until now, what was believed was that Plato was sold into slavery much later, in the year 387 BC, when he was at the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse, during his stay in Sicily.
“In this way we know more detailed circumstances about Plato’s life and death,” explained Graziano Rannochia, papyrologist at the University of Pisa, who presented the project this Tuesday. For example, Rannochia alludes to the philosopher’s “mental clarity” during the episode of his last night and the visit to the Chaldean, which has been revised thanks to the papyrus story. Now Plato’s comment is clear, who, despite suffering from fever, criticized the poor musical quality of a barbarian flutist originally from Thrace.
Herculaneum, although much less known than Pompeii, also suffered the same wrath of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Located between Naples and the volcano, it is also considered a World Heritage Site and has been trying for many years to escape the shadow of Pompeii, which was a larger locality and much easier to excavate. If lava stones fell in Pompeii, Herculaneum was devastated by a volcanic material formed by waves of gas with balls of mud and magma that solidified, becoming almost cement.
Here archaeologists have only been able to discover a third part (four hectares) of what was once a beautiful maritime town, used by many powerful Romans as a summer residence. The rest is still hidden under the hustle and bustle of the urban area, and is impossible to excavate. Among the treasures that have come to light is the Villa dei Papiri, a lavish patrician residence, famous for the sculptures that are today in the Archaeological Museum of Naples. And above all for a unique collection in the world of more than 1,800 papyri, among which this one that has just revealed the burial place of Plato.
