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1the Essence of the Soul (IV. i). 5. On the Intellectual-Principle, the Ideas, and the Authentic- Existent (V. 9). 6. On the Descent of the Soul into the Body (IV. 8). 7. On the Emanation of the Non-Primal from the Primal-Being ; and on The One (V. 4). 8. Whether all the Souls constitute One Soul (IV. 9). 9. On the Good or the One (VI. 9). 10. On the Three First Hypostases (V. i). 11. On the Generation and Order of the Post-Primals (V. 2). 12. On the Two Orders of Matter (II. 4). 13. Diverse Questions (HI. 9). 14. On the Circular Movement (II. 2). 15. On our Tutelary Spirit (II. 2). 16. On the Reasoned Dismissal (I. 9). 17. On Quality (II. 6). 18. Whether there exist Ideas of Particulars (V. 7). 19. On the Virtues (I. 2). 20. On Dialectic (I. 3). 21. Why the Soul is described as Intermediate between the Existent having parts and the undisparted Existent (IV. i). These are the twenty-one treatises which, as I have said, Plotinus had already written, by his fifty-ninth year, when I first came to him. 5- I had been, it is true, in Rome a little before this tenth year of Galienus, but at that time Plotinus was taking a summer holiday, engag- ing merely in conversation with his friends. After coming to know him I passed six years in close relation with him. Many questions were threshed out in the Conferences of those six years and, under persuasion from Amelius and myself, he composed two treatises to establish : — 6 PLOTINUS 22, 23. That the Authentic-Existent is universally an integral, self- identical Unity (II. 4, 5). In immediate succession to these he composed two more : one is entitled ; — 24. On the Absence of the Intellectual-Act in the Transcendental ; and on What Existent has the Intellectual-Act Primarily and What Existent has the Intellectual- Act Secondarily (V. 6) ; The other deals with — 25. Existence, Potential and Actual (II. 5). After these come the following twenty : — 26. On the Impassibility of the Bodiless (III. 5). 27. On the Soul, First (IV. 3). 28. On the Soul, Second (IV. 4). 29. On the Soul, Third ; or. How We See (IV. 5). 30. On Contemplation (III. 8). 31. On the Intellectual-Beauty (V. 8). 32. That the Intelligibles are Not Outside of the Intellectual- Principle and On the Good (V. 5). 33. Against the Gnostics (II. 9). 34. On Numbers (VI. 6). 35. Why Distant Objects Appear Small (II. 8). 36. Whether Happiness depends upon Extension of Time (I. 5). 37. On Coalescence (II. 7). 38. How the Multitude of Ideas came into Being ; and on the Good (VI. 7). 39. On Free-Will (VI. 8). 40.
2umbers (VI. 6). 35. Why Distant Objects Appear Small (II. 8). 36. Whether Happiness depends upon Extension of Time (I. 5). 37. On Coalescence (II. 7). 38. How the Multitude of Ideas came into Being ; and on the Good (VI. 7). 39. On Free-Will (VI. 8). 40. On the World (II. i). 41. On Sensation and Memory (IV. 6). 42. On the Kinds of Being, First (VI. i). 43. On the Kinds of Being, Second (VI. 2). 44. On the Kinds of Being, Third (VI. 3). 45. On Eternity and Time (III. 7). PORPHYRY 7 Thus we have twenty-four treatises composed during the six years of my association with him and dealing, as the titles indicate, with such problems as happened to arise at the Conferences ; add the twenty-one composed before my arrival, and we have accounted for forty-five treatises. 6. The following five more Plotinus wrote and sent to me while I was living in Sicily, where I had gone about the fifteenth year of Galienus : — 46. On Happiness (I. 4). 47. On Providence, First (III. 2). 48. On Providence, Second (III. 3). 49. On the Conscious Hypostases and the Transcendental (V. 3). 50. On Love (III. 5). These five he sent me in the first year of Claudius : in the early months of the second year, shortly before his death, I received the following four : — 51. On Evil (I. 8). 52. Whether the Star’s have Causal Operation (II. 3). 53. On the Animate and the Man (I. i). 54. On the First Good ; or. On Happiness (I. 8). Adding these nine to the forty-five of the first and second sets we have a total of fifty-four treatises. According to the time of writing — early manhood, vigorous prime, worn-out constitution — so the tractates vary in power. The first twenty- one pieces manifest a slighter capacity, the talent being not yet matured to the fulness of nervous strength. The twenty-four produced in the mid-period display the utmost reach of the powers and, except for the short treatises among them, attain the highest perfection. The last nine were written when the mental strength was already waning, and of these the last four show less vigour even than the five preceding. 8 PLOTINUS 7- Plotinus had a large following. Notable among the more zealous students, really devoted to philosophy, was Amelius of Tuscany, whose family name was Gentilianus. Amelius preferred to call himself Amerius, changing L for R, because, as he explained, it suited him better to be named from Amereia, Unification, than from Ameleia, Indifference. The group included also one Paulinus, a doctor of ScythopoUs, whom Amelius used to call Mikkalos in allusion to his blundering habit of mind.
3, because, as he explained, it suited him better to be named from Amereia, Unification, than from Ameleia, Indifference. The group included also one Paulinus, a doctor of ScythopoUs, whom Amelius used to call Mikkalos in allusion to his blundering habit of mind. Among closer personal friends was Eustochius of Alexandria, also a doctor, who came to know Plotinus towards the end of his life, and attended him until his death : Eustochius consecrated himself exclusively to Plotinus’ system and became a veritable philosopher. Then there was Zoticus, at once critic and poet, who has amended the text of Antimachus’ works and is the author of an exquisite poem upon the Atlantis story : his sight failed, and he died a little before Plotinus, as also did Paulinus. Another friend was Zethos, an Arabian by descent, who married a daughter of Ammonius’ friend Theodosius. Zethos, too, was a doctor ; Plotinus was deeply attached to him and was always trying to divert him from the political career in which he stood high. Plotinus was on the most familiar terms with him, and used to stay with him at his country place, six miles from Mintumae, a property which had formerly belonged to Castricius Firmus. Castricius was excelled by none of the group in appreciation of the finer side of life : he venerated Plotinus ; he devoted himself in the most faithful comradeship to Amelius in every need, and was in all matters as loyal to myself as though I were his own brother. This was another example of a politician venerating the philosopher. There were also among Plotinus' hearers not a few members of the Senate, amongst whom Marcellus Orontius and Sabinillus showed the greatest assiduity in philosophical studies. Another Senator, Rogatianus, advanced to such detachment from political ambitions that he gave up all his property, dismissed all his PORPHYRY 9 slaves, renounced every dignity, and, on the point of taking up his praetorship, the lictors already at the door, refused to come out or to have anything to do with the office. He even abandoned his own house, spending his time here and there at his friends' and acquaintances’, sleeping and eating with them and taking, at that, only one meal a day. He had been a victim of gout, carried in a chair, but this new regime of abstinence and abnegation restored his health : he had been unable to stretch out his hands ; he came to use them as freely as men living by manual labour. Plotinus took a great liking to Rogatianus and frequently praised him very highly, holding him up as a model to those aiming at the philosophical life.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1the Essence of the Soul (IV. i). 5. On the Intellectual-Principle, the Ideas, and the Authentic- Existent (V. 9). 6. On the Descent of the Soul into the Body (IV. 8). 7. On the Emanation of the Non-Primal from the Primal-Being ; and on The One (V. 4). 8. Whether all the Souls constitute One Soul (IV. 9). 9. On the Good or the One (VI. 9). 10. On the Three First Hypostases (V. i). 11. On the Generation and Order of the Post-Primals (V. 2). 12. On the Two Orders of Matter (II. 4). 13. Diverse Questions (HI. 9). 14. On the Circular Movement (II. 2). 15. On our Tutelary Spirit (II. 2). 16. On the Reasoned Dismissal (I. 9). 17. On Quality (II. 6). 18. Whether there exist Ideas of Particulars (V. 7). 19. On the Virtues (I. 2). 20. On Dialectic (I. 3). 21. Why the Soul is described as Intermediate between the Existent having parts and the undisparted Existent (IV. i). These are the twenty-one treatises which, as I have said, Plotinus had already written, by his fifty-ninth year, when I first came to him. 5- I had been, it is true, in Rome a little before this tenth year of Galienus, but at that time Plotinus was taking a summer holiday, engag- ing merely in conversation with his friends. After coming to know him I passed six years in close relation with him. Many questions were threshed out in the Conferences of those six years and, under persuasion from Amelius and myself, he composed two treatises to establish : — 6 PLOTINUS 22, 23. That the Authentic-Existent is universally an integral, self- identical Unity (II. 4, 5). In immediate succession to these he composed two more : one is entitled ; — 24. On the Absence of the Intellectual-Act in the Transcendental ; and on What Existent has the Intellectual-Act Primarily and What Existent has the Intellectual- Act Secondarily (V. 6) ; The other deals with — 25. Existence, Potential and Actual (II. 5). After these come the following twenty : — 26. On the Impassibility of the Bodiless (III. 5). 27. On the Soul, First (IV. 3). 28. On the Soul, Second (IV. 4). 29. On the Soul, Third ; or. How We See (IV. 5). 30. On Contemplation (III. 8). 31. On the Intellectual-Beauty (V. 8). 32. That the Intelligibles are Not Outside of the Intellectual- Principle and On the Good (V. 5). 33. Against the Gnostics (II. 9). 34. On Numbers (VI. 6). 35. Why Distant Objects Appear Small (II. 8). 36. Whether Happiness depends upon Extension of Time (I. 5). 37. On Coalescence (II. 7). 38. How the Multitude of Ideas came into Being ; and on the Good (VI. 7). 39. On Free-Will (VI. 8). 40.
2umbers (VI. 6). 35. Why Distant Objects Appear Small (II. 8). 36. Whether Happiness depends upon Extension of Time (I. 5). 37. On Coalescence (II. 7). 38. How the Multitude of Ideas came into Being ; and on the Good (VI. 7). 39. On Free-Will (VI. 8). 40. On the World (II. i). 41. On Sensation and Memory (IV. 6). 42. On the Kinds of Being, First (VI. i). 43. On the Kinds of Being, Second (VI. 2). 44. On the Kinds of Being, Third (VI. 3). 45. On Eternity and Time (III. 7). PORPHYRY 7 Thus we have twenty-four treatises composed during the six years of my association with him and dealing, as the titles indicate, with such problems as happened to arise at the Conferences ; add the twenty-one composed before my arrival, and we have accounted for forty-five treatises. 6. The following five more Plotinus wrote and sent to me while I was living in Sicily, where I had gone about the fifteenth year of Galienus : — 46. On Happiness (I. 4). 47. On Providence, First (III. 2). 48. On Providence, Second (III. 3). 49. On the Conscious Hypostases and the Transcendental (V. 3). 50. On Love (III. 5). These five he sent me in the first year of Claudius : in the early months of the second year, shortly before his death, I received the following four : — 51. On Evil (I. 8). 52. Whether the Star’s have Causal Operation (II. 3). 53. On the Animate and the Man (I. i). 54. On the First Good ; or. On Happiness (I. 8). Adding these nine to the forty-five of the first and second sets we have a total of fifty-four treatises. According to the time of writing — early manhood, vigorous prime, worn-out constitution — so the tractates vary in power. The first twenty- one pieces manifest a slighter capacity, the talent being not yet matured to the fulness of nervous strength. The twenty-four produced in the mid-period display the utmost reach of the powers and, except for the short treatises among them, attain the highest perfection. The last nine were written when the mental strength was already waning, and of these the last four show less vigour even than the five preceding. 8 PLOTINUS 7- Plotinus had a large following. Notable among the more zealous students, really devoted to philosophy, was Amelius of Tuscany, whose family name was Gentilianus. Amelius preferred to call himself Amerius, changing L for R, because, as he explained, it suited him better to be named from Amereia, Unification, than from Ameleia, Indifference. The group included also one Paulinus, a doctor of ScythopoUs, whom Amelius used to call Mikkalos in allusion to his blundering habit of mind.
3, because, as he explained, it suited him better to be named from Amereia, Unification, than from Ameleia, Indifference. The group included also one Paulinus, a doctor of ScythopoUs, whom Amelius used to call Mikkalos in allusion to his blundering habit of mind. Among closer personal friends was Eustochius of Alexandria, also a doctor, who came to know Plotinus towards the end of his life, and attended him until his death : Eustochius consecrated himself exclusively to Plotinus’ system and became a veritable philosopher. Then there was Zoticus, at once critic and poet, who has amended the text of Antimachus’ works and is the author of an exquisite poem upon the Atlantis story : his sight failed, and he died a little before Plotinus, as also did Paulinus. Another friend was Zethos, an Arabian by descent, who married a daughter of Ammonius’ friend Theodosius. Zethos, too, was a doctor ; Plotinus was deeply attached to him and was always trying to divert him from the political career in which he stood high. Plotinus was on the most familiar terms with him, and used to stay with him at his country place, six miles from Mintumae, a property which had formerly belonged to Castricius Firmus. Castricius was excelled by none of the group in appreciation of the finer side of life : he venerated Plotinus ; he devoted himself in the most faithful comradeship to Amelius in every need, and was in all matters as loyal to myself as though I were his own brother. This was another example of a politician venerating the philosopher. There were also among Plotinus' hearers not a few members of the Senate, amongst whom Marcellus Orontius and Sabinillus showed the greatest assiduity in philosophical studies. Another Senator, Rogatianus, advanced to such detachment from political ambitions that he gave up all his property, dismissed all his PORPHYRY 9 slaves, renounced every dignity, and, on the point of taking up his praetorship, the lictors already at the door, refused to come out or to have anything to do with the office. He even abandoned his own house, spending his time here and there at his friends' and acquaintances’, sleeping and eating with them and taking, at that, only one meal a day. He had been a victim of gout, carried in a chair, but this new regime of abstinence and abnegation restored his health : he had been unable to stretch out his hands ; he came to use them as freely as men living by manual labour. Plotinus took a great liking to Rogatianus and frequently praised him very highly, holding him up as a model to those aiming at the philosophical life.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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