I. PLOTINOS, LIKE PORPHYRY, DESPISED HIS PHYSICAL NATURE, BUT A
PICTURE OF HIM WAS SECURED.
Plotinos the philosopher, who lived recently, seemed ashamed of having
a body. Consequently he never spoke of his family or home (Lycopolis,
now Syout, in the Thebaid, in Egypt). He never would permit anybody
to perpetuate him in a portrait or statue. One day that Amelius[1]
begged him to allow a painting to be made of him, he said, "Is it not
enough for me to have to carry around this image[2], in which nature
has enclosed us? Must I besides transmit to posterity the image of this
image as worthy of attention?" As Amelius never succeeded in getting
Plotinos to reconsider his refusal, and to consent to give a sitting,
Amelius begged his friend Carterius, the most famous painter of those
times, to attend Plotinos's lectures, which were free to all. By dint
of gazing at Plotinos, Carterius so filled his own imagination with
Plotinos's features that he succeeded in painting them from memory.
By his advice, Amelius directed Carterius in these labors, so that
this portrait was a very good likeness. All this occurred without the
knowledge of Plotinos.