«Ammonium» – the last dialogue in the Ancient traditon

Abstract

The article is devoted to the most important monument of Late Antique literature – the work of Zacharias (Scholastic) Rhetorician «Ammonius». This work is a polemical Christian work, composed in the classical ancient form of dialogue and is a large and serious work written against the neo-Platonists. On the part of the Gazan school, only three such polemical works were written: «Theophrastus» by Aeneas of Gazan, «Ammonius» by Zacharias (Scholasticus) the Rhetorician, and the fragment «refutation of Proclus» by the famous rhetorician of the Gazan school, Procopius. In Russian historiography, this work is poorly studied. In addition, these works are not published in Russian. In our work, we will focus only on the analysis of «Ammonium», and try to prove that this polemical work is the last dialogue in the ancient style. Zachariah's dialogue also demonstrates the Christian appropriation of Hellenic thought, typical of the Gaza school. Zachariah's philosophical dialogue is a work that should equally be seen as a product of the interaction of his ascetic and sophisti  surroundings.

Acknowledgements: The author expresses deep gratitude to the scientific supervisor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor N.N. Bolgov.