For these Athenian Neoplatonists, the works of Plato, the Chaldean Oracles, the Orphic poems, and much more which was assigned to a great antiquity, were inspired divine writings, and formed the basic material, which was then elaborated through dialectic hermeneutics. Thenceforth under Marinus, Isidorus, Hegias and Zenodotus a period of decline set in. Under the talented Damascius there was a revival of Platonism, and it could be speculated that this encouraged the emperor Justinian to close the school. The school of Alexandria is not the same as the vibrant acadamy under Ammonius. It seems to date back to the late fourth and early fifth centuries, represented by the mathematician Theon and his daughter Hypatia, who was martyred by a Christian mob under the instigation of the infamous church leader Cyril.
Persecution seems to have been common.
Hierocles was flogged by the authorities in Constantinople, despite the fact that his teachings were more monotheistic than those of other pagan Neoplatonists. It was only with Heimonius and his son Ammonius that a definite succession can be traced at Alexandria. Olympiodorus the Platonic commentator was the last pagan head of the school, after his death it passed into Christian hands under the Aristotlean commentators Elias and David. The school's last head, Stephanus, moved to and became head of an academy in Constantinople in 610. In 641 the Alexandrian school was captured by the Arabs.