At a celebration of Plato's birthday I was reading a poem about the
"Mystic Marriage" (of the Soul) when somebody doubted my sanity,
because it contained both enthusiasm and mysticism. Plotinos spoke
up, and said to me, loud enough to be heard by everybody, "You have
just proved to us that you are at the same time poet, philosopher, and
hierophant." On this occasion the rhetorician Diophanes read an apology
on the utterances of Alcibiades in Plato's "Banquet," and he sought to
prove that a disciple who seeks to exercise himself in virtue should
show unlimited "complaisance" for his teacher, even in case the latter
were in love with him. Plotinos rose several times, as if he wanted to
leave the assembly; nevertheless, he restrained himself, and after the
audience had dispersed, he asked me to refute the paper. As Diophanes
would not communicate it to me, I recalled his arguments, and refuted
them; and then I read my paper before the same auditors as those who
had heard what had been said by Diophanes. I pleased Plotinos so much,
that several times he interrupted me by the words, "Strike that way,
and you will become the light of men!" When Eubulus, who was teaching
Platonism at Athens, sent to Plotinos some papers on Platonic subjects,
Plotinos had them given to me to examine them and report to him about
them. He also studied the laws of astronomy, but not as a mathematician
would have done; he carefully studied astrology; but realizing that no
confidence could be placed in its predictions, he took the trouble to
refute them several times, in his work.[13]