Abstract

One can say, then, that Imperial philosophers look at themselves in the same way that we call “modern,” when they study the “ancients,” from which they depend and from which they come from. In fact, beginning with the first century A.D. the followers of long-standing philosophical traditions start feeling the novelty, and thus the modernity, of the issues that were raised by their own age. Of course, traditions of Hellenistic philosophy such as cynicism, stoicism, skepticism, and empirical medicine continue to flourish during the Imperial Age, while keeping a strong tie with their philosophical heritage. Most remarkable is the great season of Neoplatonism, which notwithstanding its roots lying beyond Hellenistic philosophy, namely in