The Herculaneum papyri have revealed
the location of Plato's burial place in the Platonic Academy in
Athens, an Italian researcher said on Tuesday.
The Herculaneum papyri are more than 1,800 papyrus scrolls
discovered in the 18th century in the Villa of the Papyri in the
ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which were carbonized when
the villa was hit by the 79 AD Mount Vesuvius eruption that also
destroyed Pompeii.
Reading the scrolls is extremely difficult and carries risks of
destroying them.
The location of Plato's burial place was contained in thousands
of new words and differently read words in papyrus on the
history of the Academy by Philodemus of Gadara, an Epicurean
philosopher and poet who lived in Herculaneum, said University
of Pisa expert Graziano Ranocchia.
The scholar made the announcement at the Naples Biblioteca
Nazionale (National Library) as he presented the mid-term
results of the 'Greek Schools' research project conducted with
the National Research Council.
Ranocchia said the texts suggested the burial place was in a
garden reserved for Plato in a private area in the Academy, near
the sacred shrine to the Muses.
The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla
in 86 BC.
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