Lyceum (classical)
Initially a sanctuary made for worshiping Lyceus, it later became a public exercise area, with a gymnasium being constructed later on.
The Lyceum is famous for being a center of education, but it was used for numerous other activities including Athenian assembly gatherings, cult practices, and military exercises.
Overall it is thought that the Lyceum spanned north possibly to modern Kolonaki plateia, south as far as the Ilissos river.
[7] The Lyceum has been referenced in numerous ancient works of literature including stories by Plato, Strabo, and Xenophon.
The dromoi and peripatoi were roads that ran from the east to the west through the modern-day Syntagma square and Parliament building.
Socrates, Protagoras, and Prodicus of Chios travelled to the Lyceum during fifth century BC to teach, debate, and discuss their findings.
The group of scholars who followed the Aristotelian doctrine came to be known as the Peripatetics due to Aristotle's tendency to walk as he taught.
[13] Theophrastus placed a provision in his will that left the Lyceum library, which at this point included both his and Aristotle's work as well as student research, philosophical historical texts and histories of philosophy, to his supposed follower, Neleus.
Still, what did remain of Aristotle's works and the rest of the library were arranged and edited for school use between 73 and 20 BCE, supposedly by Andronicus of Rhodes, the Lyceum's eleventh leader.
[5] Since then, the remaining works have been translated and widely distributed, providing much of the modern knowledge of ancient Western philosophy.
[11] As head of the Lyceum, Theophrastus continued Aristotle's foci of observation, collaborative research and documentation of philosophical history, thus making his own contributions to the library, most notably as the first organizer of botany.
Though he was not a citizen of Athens (he had met Aristotle in the 340s in his homeland of Lesbos) he managed to buy land near the main gym of the Lyceum as well as several buildings for the library and additional workspace in 315 BCE.
It seems to have gone into decline from c. 300, and to have more or less disintegrated sometime after 225 BCE when its last certain scholar, Lyco of Troas, died and left the Lyceum not to one man but to all his colleagues.
At various points in the history of the Lyceum, numerous scholars and students walked its peripatoi, though some of the most notable include Eudemus, a mathematical historian, Aristoxenus, who wrote works on music, and Dicaearchus, a prolific writer on topics including ethics, politics, psychology and geography.
Additionally, medical historian Meno, and an eventual ruler of Athens, Demetrius of Phaleron, spent time at the school.
During a 1996 excavation to clear space for Athens' new Museum of Modern Art, the remains of Aristotle's Lyceum were uncovered.
The first excavations revealed a gymnasium and wrestling area, but further work has uncovered the majority of what is believed to have withstood the erosion caused to the region by nearby architecture's placement and drainage.
