biography
pronunciation:
[plotiynus]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.205–70)
|
| biography:
| The first systematic philosopher of the Neoplatonic school, probably born in Lycopolis, C Egypt. He studied in Alexandria and Persia, and settled in Rome (244), where he became a popular lecturer, advocating asceticism and the contemplative life. When 60, he attempted to found a platonic ‘Republic’ in Campania, but died in Minturnae. His 54 works were edited by his pupil, Porphyry, who arranged them in six groups of nine books, or Enneads. They established the foundations of Neoplatonism as a philosophical system, which combined Platonic with Pythagorean, Aristotelian, and Stoic doctrines and greatly influenced early Christian theology. |
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