At that time there were many Christians, among whom were prominent
sectarians who had given up the ancient philosophy (of Plato and
Pythagoras), such as Adelphius and Aquilinus. They esteemed and
possessed the greater part of the works of Alexander of Lybia,
of Philocomus, of Demostrates and of Lydus. They advertised the
Revelations of Zoroaster, of Zostrian, of Nicotheus, of Allogenes, of
Mesus, and of several others. These sectarians deceived a great number
of people, and even deceived themselves, insisting that Plato had not
exhausted the depths of intelligible "being," or essence. That is why
Plotinos refuted them at length in his lectures, and wrote the book
that we have named "Against the Gnostics." The rest (of their books)
he left me to investigate. Amelius wrote as much as forty books to
refute the work of Zostrian; and as to me, I demonstrated by numerous
proofs that this alleged Zoroastrian book was apocryphal, and had only
recently been written by those of that ilk who wished to make people
believe that their doctrines had been taught by Zoroaster.