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18-19 April 2005.  "Discovery of the School of
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Alexandria by Polish  Archaeologists, 2004". Conference at the
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Institute of Classical  Studies, London, UK.  The school of
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Alexandria in the fifth to sixth  centuries AD was the centre of
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rhetorical and philosophical training  for the Mediterranean world. The
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great philosopher Ammonius was there  with all the best philosophers of
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the late fifth and the sixth  centuries, most of whom were his pupils….
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There are two accounts of  life in the Alexandrian school by one of
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Ammonius' Christian pupils,  Zacharias. One account, called Ammonius,
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purports to describe a  philosophical discussion of the Christian view of
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the Creation in  Ammonius' classroom, with Ammonius being refuted by his
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Christian  pupils. Another, the Life of Severus, surviving in Syriac with
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French  translation, tells of the riots which arose in the school run by
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the  pagan Horapollo, when another pagan philosopher, Asclepiodotus, came
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to  consult Egyptian priests on how to cure his childlessness. From these
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two accounts we get a picture of academic life in Alexandria….  Now
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in  2004 a Polish archaeology team claims to have discovered 15 identical
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lecture rooms such as Zacharias describes, with a larger hall near the
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colonnades. Each of the 15 lecture rooms has seats for 30 students in a
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horeshoe, with the professor's seat out at the end of the horseshoe. We
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plan to learn about and assess this potentially very important
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discovery, hearing from the Director of the Polish dig, Professor
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Majchereki, and from a scholar of Alexandrian architecture, Judith
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Mckenzie, and a scholar of ancient schools, Rafaella Cribiore.
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Professor Roger Bagnall has offered generous support to the conference.
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The following day will be devoted to schools in the ancient world
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generally, discussing how different disciplines were organised in
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different places.  Booking details will be available in January.
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Please  contact Dr Kim Ayodeji at the Institute (kim.ayodeji@sas.ac.uk).
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“This is the oldest university ever found in the world,” Grzegorz Majcherek, who directed the dig under the auspices of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the Associated Press. “This is the first material evidence of the existence of academic life in Alexandria.”