Damascius, leader of the Neoplatonist School of Athens (6th C), exposes a philosophy of History that is inspired by both Hesiod and Plato, and linked to the theology of the School. He distinguishes between an age of reason or « golden age », a historical age (Greece and Rome up to the 4th C), and a vile and hateful present – the Christian Empire. The golden age was life under the reign of Cronos, whom Neoplatonist theology assimilates with a divine intellect, whereas the cosmological horizon of the passions afflicting the Christian soul is the realm of generation. This doctrine could be related to Damascius' own political views as head of the School, and to an illusory dream of finding a philosopher-king in Khosrow, king of the Persians, with whom the philosophers sought refuge after 529.