This volume traces the external and internal history of the Academy Plato‹s school, up to the time of Cicero (and up until its official closing in 529 AD) and focuses on the question of how much was known of the teachings of Plato and his followers in the 1st century BC, i.e. what were the foundations of knowledge which formed the basis of Platonism as it emerged during the early imperial period. Dörrie comes to the conclusion that "the tradition established by Plato had suffered several breaks.» As a consequence, Platonism of the imperial period did not have its origins in the Academy but instead had to be newly established outside it.
