I have made this rather long quotation only to show what was thought
of Plotinos by the greatest critic of our days, the man who had
examined all the works of his time. At first Longinus had scorned
Plotinos, because he had relied on the reports of people ignorant (of
philosophy). Moreover, Longinus supposed that the copy of the works of
Plotinos he had received from Amelius was defective, because he was not
yet accustomed to the style of Plotinos. Nevertheless, if any one had
the works of Plotinos in their purity, it was certainly Amelius, who
possessed a copy made upon the originals themselves. I will further add
what was written by Longinus about Plotinos, Amelius, and the other
philosophers of his time, so that the reader may better appreciate
this great critic's high opinion of them. This book, directed against
Plotinos and Gentilianus Amelius, is entitled "Of the Limit (of Good
and Evil?)" and begins as follows:
"There were, O Marcellus Orontius[17] many philosophers in our
time, and especially in the first years of our childhood--for it
is useless to complain of their rarity at the present; but when I
was still a youth, there were still a rather goodly number of men
celebrated as philosophers. I was fortunate enough to get acquainted
with all of them, because I traveled early with our parents in many
countries. Visiting many nations and towns, I entered into personal
relations with such of these men as were still alive. Among these
philosophers, some committed their teachings to writings, with the
purpose of being useful to posterity, while others thought that it
was sufficient for them to explain their opinions to their disciples.
Among the former are the Platonists Euclides, Democritus (who wrote
Commentaries on the Alcibiades, on the Phaedo, and on the Metaphysics
of Aristotle), Proclinus, who dwelt in the Troad, Plotinos and his
disciple Gentilianus Amelius, who are at present teaching at Rome;
the Stoics Themistocles, Phebion, and both Annius and Medius, who
were much talked of only recently, and the Peripatetician Heliodorus
of Alexandria. Among those who did not write their teachings are the
Platonists Ammonius (Saccas) and (the pagan) Origen,[18] who lived
with him for a long while, and who excelled among the philosophers
of that period; also Theodotus and Eubulus, who taught at Athens. Of
course, they did write a little; Origen, for instance, wrote about "The
Guardian Spirits"; and Eubulus wrote Commentaries on the Philebus,
and on the Gorgias, and "Observations on Aristotle's Objections
against Plato's Republic." However, these works are not considerable
enough to rank their authors among those who have seriously treated
of philosophy; for these little works were by them written only
incidentally, and they did not make writing their principal occupation.
The Stoics Herminus, Lysimachus,[19] Athenaeus and Musonius (author
of "Memorable Events," translated in Greek by Claudius Pollio),
who lived at Athens. The Peripateticians Ammonius and Ptolemy, who
were the most learned of their contemporaries, especially Ammonius,
whose erudition was unequalled, none of these philosophers wrote any
important work; they limited themselves to writing poems, or festal
orations, which have been preserved in spite of them. I doubt very
much that they wished to be known by posterity merely by books so
small (and unrepresentative), since they had neglected to acquaint us
with their teachings in more significant works. Among those who have
left written works, some have done no more than gather or transcribe
what has been left to us from the ancient (philosophers); among these
are Euclides, Democritus and Proclinus. Others limited themselves to
recalling some details extracted from ancient histories, and they
tried to compose books with the same materials as their predecessors,
as did Annius, Medius, and Phebio; the latter one trying to make
himself famous by style, rather than by thought. To these we might
add Heliodorus, who has put in his writings nothing that had not been
said by the ancients, without adding any philosophical explanation.
But Plotinos and Gentilianus Amelius, have shown that they really made
a profession of being writers, both by the great number of questions
they treated, and by the originality of their doctrines. Plotinos
explained the principles of Pythagoras and Plato more clearly than his
predecessors; for neither Numenius, nor Cronius, nor Moderatus,[20] nor
Thrasyllus,[21] come anywhere near the precision of Plotinos when they
touch on the same topics. Amelius tried to follow in his footsteps,
and adopted the greater part of his ideas; but differs from him in
the verbosity of his demonstrations, and the diffusion of his style.
The writings of these two men alone deserve special consideration;
for what is the use of criticizing the works of imitators; had we
not better study the authors whose works they copied, without any
additions, either in essential points, or in argumentation, doing no
more than choosing out the best? This has been our method of procedure
in our controversy with Gentilianus Amelius's strictures on justice,
in Plato's works; and in my examination of Plotinos's books on the
Ideas.[22] So when our mutual friends Basil of Tyre, (Porphyry[23]),
who has written much on the lines of Plotinos, having even preferred
the teachings of Plotinos to my own (as he had been my pupil),
undertook to demonstrate that Plotinos's views about the Ideas were
better than my own, I have fully refuted his contentions, proving that
he was wrong in changing his views on the subject.[24] Besides, I have
criticized several opinions of Gentilianus Amelius and Plotinos,
as for instance in the "Letter to Amelius" which is long enough to
form a whole book. I wrote it to answer a letter sent me from Rome by
Amelius, which was entitled "The Characteristics of the Philosophy of
Plotinos."[25] I, however, limited myself to entitling my little work,
"A Letter to Amelius."
XXI. RESULTS OF LONGINUS'S CRITICISM AND VINDICATION OF PLOTINOS'S
ORIGINALITY.
From the above it will be seen that Plotinos and Amelius are superior
to all their contemporaries by the great number of questions they
consider, and by the originality of their system; that Plotinos had
not appropriated the opinions of Numenius, and that he did not even
follow them; that he had really profited by the opinions of the
Pythagoreans (and of Plato); further, that he was more precise than
Numenius, Cronius, and Thrasyllus. After having said that Amelius
followed in the footsteps of Plotinos, but that he was prolix and
diffuse in his expositions, which characteristic forms the difference
between their styles, he speaks of me, who at that time had known
Plotinos for only a short time, and says, "Our mutual friends, Basil
(King) of Tyre (Porphyry), who has written much, taking Plotinos
as his model." By that he means that I have avoided the rather
unphilosophical diffuseness of Amelius, and have imitated the (concise)
style of Plotinos. The quotation of the judgment of this famous man,
the first critic of his day, should decide of the reverence due to
our philosopher, Plotinos. If I had been able to visit Longinus when
he begged me to do so, he would not have undertaken the refutation he
wrote, before having clearly understood Plotinos's system.