Summary

Consistently we find that, while some cities—and Athens in particular—drew a great number of thinkers during various points of the Classical period, thinkers were coming from all corners of the Greek world and their travels were surprisingly varied. Generally, much of the activity seemed to move westward, although there were intellectuals still coming from and traveling to Asia Minor well into the Hellenistic age. It is also interesting to note that we have little evidence of these thinkers traveling to the festivals held at various sanctuaries, other than those at Athens.

In sum, the data represented in these two sections suggests that interest in the philosophical and scientific problems of the Greek intellectual revolution was widely distributed throughout the Greek world of city-states. Moreover, the development of poets, historians and other literary figures throughout this same city-state world indicates that the citizen of the polis shared many of the same intellectual interests as are represented in the literary works of the period.