Plato's Last Night

The interest of historians and scholars has recently been piqued by an ancient text that reveals details about Plato's burial and the last night of his life.

Italian researchers claim, according to CNN , that the text deciphered from the ancient papyri may finally reveal the location where the Greek philosopher was buried.

According to the latest discovery, made by Professor of Papyrology at the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics of the University of Pisa, Graziano Ranocchia, Plato was buried in a secret garden near the temple of the Muses inside Plato's academy in Athens.

Until now, it was only known that the philosopher was buried at the academy, without specifying the exact location, the professor told CNN.

Plato's Academy was destroyed in 86 BC by the Roman general Sulla.

It is noted that the Herculaneum papyri, which were burned after being buried under layers of volcanic ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, continue to be examined by experts through artificial intelligence and other technologies.

The ancient text also gives more details about Plato's last night and that the music played was not to his liking.

Just a week ago experts reported, at a presentation in Naples, that the notes played by a Thracian slave were pleasant to listen to Plato.

However, it is now revealed that shortly before he died, the philosopher felt that he had no sense of rhythm with the music of the flute, something he attributed, according to the Italian professor, to a visitor from Mesopotamia.

"He had a high fever and was disturbed by the music they were playing," said Ranocchia in particular.

The text also reveals that Plato was sold as a slave on the island of Aegina, possibly as early as 404 BC when the Spartans conquered the island, or else in 399 BC, shortly after Socrates' death.

"Until today it was believed that Plato was sold into slavery in 387 BC. during his stay in Sicily at the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse," said the professor. "For the first time, we were able to read sequences of letters hidden by papyrus that were wrapped in multiple layers and glued together over the centuries, through a process of unraveling using a mechanical technique," he added.

The controversial ancient text about Plato is part of about 1,800 burnt papyri discovered in the 18th century in a building believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, who lived in Herculaneum, a coastal town about 20 kilometers from Pompeii.

Experts are using artificial intelligence, a special imaging technique and hyperspectral imaging to read the text from the nearly destroyed papyri.