Proclus

Proclus was born in Constantinople in 412 and grew up in Lycia, in present-day Turkey. After studies in Alexandria he came to Athens, where he studied with Plutarch of Athens and Syrianus, and succeeded Syrianus as head of the Platonic school, a post he held for nearly fifty years until his death in 485. His student Marinus wrote his biography, which presents him as a philosopher-saint, devoted to prayer and the rites of many religions.

He wrote voluminously. The Elements of Theology sets out the principles of Neoplatonism in 211 propositions with proofs, on the model of Euclid; the Platonic Theology is a systematic account of the divine orders; and his commentaries on Plato’s dialogues, especially the Timaeus, Parmenides and Alcibiades, are among the most important sources for ancient Platonism. He also wrote on mathematics, astronomy and physics, and hymns to the gods.

Proclus lived as a pagan philosopher in an increasingly Christian empire. Yet his influence on Christian thought was profound, above all through Pseudo-Dionysius, who drew heavily on him, and through the Liber de causis, a work based on the Elements of Theology that circulated in the medieval Latin West under Aristotle’s name.