 Ammonius’ tenure at the school saw a large-scale attack on the pagan community of Alexandria in the wake of the revolt of Illus (484–488) against the Emperor Zeno, during which harsh measures were taken against the pagans by the Patriarch Peter III Mongus (482–489), since Illus had allied himself with the corrupt pagan Pamprepius and may have promised him that pagan practice would be tolerated. It was probably during this crisis that Ammonius is represented by Damascius as making an agreement or deal: “Ammonius, who was wickedly greedy and saw everything in terms of any profit he could make, concluded an agreement (sunthēkas) with the overseer (episkopounta, i.e., bishop) of the dominant doctrine” (Photius, Bibl. cod. 242.352a 11–14=Damascius 118B Athanassiadi; cf. her Intro. 30–1 and n. 37). Scholarly attention has focused on the nature of Ammonius’ ‘deal’ with the Bishop (presumed, by connecting this persecution with the end of Illus’ revolt, to have been Peter Mongus; the appearance of the name of his successor, Athanasius II [490–497] in a doublet of the same passage from Damascius [Photius, Bibl. cod. 242.347a 20] is apparently an intrusive, mistaken gloss). The suggestions have been put forward that he agreed to continue the alleged Alexandrian Neoplatonic practice of making the gods into one by collapsing the One into the Intellect (a view congenial to Christianity); or that he agreed to lecture only on Aristotle, avoiding Plato, or not to mention in his teaching the Aristotelian doctrine of the eternity and divinity of the world; or that he betrayed the hiding places of colleagues and pupils. Scholars have adduced counterevidence against the first three suggestions, concerning the school’s doctrine. That Ammonius betrayed his fellow Hellenes is a speculation based on his ability—alone among the major figures of the school—to resume his teaching unscathed after the turmoil of 489, on Damascius’ association of Ammonius’ deal with a profit motive, and also on Damascius’ hints that Ammonius was unprincipled and given to intrigue, as evidenced by an earlier power-struggle against Erythrius (a three-time praetorian prefect) in Constantinople (Damascius 78E; Athanassiadi 1999, 30–2). Indeed, the excerpts from Damascius seem to indicate that Ammonius was a prime target of the investigation and persecution led by the imperial envoy Nicomedes, who in an attempt to get information on “the Ammonius affair” (Damascius 117A) ordered the arrest of Ammonius’ friend Harpocras, a professor of literature; he fled, but the order led to the arrest and torture of Horapollo and Heraïscus, whom they tried to make inform on Harpocras and Isidore (Damascius 117B). Thus, Damascius perhaps implies that Ammonius set the investigators on Harpocras to draw them away from himself. 