Summarizing, he formed a bridge between the pagan world, with its
Greco-Roman civilization, and the modern world, in three departments:
Christianity, philosophy, and mysticism. So long as the traditional
Platonico-Stoical feud persisted there was no hope of progress; because
it kept apart two elements that were to fuse into the Christian
philosophy. Numenius was the last Platonist, as Posidonius was the last
Stoic combatant. However, if reports are to be trusted, Ammonius was an
eclecticist, who prided himself on combining Plato with Aristotle. If
Plotinos was indeed his disciple, it was the theory eclecticism that
he took from his reputed teacher. Practically he was to accomplish it
by his dependence on the Numenian Amelius, the Stoic Porphyry, and
the negative Eustochius. It will be seen therefore that his chief
importance was not in spite of his weakness, but most because of it.
By repeatedly "boxing the compass" he thoroughly assimilated the best
of the conflicting schools, and became of interest to a sufficiency
of different groups (Christian, philosophical and mystical) to insure
preservation, study and quotation. His habit of omitting credit to
any but ancient thinkers left his own work, to the uninformed--who
constituted all but a minimal number--as a body of original thought.
Thus he remains to us the last light of Greece, speaking a language
with which we are familiar, and leaving us quotations that are
imperishable.