Lecturing in Athens. Investigation on the ‘Topography’ of the Second Sophistic : An Overview

In the period known as Second Sophistic, Athens was teeming with rhetoricians, philosophers, and students coming from abroad. Lessons, lectures and declamationes occurred very frequently in the city; they were held in public buildings, but also within houses, for a more limited audience. Moreover, in AD 176 Marcus Aurelius established in Athens official thronoi of rhetoric and philosophy, with professors being chosen by the emperor himself. Where exactly did all of this take place? The question is still open, since we ignore the exact locations of intellectuals’ performances in Athens. Only in general terms, in fact, Neo-Sophists and intellectuals are supposed delivering their talks in the theatres and odeia of the city. On the basis of literary and epigraphic data, I discuss both the new buildings realized for the purpose, and the buildings previously existing, in order to show how they changed in accordance with the needs of new cultural performances. The paper offers an overview on the ‘cultural topography’ of Athens in the period 1st – 5th c. AD, showing that the venues for intellectual activities were more numerous than previously held, as they included other premises beside theatres and odeia. In this way, this paper may contribute to a better understanding of the intellectual scene of imperial Athens.