Proclus or Proklos () was a teacher of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

and a native of

Naucratis Naucratis or Naukratis (Ancient Greek: , "Naval Command"; Egyptian: , , , Coptic: ) was a city and trading-post in ancient Egypt, located on the Canopic (western-most) branch of the Nile river, south-east of the Mediterranean sea and the city ...

Hellenistic Egypt The Ptolemaic Kingdom (; , ) or Ptolemaic Empire was an ancient Greek polity based in Ancient Egypt, Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I Soter, a Diadochi, ...

. He lived in the 2nd century AD. He was a man of distinction in his native city, but because of the civil commotions there he went to

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

while still young. There he became a pupil of

Adrianus Adrianus of Tyre (Ancient Greek: , c. 113 – 193 AD), also written as Hadrian and Hadrianos, was a sophist of ancient Athens who flourished under the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Adrianus was the pupil of Herodes Atticus, and obt ...

, and afterwards taught rhetoric himself. He had

Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus ...

as one of his pupils. It was his practice to allow anyone who paid down 100

drachma Drachma may refer to: * Ancient drachma, an ancient Greek currency * Modern drachma The drachma ( ) was the official currency of modern Greece from 1832 until the launch of the euro in 2001. First modern drachma The drachma was reintroduce ...

s at once admission to all his lectures. He also had a library which he allowed his pupils to use. In the style of his discourses he imitated

Hippias Hippias of Elis (; ; late 5th century BC) was a Greek sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured on poetry, grammar, his ...

and

Gorgias Gorgias ( ; ; – ) was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years ...

. He was remarkable for the tenacity of his memory, which he retained even in extreme old age. He possessed several houses in and near Athens, and imported considerable quantities of merchandise from Egypt, which he resold to local vendors. After the death of his wife and son he took a concubine. He entirely surrendered the control of his household to her, and was considerably discredited as a consequence of her mismanagement of it. (Philostratus, ''Vita Procli'' 602 etc., ed. Olearius.)

References

{{Reflist 2nd-century Greek writers Rhetoricians Naucratians