Closing of Plato's Academy

In 529 AD, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I issued a decree that banned pagans from teaching, which led to the closure of the philosophical schools of Athens, including the school that followed the tradition of Plato's Academy. Plato had founded the original Academy around 387 BC, and although that institution had ended long before, a Neoplatonist school in Athens kept its teachings alive and saw itself as its heir. By the 6th century, Athens was one of the last strongholds of pagan learning in the Christian empire. After the decree, the last head of the school, Damascius, and several other philosophers left Athens and traveled to Persia, hoping to find a welcome at the court of King Khosrow I. Disappointed, they returned a few years later under a treaty that guaranteed their safety. Historians still debate how sudden or complete the closure was, and some teaching may have continued privately. Even so, 529 AD is often seen as a symbolic end to the classical world and the triumph of Christianity over ancient pagan philosophy.