Porphyry: On the Life of Plotinus and the Order of His Books

Introduction

The Author, His Times, and His Work

Porphyry (ca. 232–ca. 304), from Tyre in Phoenicia, was one of the most important representatives of early Neoplatonism. Because our basic source of information about his life is the VP itself, there is no need to expand on that theme here. It is enough to remark that before he went to Rome and Plotinus' school there, he spent some time in Athens, where he studied with the mathematician Demetrius, the grammarian Apollonius, perhaps the rhetor Minucianus, and—most important—with the philologist and philosopher Longinus, with whom he maintained long-lasting and warm relations. But it is obvious that the most significant and definitive influence on him was that of Plotinus. He remained in his school in Rome for about five years (263–68) and quickly came to play an important role within it. By his own account, Porphyry was assigned by P., among other things, the editing and publishing of his writings, a task that Porphyry would accomplish with great success, but also with notable delay, as the edition appeared thirty years after the death of his teacher. After a psychological crisis, Porphyry left Rome, only a little before P.'s death, and settled in Lilybaeum in Sicily. The evidence suggests that from there he journeyed to North Africa and to his homeland, Phoenicia, before returning again to the imperial capital, probably during the reign of Aurelian. We know precious little about his life after this return. It is reasonable to suppose that it was during this period that he was most active as writer and teacher, but it is debatable whether he succeeded P. as leader of the philosophical school in Rome—if there even existed a school in which such a succession could take place. Late in life he married Marcella, the widow of a friend and mother of seven children. There are good reasons to suspect that he took part in the preparations for the Great Persecution of the Christians, and it appears that he died before Diocletian's abdication in May 305.

The history of the tumultuous time in which P. and Porphyry lived, and which more recent historians usually term the "Third-Century Crisis," cannot be presented here, even in brief. Suffice it to say that in the period of one hundred years between the birth of P. and the death of Porphyry, there reigned some thirty emperors, among whom—if we exclude the members of the tetrarchy, all of whom died after 304—only two, Septimius Severus and Claudius II, died a natural death. For a very summary picture of the political and cultural setting for this period, readers may refer to the chronological table following the "System of Dating" section below.

Porphyry was a multifaceted and prolific writer. The primary features of his work are exceptionally wide-ranging knowledge combined with a sensitivity characteristic of his era, which causes him to oscillate between scholarly sobriety and the occasionally melodramatic sentimentality of the "torch-bearer." He was concerned about the broader dissemination of Neoplatonic philosophy, with the result that some of his works possess a marked popularizing and introductory character. This fact has earned him the dubious reputation of a vulgarisateur, especially because his great works of systematic philosophy and his philosophical commentaries have been lost. He also wrote on historical themes, religion, philology, grammar, astrology, music theory, and other subjects. These writings bear witness to a very broad competence in all the areas of study that would soon constitute the triuium and the quadriuium of medieval education.

The Composition and Character of the VP

As appears from its title and final phrases, the VP was written as an introduction to the edition of the Enneads, P.'s complete written work, organized by Porphyry in a systematic manner according to themes. To judge by a reference Porphyry apparently makes to his own age (23.13–14), this work must have been composed during the period between the summer of 299 and the summer of 301. The phraseology at 26.37–40 gives one to understand that during this period the editorial work on the Enneads had not yet been completed, but cannot have been much further delayed, making it possible for us to say that the entire work was published in about 300–301.

The result is a work of exceptional importance, the like of which has not been preserved from antiquity: the presentation of the life of a great philosopher written by a close friend and disciple, who was also an unusually learned philologist with notable experience as a historian, and a determination to undertake his subject with completeness and—to the extent that the spirit of his age allowed—sobriety. But in order to appreciate properly its contents, as well as its omissions, we must bear in mind its place in the entire undertaking of the publication of the Enneads. We will then understand why, for example—even though it would not be fair to call this work a "hagiography"—only the positive aspects of P.'s personality are emphasized, and in particular those which pertain either directly or indirectly to his teaching activity; why stress is laid on the circumstances surrounding P.'s various writings and the order and manner in which they were produced; why Porphyry foregrounded so prominently his own role as instigator of, and confidant in, his teacher's intellectual production; and finally, why there is such a preoccupation with contemporary opinions of P.'s books, where the modern reader would prefer fuller and more substantial information about subjects such as Ammonius, P.'s adventures in Mesopotamia, the story of Platonopolis, the development of the relationship between P. and Amelius, the economic and social arrangements during the period when he was living and teaching in Rome, and so forth. Porphyry's purpose is not historical, nor is it purely biographical. First and foremost it is introductory—he is primarily concerned to prepare readers and to entice them toward the text of the Enneads.

The Organization and Sources of the VP

The organization of the VP is quite clear, straightforward, and at the same time revealing of the preferences and interests of its author. It can be presented in outline as follows (the arabic numerals are the numbers of the chapters):

I. Prologue: The philosophical and physical death of P.
1 His shame of being in a body
2 His illness and death
II. Narration of P.'s life
3 His youth until his establishment in Rome
P.'s writing activity
4 The first period
5 The second period
6 The third period
P.'s circle
7 The students
8 Digression: How P. composed...