What Event Marked the Start of the Medieval Period?

Hypatia of Alexandria (died: 415 C.E.) is the most renowned female philosopher from ancient times. A Neoplatonist, her philosophies and status as a woman were threatening to the increasingly powerful Christian bureaucracy. Hypatia was brutally killed by a Christian mob. Her death is a powerful symbol for the transformation of ancient society from Paganism to Christianity. She is the author of A Commentary on the Arithmetica of Diophantus, and A Commentary on the Conics of Apollonious. She also edited the third book of her father's Commentary on the Almagest of Ptolemy.

Sources, such as The Life of Hypatia, from Damascius's Life of Isidore, (Translated by Jeremiah Reedy) reveal that Hypatia: "...used to put on her philosopher's cloak and walk through the middle of town and publicly interpret Plato, Aristotle, or the works of any other philosopher to those who wished to hear her. In addition to her expertise in teaching she rose to the pinnacle of civic virtue..." and "...she was prudent and civil in her deeds. The whole city rightly loved her and worshipped her in a remarkable way, but the rulers of the city from the first envied her, something that often happened at Athens too. For even if philosophy itself had perished, nevertheless, its name still seems magnificent and venerable to the men who exercise leadership in the state... "

| John, Bishop of Nikiu, from his Chronicle 84.87-103 provides evidence of how previously accepted Pagan systems of worship, and their accompanying philosophies, came to be denounced as Satanism: "...a female philosopher, a pagan named Hypatia, and she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes and instruments of music, and she beguiled many people through Satanic wiles. And the governor of the city honoured her exceedingly; for she had beguiled him through her magic..."

The persecution and murder of Hypatia was a transformative event. After Hypatia, the stature of women, which had been enhanced via involvement in Pagan systems of worship, was significantly diminished. In the end: "They dragged her along till they brought her to the great church, named Caesarion. Now this was in the days of the fast. And they tore off her clothing and dragged her through the streets of the city till she died. And they carried her to a place named Cinaron, and they burned her body with fire..."

The death of Hypatia serves as an apt symbol for the beginning of the Medieval Period.