294 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Under Con- 



Under 

 Juhan. 



Eusebius of 

 Myndus, 



' c ' 



Euna ius 

 Hierocies. 



School at 

 Athens. 



Plutarch, son 

 of Nestorius. 

 Synanus. 



Though the time and place of the death of Jamblicus are not known, 

 it probably preceded that of Constantine, and may have taken place 

 about the year 363. 



The Neo-Platonic school, though widely spread, naturally suffered 

 a considerable diminution of influence from the ascendency which 

 Christianity had gained over the declining cause of paganism during 

 the reign of Constantine and Constantius. But on the accession of 

 Julian, himself an enthusiastic philosopher and patron of philosophers, 

 an( j t j ie conse q uen t restoration of the ancient superstitions which it had 

 attempted by various allegoircal refinements to preserve, it resumed 

 its importance, and exercised with renewed lustre the magical powers 

 to which it presumptuously laid claim. Though Eusebius of Myndus 

 strove to restore only the Platonic intuitive contemplation of intel- 

 ligibles, jEdesius of Cappadocia, and others, made numerous and suc- 

 cessful experiments on the credulity of their followers. Maximus, 

 Priscus, and Chrysanthius swell the list of philosophers, to whom the 

 zealous Emperor extended his favour or his reverence. 



Eunapius of Sardis, in the reign of Theodosius, recorded in his 

 ( Lives,' 1 still extant, the extravagances of a school, to which he was 

 blindly devoted ; and, towards the close of the fifth century, Hierocles, 2 

 the advocate of Eclecticism, maintained in his treatise ' On Providence,' 

 that the sentiments of Plato and Aristotle were reconcilable, and 

 followed the same method in his * Commentaries on the Golden Verses 

 of Pythagoras.' 3 



Although Alexandria, where Pythagorico-Platonic notions found 

 warm admirers, was the cradle of the Eclectic school, it was also 

 established at Athens, in which ancient seat of learning the chair of 

 philosophy was supported, at first, by imperial, and afterwards by 

 private, liberality. There Plutarch, the son of Nestorius, and after 

 him Syrianus, the author of a ' Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics,' 

 an( ^ Q n fa e Rhetoric of Hermogenes,' 4 still remaining, propagated the 

 Alexandrian system. 



1 See the edition of his works by M. Boissonade, 1807. 



2 This is not the Hierocles of Bithynia, who wrote a work against Christianity, 

 which was refuted by Eusebius. 



3 The first edition of the complete works of Hierocles was published in Greek and 

 Latin, by John Pearson, London, 1654 and 1655, in 2 parts, small 8vo. The first 

 contains the Golden Verses, the Commentary, and the work called Facetiae 

 (A(TT?a) ; the second, the abridgment of the work On Providence, with the 

 extract of Photius, and the fragments preserved by Stobaeus, together with the 

 version of Curterius; and the notes of Sylburg, Lilius Gyraldus, and Merio 

 Casaubon. The second edition is that of P. Needham, Cambridge, 1709, in 8vo. 

 Rich. Warren published, at London, in 1742, a critical edition of the Commentaiy 

 only. For further information, see Schoell, Hist, de la Litt. Grecq. torn. vii. 

 p. 99. 



4 The Greek text of the Commentary on Aristotle has not yet been published. 

 Jerome Bagotini has published the Latin translation of the part which relates to 

 books iii. xiii. and xiv., Venice, 1558, 4to. The Commentary on Hermogenes may 

 be found in the Aldine edition of the Greek rhetoricians. 



