ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the idea of a 'philosophical opposition' as a frame for relating philosophia to the wider world of the Roman Empire, and for identifying its distinctive position. Signs of assimilation, of a desire to welcome philosophia as a distinguished constituent of high culture, are not hard to come by. Philosophical writing, including much by minor voices and a good deal of technical matter as well as the central classics of literary philosophia, was widely available and evidently in steady demand. For the cultured, both Greeks and Romans, philosophia was evidently something it was good to know about, and show respect for. The claim of philosophia to be both radically different and essential was tough enough on its own. In inserting itself into the educational system, philosophia did not do so in a quiet and modest way. On the contrary, it tried to muscle its way to the front.