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From the Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Examines the life and thought of Plotinus, a Roman philosopher of Egyptian descent. Includes his studies in religion and ethics.
Excerpt:
Plotinus was born at Lycopolis, in Upper Egypt in 204 CE, and died at
Campania in 270 CE. In the twenty-eighth year of his life he applied
himself to philosophy, and attended the lectures of the most celebrated
men of that time in Alexandria. After studying under Ammonius for some
ten years, he accompanied the Emperor Gordian in his campaign against
the Persians, in order to learn something of their philosophy. In this
object he failed, owing to the unsuccessful issue of the undertaking; he
was even obliged to flee for his life to Antioch. In 244 he went to Rome
and won numerous adherents to his teaching, among them the Emperor
Gallienus and his wife Salonina. He conceive the idea of founding an
ideal city in Campania, with the approval and support of the emperor:
this city was to be called Platonopolis, and its inhabitants were to
live according to the laws of Plato. Gallienus was not disinclined to
enter into the plan; but it was thwarted by the opposition of the
imperial counselors. He taught in Rome until about 268, retiring then to
the country estate of a disciple in Campania. Plotinus did not reduce
his doctrine to writing until toward the close of his life, and then did
not publish it. His pupil Porphyry, arranged the fifty-four treatises of
Plotinus in six Enneads, placing them in logical order from the
simplest to the most abstruse, as well as chronological sequence. They
were first printed in a Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino at Florence
in 1492, then in Greek and Latin at Basel, in 1580.
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