Peripheral Intellectuality and Hellenic Paideia in Late Antiquity: Reassessing the Colchian School

Abstract

This study examines the Colchian school of rhetoric and philosophy in Late Antiquity and explores its role within the intellectual networks of the eastern Roman Empire. Drawing primarily on the testimony of Themistius and supported by comparative historical analysis, the article reconstructs the school’s intellectual profile and evaluates its significance within the traditions of Hellenic paideia. Using an interdisciplinary framework that combines intellectual history, knowledge transmission theory, and centre–periphery approaches, the study argues that the school functioned as more than a provincial educational institution. The findings suggest that the Colchian school was characterized by a synthesis of Aristotelian rhetoric and logic, complemented by Platonic and possibly Neoplatonic influences. The examples of Themistius and the Georgian aristocrat Bakur indicate that western Georgia participated in wider educational and intellectual networks connecting the Caucasus with the Roman world. Rather than serving as a passive recipient of metropolitan culture, Colchis acted as a regional centre of intellectual mediation and cultural exchange. The article introduces the concept of “peripheral intellectuality” to explain how classical philosophical traditions were preserved, adapted, and transmitted beyond the major urban centres of Late Antiquity. This framework contributes to broader debates on intellectual geography and cultural transmission in the Late Antique world.