ABSTRACT
Ninth-century classicism is a short-lived cultural movement centred around the enigmatic figure of Leo the Philosopher, which lost its impetus after the death of this scholar (c 870) and dwindled thereafter. We do not know much about Leo the Philosopher, but the little we do know is proof enough that he was a scholar of true genius versed in almost every branch of science and the liberal arts. The story goes that his universal erudition was being sought after even by the Arab caliph; on hearing that Leo had been offered an opportunity to teach in Baghdad, the emperor Theophilos wisely decided that the Byzantine empire could not afford to give away its intellectual potential to the enemy and subsequently appointed Leo to a high position. This is almost certainly an apocryphal story, but it indicates that Leo's talents must have been extraordinary. Leo was archbishop of Thessalonike in the last years of the iconoclastic controversy, from 840 to 843. Some years later he was appointed head of the imperial institution of higher education at the Magnaura palace founded by Bardas Caesar. At the Magnaura school Leo lectured on philosophy and he is known to have studied and annotated philosophical texts, mainly Plato and the neoplatonic corpus. He also wrote on mathematics, geometry, astronomy and natural sciences.1
