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Damascius
Damascius (; ; 462 – after 538), known as "the last of the Athenian Neoplatonists", was the last scholarch of the neoplatonic Athenian school. He was one of the neoplatonic philosophers who left Athens after laws confirmed by emperor Justinian I forced the closure of the Athenian school in c. 529 AD. After he left Athens, he may have sought refuge in the court of the Persian King Chrosroes, before being allowed back into the Byzantine Empire. His surviving works consist of three commentaries on the works of Plato, and a metaphysical text entitled ''Difficulties and Solutions of First Principles''. Life Much of what is known about Damascius' life comes from his semi-autobiographical work called ''The Philosophical History'', or ''Life of Isidore'', and from a work called ''Vita Severi'' written by the 6th-century bishop and historian Zacharias Scholasticus. Damascius, as his name suggests, was born in Damascus in c. 462 AD, and travelled to Alexandria in the 480s AD to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isidore Of Alexandria
Isidore of Alexandria also called Isidore of Gaza (; also Isidorus ; ; ) was a GreekEncyclopædia BritannicaIsidore of Alexandria (Greek philosopher)/ref> philosopher and one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He lived in Athens and Alexandria toward the end of the 5th century AD. He became head of the school in Athens in succession to Marinus, who followed Proclus. Life Isidore was born in Alexandria. In Athens, he studied under Proclus, and learned the doctrine of Aristotle from Marinus.Sudaμ199/ref> According to Damascius, "Isidore was awestruck at the sight of Proclus, venerable and marvelous to see; he thought he was seeing in him the very face of true philosophy." Proclus for his part used to "marvel at Isidore's appearance, as it was possessed by the divine and full of the philosophical life within." Damascius further tells us that "Isidore, besides simplicity, loved truthfulness especially, and undertook to be straight-talking beyond what was necessary, and had no prete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Severianus Of Damascus
Severianus of Damascus (Greek: Σεβηριανός) was a Roman pagan politician who served under the emperor Marcian (450–457). Severianus' life is known mainly from the writings of Damascius, including what was incorporated into the ''Suda'' and the ''Epitome'' of Photius. He was born into a prominent family of Damascus descended from Roman colonists who had once settled in Alexandria. His father was Auxentius and his grandfather Callinicus. His father wanted him to become a lawyer and to this end he specialised in Roman law while also studying poetry and rhetoric. His father refused his request to study philosophy under Proclus at the Athenian Academy, but after his father's death he went. Too ambitious for the professional philosophical life, Severianus entered politics. He rose to high office—Damascius calls him an ''archon''—but he feuded with his superiors and was draconian in meting out justice. He blamed the short duration of his success in politics to a few unjusti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simplicius Of Cilicia
Simplicius of Cilicia (; ; – c. 540) was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into the empire. He wrote extensively on the works of Aristotle. Although his writings are all commentaries on Aristotle and other authors, rather than original compositions, his intelligent and prodigious learning makes him the last great philosopher of pagan antiquity. His works have preserved much information about earlier philosophers which would have otherwise been lost. Life Little is known about Simplicius' life. Based on his education, it's likely he was born some time around 480. His commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens can be definitively dated to 538, which is the latest known definitive evidence for his life, making it likely he died some time around 5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marinus Of Neapolis
Marinus (; born c. 440 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician and rhetorician born in Flavia Neapolis (modern Nablus), Palaestina Secunda. He was a student of Proclus in Athens. His surviving works are an introduction to Euclid's ''Data''; a ''Life of Proclus'', and two astronomical texts. Most of what we know of his life comes from an epitome of a work by Damascius conserved in the Byzantine Suda encyclopaedia. Life He was, according to his pupil Damascius, born a Samaritan. Whether this information is correct is disputed, but it is quite possible. Damascius also adds that he had converted from Samaritanism. He came to Athens at a time when, with the exception of Proclus, there was a great dearth of eminent men in the Neoplatonist school. He was appointed as successor ('' diadochos'') to Proclus, sometime before the latter's death, during the period of the teacher's infirmity. Proclus dedicated to Marinus his commentary to the Plato's Myth of Er. Proclus h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platonic Academy
The Academy (), variously known as Plato's Academy, or the Platonic Academy, was founded in Classical Athens, Athens by Plato ''wikt:circa, circa'' 387 BC. The academy is regarded as the first institution of higher education in the west, where subjects as diverse as biology, geography, astronomy, mathematics, history, and many more were taught and investigated. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a Academic skepticism, skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. A neo-Platonic academy was later established in Athens that sought to continue the tradition of Plato's Academy. This academy was shut down by Justinian I, Justinian in 529 AD, when some of the scholars fled to Harran, where the study of classical texts continued. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priscian Of Lydia
Priscian of Lydia (or Priscianus; ''Prīskiānós ho Lȳdós''; ; fl. 6th century), was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. Two works of his have survived. Life A contemporary of Simplicius of Cilicia, Priscian was born in Lydia, probably in the late 5th century. He was one of the last Neoplatonists to study at the Academy when Damascius was at its head. When Justinian I closed the school in 529, Priscian, together with Damascius, Simplicius, and four other colleagues were forced to seek asylum in the court of the Persian king Chosroes.George Sarton, (1927), ''Introduction to the History of Science, Volume 1'', page 423. Williams & Wilkins By 533 they were allowed back into the Byzantine Empire after Justinian and Chosroes concluded a peace treaty, in which it was provided that the philosophers would be allowed to return. Works Two works of Priscian's have survived: *An epitome of Theophrastus' ''On Sense-Perception'' *''Answers to Chosroes'' (''Solutiones ad Chosroen'') The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common ideas it maintains is monism, the doctrine that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One". Neoplatonism began with Ammonius Saccas and his student Plotinus (c. 204/5 – 271 AD) and stretched to the sixth century. After Plotinus there were three distinct periods in the history of neoplatonism: the work of his student Porphyry (third to early fourth century); that of Iamblichus (third to fourth century); and the period in the fifth and sixth centuries, when the academies in Alexandria and Athens flourished. Neoplatonism had an enduring influence on the subsequent history of Western philosophy and religion. In the Middle Ages, Neoplatonic ideas were studied and discussed by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eulamius
Eulamius (; ), born in Phrygia, was, along with Damascius, one of the Athenian philosophers who sought asylum at the court of Khosrau I (r. 531–579) of Persia in 531/532 when Byzantine emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) closed down the last pagan philosophical schools in Athens.. Eulamius was disappointed in Persia and ultimately returned to Byzantium in 532 together with other Greek philosophers, protected by a treaty that guaranteed their safety.. His name appears as Eulalios (Greek: Eὐλάλιος) in the ''Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...'' and as Eulamios (Greek: Eὐλάμιος) in the historical works of Agathias. References Sources * * {{Authority control 6th-century Greek philosophers 6th-century Byzantine writers Roman Phrygia Neoplat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proclus
Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor (, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism and, through later interpreters and translators, exerted an influence on Byzantine philosophy, early Islamic philosophy, scholastic philosophy, and German idealism, especially G. W. F. Hegel, who called Proclus's ''Platonic Theology'' "the true turning point or transition from ancient to modern times, from ancient philosophy to Christianity." Biography The primary source for the life of Proclus is the eulogy ''Proclus'', ''or On Happiness'' that was written for him upon his death by his successor, Marinus, Marinus' biography set out to prove that Proclus reached the peak of virtue and attained eudaimonia. There are also a few details about the time in which he lived in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agapius Of Athens
Agapius (; 5th-6th century) was a Neoplatonist philosopher who lived in Athens. He was a notable philosopher in the Neoplatonist school in Athens when Marinus of Neapolis was scholarch after the death of Proclus (c. 485).Suda, ''Agapios'', (Damascius, ''Life of Isidore'' fr. 277, Zintzen) He was admired for his love of learning and for putting forward difficult problems. He may be the Agapius under whom John Lydus heard some lectures on Platonist philosophy, while he was studying Aristotelian doctrines in Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ... in 511, and of whom the poet Christodorus in his work ''On the Disciples of the Great Proclus'' stated that "Agapius is assuredly the last but the first of all."John Lydus, ''De Mag.'' iii. 26. Notes References *A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermias (philosopher)
Hermias (; ''Hermeias'') was a Neoplatonist philosopher who was born in Alexandria c. 410 AD. He went to Athens and studied philosophy under Syrianus. He married Aedesia, who was a relative of Syrianus, and who had originally been betrothed to Proclus, but Proclus broke the engagement off after receiving a divine warning. Hermias brought Syrianus' teachings back to Alexandria, where he lectured in the school of Horapollo, receiving an income from the state. He died c. 450 AD (but before 470 AD), at a time when his children, Ammonius and Heliodorus, were still small. Aedesia, however, continued to receive an income from the state, in order to raise the children, enabling them to become philosophers. A ''Commentary on the Phaedrus'' written by Hermias survives. It consists of notes based on the lectures conducted by Syrianus concerning Plato's '' Phaedrus''. Notes References * * * Gertz, S., (2019)"Hermias on the Argument for Immortality in Plato’s Phaedrus" In: ''Stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agathias
Agathias Scholasticus (; Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 23–25582/594) was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558. Biography Agathias was a native of Myrina (Mysia), an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor. His father was Memnonius. His mother was presumably Pericleia. A brother of Agathias is mentioned in primary sources, but his name has not survived. Their probable sister Eugenia is known by name. The ''Suda'' clarifies that Agathias was active in the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I, mentioning him as a contemporary of Paul the Silentiary, Macedonius of Thessalonica and Tribonian. Agathias mentions being present in Alexandria as a law student at the time when an earthquake destroyed Berytus (Beirut). The law school of Berytus had been recognized as one of the three official law schools of the empire (533). Within a few years, as the result of the disastrous earthquake of 551, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
