'La via' o 'le vie'? Tra identità nazionali e prospettive universalistiche nel paganesimo tardoantico

In Late Antiquity, from the 2nd to the 4th century AD, pagan auctores inspired by Plato's philosophy and Greek-Roman culture, even if belonging to eastern civilization, established a frame of considerations on the value, if not on the ‘truth’, of the "barbaric philosophies" in relation to the Greek-roman culture and to its philosophical and religious acquisitions. A comparative study of their positions allows to enlighten, along with the aspects of continuity and innovation that characterize the different stages of this thematic area, a dialectic between the legitimacy of the plurality of ethnic and national circum- Mediterranean religious traditions, including the Jewish ones on one hand, and, on the other hand, to overcome the tension in the direction of the same, still problematic, universal perspective.