[History of the Academy] or Academicorum Index

The famous [History of the Academy], preserved in two different redactions, an earlier and provisional version (PHerc. 1691/1021) and a later and definitive one (PHerc. 164), contains much otherwise lost information about the development of the Academy and its most prominent figures, from Plato to Antiochus and Aristus of Ascalon. In particular, the former part of PHerc. 1021 (cols. 1-21) represents a peculiar patchwork of excerpts copied or paraphrased either directly or indirectly from lost works by early Hellenistic philosophers, historians and biographers like Philippus of Opus, Neanthes of Cyzicus, Philocorus, Dicaearchus, Diocles of Magnesia, Demochares, Hermippus, Phanias, Timaeus, Diodorus, Philiscus of Aegina, Lacydes, Antigonus of Carystus and Apollodorus. In addition, twelve larger passages, which were intended to supplement or replace the text on the recto and that are today only witnessed by the Oxonian apographs, were added by either the scribe or a corrector on the papyrus’ verso.