‘What do you think? Does it look familiar to you?’
‘I’ve seen this pattern before. Of course. It’s related to Plato. Socrates was Plato’s greatest teacher. The pupil immortalised the teacher’s words. It’s a dialogue. It’s a Socratic dialogue. It’s the Socratic or dialectic method, as it is otherwise known. It seems unfinished, though I recognise the dialogue from Plato’s writings and I remember it differently.’
‘So maybe it’s for us to complete the dialogue using the principles of the Socratic method. Let’s see what’s missing.’
Giorgos had an inspiration. ‘It’s interesting. Seeing the flow of the argument it seems that it starts as one of Plato’s Socratic dialogues in the “Republic”, but it later changes protagonists by dropping the original ones in favour of Plato and Aristotle who join in to battle it out with Socrates. This dialogue would be out of place in the “Republic” as it seems to deal with more than one subject. I can actually count seven subjects, some of Plato’s originals and some new ones.’
Giorgos paused and Aristo who was deep in thought picked up the thread of the analysis of the inscription.
‘It seems here that Plato and Aristotle find common ground between them and with Socrates too. If I remember correctly, Socrates was the first of the Greeks who, in an unorthodox deviation from the strictly pagan environment of the time, was proclaiming the revolutionary, for the Greeks, idea of the one God. Giorgos, where did you say that Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s school, the Lyceum, used to be?’
‘I didn’t, but since you ask, they were not far from here. Both schools co-existed peacefully for quite some time. Plato’s Academy lasted, in one form or another and with periods during which it was closed, between 387 B.C. and 529 A.D. when its latest iteration was closed down by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, because he wanted to stop the teaching of anything Hellenistic and non-Christian.’
Aristo was intrigued. ‘The Justinian of Ayia Sophia fame?’
‘The very same.’
‘Yes, but, Giorgos, it’s odd though that such an enlightened Emperor would do that. Yet it was still a time of Christian fanaticism. It all started with Emperor Theodosius about a hundred and fifty years earlier, when he started the persecution of pagans and the destruction of their temples, libraries, and not only what offended, but anything that differed, anything that was not related to Christianity. He was the one who replaced one perceived sacrilege with another, as is the way of the victor. Theodosius the Great. The Christian Fanatic. And he was also the one who prohibited the staging of the Olympic Games, as it was considered a pagan festival.’
Aristo finished and looked at Giorgos. When nothing came from Giorgos he was baffled. He was about to say something about Giorgos being distracted and not having listened to what he was saying when he saw Giorgos’ face lit up. He knew Giorgos had a brainwave and he waited for him to speak.
Giorgos was trying to grasp something in what Aristo just said. He knew it was important that he remembered. He thought hard and then he got it. ‘Wait a minute. Did you just say libraries? Would that have included the Great Library of Alexandria?’
‘Yes, that is the most widely-held view. Contrary to popular belief and what’s depicted in films, the library was not destroyed by accident in 48 B.C. when under Julius Caesar’s orders the Romans set the Egyptian fleet in the harbour on fire with the proximity of the ships to the city being responsible for the burning down of the Great Library.’
It was then that Aristo saw them; three ghosts, the three philosophers themselves, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They were having a very intense discussion and they seemed to be oblivious to Aristo and Giorgos. Unbeknownst to the three philosophers, or so he thought, Aristo stood there and listened. He was surprised that he could follow their arguments.
The three philosophers suddenly paused and turned to look at Aristo. They smiled and then quickly returned to their discussion as if nothing had happened. Aristo wondered whether the three wise men had been checking on his and Giorgos’ progress.
As quickly as they appeared they were gone, the discussion remaining unfinished, with Aristo trying desperately to pull together the strands of the argument and fill in the gaps in the dialogue on the tomb. Listening in on the three philosophers helped to steer his reasoning in the right direction, or so he hoped.
Aristo turned to look at the tombs and then back at Giorgos. ‘I think I know where the dialogue is heading. The dialectic discussion seems to be reconciling Christianity with secularism in a symbiotic co-existing relationship, feeding from each other and adjusting to each other, removing the contradictions and inconsistencies, and resolving the conflicts and fatal flaws in each other. So this could not have been written by Plato at all, even if we had briefly hoped to have found one of his lost works.’
Giorgos wondered how Aristo came up with this inspiration. But before he could think more about that, his brain took him on another direction. He was staring at the tomb when he suddenly got excited and was insistently indicating at the inscription on the tomb.
‘Wait a minute. Look at the corner here. It’s so small you can almost miss it. It’s Arabic isn’t it?’
Aristo leaned closer and took some time to study the writing that Giorgos had indicated. He straightened up and looked at Giorgos.
‘It looks like it. It’s only a short paragraph, but it seems to be talking about Plato’s ideas and Islam. Now the only philosopher I know who attempted to write about that was Ibn Rushd, real full name Abu I-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd, more commonly known as Averroes. I recognise his style of writing here. He basically singlehandedly rehabilitated Plato after Aristotle’s dominance for centuries as “The Phiosopher”. He also had a profound influence on the use of the metaphysics part of Aristotle’s principles, like teleology and what developed as Aristotelianism, on Christianity, both Eastern Orthodox theology and the Catholic dogma of the Vatican.
‘Aristotelianism still influences Christian theology, especially scholastic Catholic theology. Plato’s rehabilitation also stemmed from the Renaissance started by Lorenzo de Medici in Florence. He was the one who brought from Constantinople and the East, manuscripts with Plato’s teachings in Greek, had them translated and used for what came to be called his Renaissance. It is said that many of the manuscripts, both scrolls and parchments, of the libraries of Alexandria — the one at the Serapium temple, the one at the Cesarion temple and possibly the Great Library or Museion, which was most probably the Royal Library — were taken to Constantinople after 330 A.D. to enrich the new city and new capital of the Roman Empire.
‘So this means that it is possible that many of these manuscripts are either still hidden there in Constantinople or in Italy’s libraries, from Venice to the Vatican. Great parts of the collections of those places are seldom seen, have never been seen or at least have not been seen for centuries. Very few people are allowed to see even small parts of those collections. These people are mostly scholars and then they can view such items only after special permission, which is very rarely granted.
‘There is also a possibility that many of these manuscripts were sent to the monasteries of Mount Athos for protection, either before the Ottoman siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. or afterwards, on the exodus of brilliant minds, people, artefacts and knowledge to the West — Venice, the rest of Italy and then the rest of Europe. It is possible that what was destroyed in 48 B.C. was either the Museion or Royal Library or just a number of scrolls destined for the library and stored temporarily at the port after just having being delivered.’
At that moment Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, still engrossed in their discussion, became visible to both Aristo and Giorgos. Giorgos was speechless. He looked at Aristo in wonderment. He was mystified when Aristo seemed to be unfazed by their surprise visitors.