Thus he was able to live at once within himself and for others ; he never relaxed from his interior attention unless in sleep ; and even his sleep was kept light by an abstemiousness that often prevented him taking as much as a piece of bread, and by this unbroken concentration upon his own highest nature.
Several women were greatly attached to him, amongst them Gemina, in whose house he lived, and her daughter, called Gemina, too, after the mother, and Amphiclea, the wife of Ariston, son of lamblichus ; all three devoted themselves assiduously to philosophy.
Not a few men and women of position, on the approach of death, had left their boys and girls, with all their property, in his care, feeling that with Plotinus for guardian the children would be in holy hands. His house therefore was filled with lads and lasses, amongst them Polemon, in whose education he took such interest as often to hear the boy recite verses of his own composition.
He always found time for those that came to submit returns of the childrens’ property, and he looked closely to the accuracy of the accounts : “ Until the young people take to philosophy,” he used to say, ” their fortunes and revenues must be kept intact for them.” And yet all this labour and thought over the worldly interests of so many people never interrupted, during waking hours, his intention towards the Supreme.
He was gentle, and always at the call of those having the slightest acquaintance with him. After spending twenty-six entire years in Rome, acting, too, as arbiter in many differences, he had never made an enemy of any citizen.
Among those making profession of Philosophy at Rome was one Olympius, an Alexandrian, who had been for a little while a pupil of Ammonius.
This man’s jealous envy showed itself in continual insolence, and
finally he grew so bitter that he even ventured sorcery, seeking to crush Plotinus by star-spells. But he found his experiments recoiUng upon himself, and he confessed to his associates that Plotinus possessed “ a mighty soul, so powerful as to be able to hurl every assault back upon those that sought his ruin.” Plotinus had felt the operation and declared that at that moment Olympius’ “ limbs were convulsed and his body shrivelling like a money-bag pulled tight.” Olympius, per- ceiving on several attempts that he was endangering himself rather than Plotinus, desisted.
In fact Plotinus possessed by birth something more than is accorded to other men. An Egyptian priest who had arrived in Rome and, through some friend, had been presented to the philosopher, became desirous of displaying his powers to him, and he offered to evoke a visible manifestation of Plotinus’ presiding spirit. Plotinus readily consented and the evocation was made in the Temple of Isis, the only place, they say, which the Egyptian could find pure in Rome.
At the summons a Divinity appeared, not a being of the spirit- ranks, and the Egyptian exclaimed : “You are singularly graced ; the guiding-spirit within you is none of the lower degree but a God.” It was not possible, however, to interrogate or even to contemplate this God any further, for the priest’s assistant, who had been holding the birds to prevent them flying away, strangled them, whether through jealousy or in terror. Thus Plotinus had for indwelling spirit a Being of the more divine degree, and he kept his own divine spirit unceasingly intent upon that inner presence. It was this preoccupation that led him to write his treatise upon Our Tutelary Spirit, an essay in the explanation of the differences among spirit-guides.
Amelius was scrupulous in observing the day of the New-Moon and other holy-days, and once asked Plotinus to join in some such celebration : Plotinus refused : “ It is for those Beings to come to me, not for me to go to them.”
What was in his mind in so lofty an utterance we could not explain to ourselves and we dared not ask him.
He had a remarkable penetration into character.
Once a valuable necklace was stolen from Chione, who was living m honourable widowhood with her children in the same house as Plotinus : the servants were called before him : he scrutinised them all, then indicated one ; “ This man is the thief.” The man was whipped but for some time persisted in denial : finally, however, he confessed, and restored the necklace.
Plotinus foretold also the future of each of the children in the household : for instance, when questioned as to Polemon’s character and destiny he said : “ He will be amorous and short-lived ” ; and so it proved.
I myself at one period had formed the intention of ending my hfe ; Plotinus discerned my purpose ; he came unexpectedly to my house where I had secluded myself, told me that my decision sprang not from reason but from mere melancholy and advised me to leave Rome. I obeyed and left for Sicily, which I chose because I heard that one Probus, a man of scholarly repute, was living there not far from Lilybaeum. Thus I was induced to abandon my first intention but was prevented from being with Plotinus between that time and his death.
The Emperor Galienus and his wife Salonina greatly honoured and venerated Plotinus, who thought to turn their friendly feeling to some good purpose. In Campania there had once stood, according to tradition, a City of Philosophers, a ruin now ; Plotinus asked the Emperor to rebuild this city and to make over the surrounding district to the new- founded state ; the population was to live under Plato’s laws ; the city was to be called Platonopolis ; and Plotinus undertook to settle down there with his associates. He would have had his way without more ado but that opposition at court, prompted by jealousy, spite, or some such paltry motive, put an end to the plan.
At the Conferences he showed the most remarkable power of going to the heart of a subject, whether in exposition or in explanation, and his phrasing was apt ; but he made mistakes in certain words ; for example, he said “ anamnemisketai ” for “ anamimnesketai ” — just such errors as he committed in his writing.
When he was speaking his intellect visibly illuminated his face : always of winning presence, he became at these times still more engaging : a slight moisture gathered on his forehead ; he radiated benignity.
He was always as ready to entertain objections as he was powerful in meeting them. At one time I myself kept interrogating him during three days as to how the soul is associated with the body, and he con- tinued explaining ; a man called Thomasius entered in the midst of our discussions ; the visitor was more interested in the general drift of the system than in particular points, and said he wished to hear Plotinus expounding some theory as he would in a set treatise, but that he could not endure Porphyry’s questions and answers : Plotinus asked, “ But if we cannot first solve the difficulties Porphyry raises what could go into the treatise ? ”
In style Plotinus is concise, dense with thought, terse, more lavish of ideas than of words, most often expressing himself with a fervid inspiration. He followed his own path rather than that of tradition, but in his writings both the Stoic and Peripatetic doctrines are sunk ; Aristotle’s Metaphysic, especially, is condensed in them, all but entire.
He had a thorough theoretical knowledge of Geometry, Mechanics, Optics and Music, though it was not in his temperament to go practically into these subjects.
At the Conferences he used to have treatises by various authors read aloud — among the Platonists it might be Severus or Cronius, Numenius, Caius or Atticus ; and — among the Peripatetics Aspasius, Alexander, Adrastus or some such writer, at the call of the moment. But it was far from his way to follow any of these authors blindly ; he took
a personal, original view, applying Ammonius’ method to the investiga- tion of every problem.
He was quick to absorb ; a few words sufficed him to make clear the significance of some profound theory and so to pass on. After hearing Longinus' work On Causes, and his Philarchaios , he remarked : “ Longinus is a man of letters, but in no sense a philosopher."
One day Origen came to the conference-room ; Plotinus blushed deeply and was on the point of bringing his lecture to an end ; when Origen begged him to continue, he said : “ The zest dies down when the speaker feels that his hearers have nothing to learn from him."
Once on Plato’s feast I read a poem, “ The Sacred Marriage " ; my piece abounded in mystic doctrine conveyed in veiled words and was couched in terms of enthusiasm ; someone exclaimed : “ Porphyry
has gone mad " ; Plotinus said to me so that all might hear : “You have shown yourself at once poet, philosopher and hierophant.”
The orator Diophanes one day read a justification of the Alcibiades of Plato’s Banquet and maintained that the pupil, for the sake of advance- ment in virtue, should submit to the teacher without reserve, even to the extent of carnal commerce : Plotinus started up several times to leave the room but forced himself to remain ; on the breaking up of the company he directed me to write a refutation. Diophanes refused to lend me his address and I had to depend on my recollection of his argu- ment ; but my refutation, delivered before the same audience, delighted Plotinus so much that during the very reading he repeatedly quoted : “ So strike and be a light to men."
When Eubulus, the Platonic Successor, wrote from Athens, sending treatises on some questions in Platonism, Plotinus had the writings put into my hands with instructions to examine them and report to him upon them.
He paid some attention to the principles of Astronomy, though he did not study the subject very deeply on the mathematical side. He went more searchingly into Horoscopy ; when once he was convinced
Porphyry 15
that its results were not to be trusted he had no hesitation in attacking the system frequently both at the Conferences and in his writings.
Many Christians of this period — amongst them sectaries who had abandoned the old philosophy, men of the schools of Adelphius and Aquilinus — had possessed themselves of works by Alexander of Lydia, by Philocomus, by Demostratus and by Lydus, and exhibited also Revelations bearing the names of Zoroaster, Zostrianus, Nikotheus, Allogenes, Mesus and others of that order. Thus they fooled many, themselves fooled first ; Plato, according to them, had failed to penetrate into the depth of Intellectual Being.
Plotinus frequently attacked their position at the Conferences and finally wrote the treatise which I have headed Against the Gnostics : he left to us of the circle the task of examining what he himself passed over. Amelius proceeded as far as a fortieth treatise in refutation of the book of Zostrianus : I myself have shown on many counts that the Zoroastrian volume is spurious and modem, concocted by the sectaries in order to pretend that the doctrines they had embraced were those of the ancient sage.
Some of the Greeks began to accuse Plotinus of appropriating the ideas of Numenius.
Amelius being informed of this charge by the Stoic and Platonist Trupho, challenged it in a treatise which he entitled The Difference between the Doctrines of Plotinus and Numenius. He dedicated the work to me, under the name of Basileus (or King). This really is my name ; it is equivalent to Porphyry (Purple-robed) and translates the name I bear in my own tongue ; for I am called Malchos, like my father, and “ Malchos ” would give “ Basileus ” in Greek. Longinus, in dedicat- ing his work On Impulse to Cleodamus and myself, addressed us as “ Cleodamus and Malchus,” just as Numenius translated the Latin “ Maximus " into its Greek equivalent “ Megalos."
Here follows Amelius’ letter ;
Amelius to Basileus, with all good wishes.
You have been, in your own phrase, pestered by the persistent asser- tion that our friend's doctrine is to be traced to Numenius of Apamea.
Now, if it were merely for those illustrious personages who spread this charge, you may be very sure I would never utter a word in reply. It is sufficiently clear that they are actuated solely by that famous and astonishing facility of speech of theirs when they assert, at one moment, that he is an idle babbler, next that he is a plagiarist, and finally that he bases the universe on the meanest of existents. Clearly in all this we have nothing but scoffing and abuse.