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Our knowledge about Greek philosophical schools is mostly second-hand and based on Diogenes Laërtius' Lives of Eminent Philosophers (3rd century AD) and Philodemus' Arrangement of the Philosophers (75-50 BC), a treatise in several books which represents the earliest 'history of philosophy' to have reached us directly from antiquity. From this work exclusively preserved by the Herculaneum papyri we may derive a virtually systematic account of the history of Greek philosophical schools, which is unique in its kind.

The central core of the Life of Heraclitus handed down by Diogenes Laertius is represented by a biographico-characterological portrait in which the haughtiness and the superciliousness attributed to this philosopher is ridiculed with an openly satirical and polemical purpose. Substantial analogies with the moral-protreptic writing On Relieving of Arrogance amply quoted and paraphrased by Philodemus in the ending section of PHerc. 1008 ([On Arrogance], cols. 10-24) are detectable. Significantly, at the beginning of the latter (col. 10.16-26 Ranocchia) Heraclitus is expressly mentioned, along with other philosophers and poets, amongst those who became arrogant «on account of philosophy». To the similitudes formerly identified by W. Knögel and S.N. Mouraviev it is now possible to add numerous further thematic correspondences between these writings, which make us suppose that both originally belonged to a same philosophical tradition, whose goal was to describe, and to heal from, arrogance. This tradition possibly embraced both a general illustration/therapy of the vice and specific exemplifications of it by means of lively portaits of 'arrogant' philosophers and poets like Heraclitus, Empedocles, Pythagoras, Socrates, Hippias and Euripides.

A collection of more than 1800 carbonized Greek and Latin papyri, discovered in the Roman Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum in the middle of 18th century, is the unique classical library survived from antiquity. These ancient-Herculaneum-papyri were charred during 79 A.D. Vesuvius eruption, a circumstance which providentially preserved them until now. This magnificent collection contains valuable work by Greek philosophers, such as Epicurus, Chrysippus and Philodemus, in particular an impressive amount of extensive treatises by Philodemus of Gadara, an Epicurean philosopher of the 1st century BC. The aim of the present study is to read extended and hitherto unknown portions of text hidden inside carbonized-Herculaneum-papyri using enhanced X-ray-phase-contrast-tomography (XPCT) non-destructive technique and a new set of numerical algorithms for virtual-unrolling. This paper documents our success in revealing the largest portion of Greek text ever detected so far inside unopened scrolls, with unprecedented spatial resolution and contrast, all without damaging these precious historical manuscripts. Parts of texts have been decoded and the 'voice' of Epicurean philosopher Philodemus is brought back again after 2000 years from rolled-up carbonized Herculaneum-papyri.

A collection of more than 1800 carbonized papyri, discovered in the Roman ‘Villa dei Papiri’ at Herculaneum is the unique classical library survived from antiquity. These papyri were charred during 79 A.D. Vesuvius eruption, a circumstance which providentially preserved them until now. This magnificent collection contains an impressive amount of treatises by Greek philosophers and, especially, Philodemus of Gadara, an Epicurean thinker of 1st century BC. We read many portions of text hidden inside carbonized Herculaneum papyri using enhanced X-ray phase-contrast tomography non-destructive technique and a new set of numerical algorithms for ‘virtual-unrolling’. Our success lies in revealing the largest portion of Greek text ever detected so far inside unopened scrolls, with unprecedented spatial resolution and contrast, all without damaging these precious historical manuscripts. Parts of text have been decoded and the ‘voice’ of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus is brought back again after 2000 years from Herculaneum papyri.