PLOTINUS

Plotinus was born in Upper Egypt around 203 AD and grew up in Alexandria. He studied under the Alexandrian philosophy teachers and especially the Platonist Ammonios Sakkas.

Wanting to get to know the thought of the East, he enlisted in the army of the emperor Gordian who was campaigning in Persia. When the imperial army was defeated, Plotinus managed to escape, reach Antioch and then Rome, where he lived until the end of his life.

He taught philosophy and gained fame, both as a teacher and as a moral figure. Among his students were prominent figures of Roman society - even the emperor Gallienus. His dream of founding a city in Campania, named Platopolis, to be governed according to Platonic ideals, was undermined by the imperial privy councillors. He started writing when he was already 49 years old. He wrote down his philosophical developments on paper, without a second reading, without corrections, and often without interrupting his discussions with his students. Of the latter, Porphyry assumed the task of philological editor and editor of his teacher's work, and divided it into 6 books of 9 treatises, which he therefore named "Enneades".

Plotinus, one of the last great exponents of philosophical discourse, died in 270 AD in Campania.