Giorgos was sceptical, but kept silent and simply nodded. Aristo put his hand first on Plato’s tomb. Nothing happened and he was about to give up when suddenly strange characters began to appear.
Aristo, look. It’s working.’
‘I will tell you what it says.
‘You don’t need to. It’s in Greek. I can read it perfectly.’
‘What are you talking about? What Greek? Are you having me on?’
‘No, I’m not. Shall I tell you what it says?’
‘Go on then.’ Aristo expected Giorgos to say some invented gibberish and he half-closed his ears to him. And then Giorgos started talking. And Aristo caught words that he had just seen, but which were not in Greek when he saw them. He turned to look at Giorgos.
‘How is this possible?’
‘Some of that power must have rubbed off on me, eh?
‘Undoubtedly. The ability to read and understand the Pallanian language appears to manifest itself in different ways to different people. Anyway, let’s not waste time. Let’s finish it.’
Once the inscription ended Aristo turned to Giorgos.
‘What do you think? Does it look familiar to you?’
‘I’ve seen this pattern before. Of course. It’s related to Plato. Socrates was Plato’s greatest teacher. The pupil immortalised the teacher’s words. It’s a dialogue. It’s a Socratic dialogue. It’s the Socratic or dialectic method, as it is otherwise known. It seems unfinished, though I recognise the dialogue from Plato’s writings and I remember it differently.’
‘So maybe it’s for us to complete the dialogue using the principles of the Socratic method. Let’s see what’s missing.’
Giorgos had an inspiration. ‘It’s interesting. Seeing the flow of the argument it seems that it starts as one of Plato’s Socratic dialogues in the “Republic”, but it later changes protagonists by dropping the original ones in favour of Plato and Aristotle who join in to battle it out with Socrates. This dialogue would be out of place in the “Republic” as it seems to deal with more than one subject. I can actually count seven subjects, some of Plato’s originals and some new ones.’
Giorgos paused and Aristo who was deep in thought picked up the thread of the analysis of the inscription.
‘It seems here that Plato and Aristotle find common ground between them and with Socrates too. If I remember correctly, Socrates was the first of the Greeks who, in an unorthodox deviation from the strictly pagan environment of the time, was proclaiming the revolutionary, for the Greeks, idea of the one God. Giorgos, where did you say that Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s school, the Lyceum, used to be?’
‘I didn’t, but since you ask, they were not far from here. Both schools co-existed peacefully for quite some time. Plato’s Academy lasted, in one form or another and with periods during which it was closed, between 387 B.C. and 529 A.D. when its latest iteration was closed down by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, because he wanted to stop the teaching of anything Hellenistic and non-Christian.’
Aristo was intrigued. ‘The Justinian of Ayia Sophia fame?’
‘The very same.’
‘Yes, but, Giorgos, it’s odd though that such an enlightened Emperor would do that. Yet it was still a time of Christian fanaticism. It all started with Emperor Theodosius about a hundred and fifty years earlier, when he started the persecution of pagans and the destruction of their temples, libraries, and not only what offended, but anything that differed, anything that was not related to Christianity. He was the one who replaced one perceived sacrilege with another, as is the way of the victor. Theodosius the Great. The Christian Fanatic. And he was also the one who prohibited the staging of the Olympic Games, as it was considered a pagan festival.’
Aristo finished and looked at Giorgos. When nothing came from Giorgos he was baffled. He was about to say something about Giorgos being distracted and not having listened to what he was saying when he saw Giorgos’ face lit up. He knew Giorgos had a brainwave and he waited for him to speak.
Giorgos was trying to grasp something in what Aristo just said. He knew it was important that he remembered. He thought hard and then he got it. ‘Wait a minute. Did you just say libraries? Would that have included the Great Library of Alexandria?’
‘Yes, that is the most widely-held view. Contrary to popular belief and what’s depicted in films, the library was not destroyed by accident in 48 B.C. when under Julius Caesar’s orders the Romans set the Egyptian fleet in the harbour on fire with the proximity of the ships to the city being responsible for the burning down of the Great Library.’
It was then that Aristo saw them; three ghosts, the three philosophers themselves, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They were having a very intense discussion and they seemed to be oblivious to Aristo and Giorgos. Unbeknownst to the three philosophers, or so he thought, Aristo stood there and listened. He was surprised that he could follow their arguments.
The three philosophers suddenly paused and turned to look at Aristo. They smiled and then quickly returned to their discussion as if nothing had happened. Aristo wondered whether the three wise men had been checking on his and Giorgos’ progress.
As quickly as they appeared they were gone, the discussion remaining unfinished, with Aristo trying desperately to pull together the strands of the argument and fill in the gaps in the dialogue on the tomb. Listening in on the three philosophers helped to steer his reasoning in the right direction, or so he hoped.
Aristo turned to look at the tombs and then back at Giorgos. ‘I think I know where the dialogue is heading. The dialectic discussion seems to be reconciling Christianity with secularism in a symbiotic co-existing relationship, feeding from each other and adjusting to each other, removing the contradictions and inconsistencies, and resolving the conflicts and fatal flaws in each other. So this could not have been written by Plato at all, even if we had briefly hoped to have found one of his lost works.’
Giorgos wondered how Aristo came up with this inspiration. But before he could think more about that, his brain took him on another direction. He was staring at the tomb when he suddenly got excited and was insistently indicating at the inscription on the tomb.
‘Wait a minute. Look at the corner here. It’s so small you can almost miss it. It’s Arabic isn’t it?’
Aristo leaned closer and took some time to study the writing that Giorgos had indicated. He straightened up and looked at Giorgos.
‘It looks like it. It’s only a short paragraph, but it seems to be talking about Plato’s ideas and Islam. Now the only philosopher I know who attempted to write about that was Ibn Rushd, real full name Abu I-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd, more commonly known as Averroes. I recognise his style of writing here. He basically singlehandedly rehabilitated Plato after Aristotle’s dominance for centuries as “The Phiosopher”. He also had a profound influence on the use of the metaphysics part of Aristotle’s principles, like teleology and what developed as Aristotelianism, on Christianity, both Eastern Orthodox theology and the Catholic dogma of the Vatican.
‘Aristotelianism still influences Christian theology, especially scholastic Catholic theology. Plato’s rehabilitation also stemmed from the Renaissance started by Lorenzo de Medici in Florence. He was the one who brought from Constantinople and the East, manuscripts with Plato’s teachings in Greek, had them translated and used for what came to be called his Renaissance. It is said that many of the manuscripts, both scrolls and parchments, of the libraries of Alexandria - the one at the Serapium temple, the one at the Cesarion temple and possibly the Great Library or Museion, which was most probably the Royal Library - were taken to Constantinople after 330 A.D. to enrich the new city and new capital of the Roman Empire.
‘So this means that it is possible that many of these manuscripts are either still hidden there in Constantinople or in Italy’s libraries, from Venice to the Vatican. Great parts of the collections of those places are seldom seen, have never been seen or at least have not been seen for centuries. Ve
ry few people are allowed to see even small parts of those collections. These people are mostly scholars and then they can view such items only after special permission, which is very rarely granted.
‘There is also a possibility that many of these manuscripts were sent to the monasteries of Mount Athos for protection, either before the Ottoman siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. or afterwards, on the exodus of brilliant minds, people, artefacts and knowledge to the West - Venice, the rest of Italy and then the rest of Europe. It is possible that what was destroyed in 48 B.C. was either the Museion or Royal Library or just a number of scrolls destined for the library and stored temporarily at the port after just having being delivered.’
At that moment Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, still engrossed in their discussion, became visible to both Aristo and Giorgos. Giorgos was speechless. He looked at Aristo in wonderment. He was mystified when Aristo seemed to be unfazed by their surprise visitors.
Aristo tried to interrupt the three philosophers to talk to them and to put some order in the proceedings. However, something strange was happening. Plato, Socrates and Aristotle were merging into each other and then separating and merging again and this continued, all the time pressing ahead with their arguments and not pacified in the least.
Aristo’s ears wandered again and he tried to eavesdrop on the conversation raging before him. His earlier suspicion was confirmed. The three philosophers were re-enacting the dialogue on the tomb, covering subjects that they could not possibly have known about back then, in their time. The wheels in Aristo’s brain were turning ever faster and he allowed himself a smile.
The solution was staring him in the eye and had invaded his brain through his compliant ears. He knew at that moment that he and Giorgos had also re-enacted the dialogue without realising and had cracked the riddle of the missing part.
Aristo felt very excited and relieved. While at first he felt self-conscious to be in the presence of the three great men, he now felt uncowered and courageous and confident to stand next to them, not exactly on the same level, but quite a bit below their dazzling brilliance and achievement.
It was just so sad that so much of Plato’s and Aristotle’s works had not survived through the brutal history of centuries of conquest, pillaging and more recently the glorious cultural movement that was Christian fanaticism and its attack on anything non-Christian, a glorious cultural revolution brought to new heights by the later dawn of the age of darkness and of the Holy Inquisition. Yet if the three great men chose to test him further, he felt he would not melt under their interrogating gaze and relentless questioning.
Plato suddenly turned to Aristo.
‘My dear Aristo, your ancestor, Michael, was making naughty use of his powers to travel through time and change history, even though it was expressly forbidden. I really don’t know what got over him that one time, but what I would call his Syracusan adventure had unpredictable ramifications. It has changed history. It has shaped me differently too, as my invitation and brief stay there did not take place. Hardened by different experiences, I, though, did, indeed, found my school but earlier than I would otherwise have had.
‘Your ancestor took the arbitrary decision to sacrifice Syracuse for a greater glory for Athens, but that comes with a price, because Athens becomes a rival for both Macedon and Constantinople and, therefore, damages your ancestor’s and your family’s treasured city of cities and changes everything. And it’s changed my life too.
‘Aristo, your ancestor should not have been playing games with history. I cannot forgive your ancestor and because of him your family for that. Your ancestor and your family have deprived me of my Syracusan experiences. An event that has had wider ramifications. And it has changed my teachings at the Academy. You will have to make up for it until you’ve seen how your ancestor changed things.
‘However much your ancestor may have wanted for Athens to win, you have to remember that just because we see Athens today only for its great cultural achievement as the good power and Sparta for its sole obsession with physical fitness and military prowess as the evil empire out to destroy Athens that was the light, it doesn’t mean that that’s how it was seen back then. To the rest of Greece, Athens was a cruel Imperial power with ruthless ambitions of expansion. Its treatment of wayward former allies was brutal to the extreme.
‘So maybe the rest of Greece saw it as justice that Athens got its comeuppance, the punishment it deserved. Pericles may be pleased with the change, but we do need to change things back. You need to speak to your mother to get the culprit, Michael, to go back and fix it.’
‘I know nothing about this, but Michael is dead. How can he go back to fix things? What you are asking is impossible.’
‘It is not impossible. Your mother will know how to do that.’
‘OK, I will pass on the request. But I don’t see how wise it would be to change what you propose. Such a change will have wider ramifications to the events that have taken place since then. It will sound like a vicious circular argument here, but what would change again if we do this? Who will not have existed? What would not have occurred?’
Plato smiled as if to a child. But his smile was enigmatic and hiding, Aristo had no doubt, a lot more information than he was prepared to admit to. ‘We will say no more. What we have demanded has to be done to restore the balance, the true tracks that history should have travelled on. Now, my dear friend, let us turn to the solution to the dialogue.’
‘Just a second. It’s not a mathematical problem. How can it have only one solution?’
‘We will not accuse you of not being smart, but you are taking the joke a bit too far. However, in the case of the incomplete dialogue on the tomb there is only one solution. Your reasoning and your analysis were impressive. You have successfully re-enacted the missing part of the dialogue. Now to receive your reward you must give us the solution.’
Aristo looked down, collected his thoughts and lifting his head, he looked the ringleader and head examiner, Plato, in the eye and, measuring his words, he spoke slowly.
‘Many of the ideas propounded by the ancient philosophers were not incompatible with Christianity or religion in general or the state as a secular entity. Socrates who questioned everything and challenged everyone’s views also spoke of the one God. It took until Muslim scholars and the Renaissance to rehabilitate ancient philosophers, of the ancient world and achievements, and to realise the value and relevance of the philosophers’ work in building and organising a society and influencing many aspects of life in a society, something that could roughly be described as a marriage of science and religion for the common good, or in some cases, through architecture, art and the refinement of religious dogma, to serve naked ambition and greed.
‘If only that had been realised earlier, instead of being on a mission to destroy anything remotely pagan or produced before the advent of Christianity, before a dark age in some respects, all that time would not have been wasted. That is the common ground of your philosophies and religion.’
Plato, Socrates and Aristotle smiled their approval. Nothing further needed to be said.
When Aristo next spoke his voice betrayed his disappointment at the end of the current encounter with the three philosophers, but it also carried his hope for a future one. ‘Another time, I would very much enjoy the challenge of a dialogue with you all, when things calm down.’
‘Things will never calm down. Life is like that. You could stay here a bit longer. A short delay in your mission before you leave for your next destination would not be a matter of life or death. It has been a while since we have had such stimulating company. Don’t try to fob us off so easily. We were not born yesterday, you know.’
‘I wouldn’t dare to accuse you of such a thing. But I must, respectfully, decline the invitation at this time.’
‘It has been a pleasure conversing with you.’ The three philosophers said in unison holding up their arms in an obvious gesture of complete surrender, in a show of
respect for the two bright and talented individuals standing tall and supremely self-confident before them.
The philosophers began to sing from the same hymn-sheet, speaking all at the same time. Aristo was becoming increasingly excited, but also annoyed as he was finding it difficult to follow the three philosophers’ intense discussion. His face reflected his confusion and conflicted emotions.
He must have changed a hundred different colour combinations in ten seconds. He could not shake the sneaking feeling that the reason he could still see them was because they had something more to say to him.
Aristo prayed that they would hurry, but chose not to interrupt them, out of respect for their achievement, their great age and the fact that they had gone to all this effort to help him after all. The philosophers did not seem to have been overcome by any particular desire to climb on their horses for the next target of their fun and games. If there is a God, please rush them along.
His silent pleading appeared to have worked, be it with the help of God or another higher power or just plain common sense. The intensity of their discussion was slowly dying down. Their voices and sharp rebukes of each other’s arguments began to lose their edge. Their spirited discourse began to fade away.
Plato became Aristotle who became Socrates, separate but merged into one, a triad, but not a religious one, a fearsome triumph and accumulation of wisdom and knowledge. The transformational and changing light spoke with one voice and with none.
‘Aristo, despite our certain differences, Socrates and Aristotle and me, each speak with one voice. As one, our voice is strong, because of the common thread through our beliefs, which is enough to suppress our conflicts. Always question what you encounter. And take away a lesson that will help you in your future endeavours and it is this: There is an inscription at the Oracle in Delphi: “Do nothing in excess”. Or “Always look to the mean”. That is another thread of the common ground between our philosophies and religious, especially Christian, theology that you correctly expounded upon earlier.
The Emperor Awakes Page 16
