Here is the case of Heraclitus, who withdrew to the open spaces and colonnades of the enormous temple of Artemis: this "desert" was, undoubtedly, more worthy - I admit it! Why shouldn't we have such temples too? (Hmm, maybe we do. Ah, now I remember the most beautiful workspace I ever had, in Piazza di San Marco, in spring, ten or twelve in the morning) However, Heraclitus also avoided what we avoid today: the noise and chatter of the Ephesians, their democracy, their political wretchedness, the latest achievements of the "empire" (the Persian one - you understand), all the filthy business of the "today", because we philosophers need above all a specific tranquility: we need rest from the "today".