Born around the year 325 CE, Simplician had, according to the testimony of Augustine of Hippo, lived a life entirely dedicated to God since his youth (Aug. Conf. 8.1.1), a formulation that could also be interpreted as meaning that he had already been ordained as a presbyter at an early age. From 340 to 365 CE, he lived in Rome, where he gave advice and support to the famous rhetorician Victorinus, a leading representative of the so-called Latin Neoplatonism, on the latter’s path to conversion. These were the years in which the very young Ambrose of Milan was also present in Rome, and it is…