Iamblichus - the scholarch of the apamea school

In transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages an important role was played by the sphere of education, high school in particular. It became one of the most important links of the cultural continuity between the epochs, ensuring translation of knowledge and classical heritage. High School of Early Byzantium comprised three levels: grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. Special sciences, first of all medicine and jurisprudence, corresponded to the level of rhetoric. Christian theology was considered superior to philosophy, though it was not common, but intra- church. In general, higher education in Early Byzantium remained secular in the Christianized society. Even the content of teaching remained predominantly traditional classical, excluding pagan theurgic practices. The school of Iamblichus in Apamea became one of the first philosophical schools of Late Antiquity, where, in addition to studying Neoplatonism, a complex of theurgic practices emerged as a religious cult expression of the final phase of the existence of the classical philosophical higher school. Iamblichus (about 250-320 A.D.) was a key figure in the translation of Neoplatonism from Rome to the Eastern Mediterranean, the future Byzantium.