I. Life

Plotinus, the founder and most significant philosopher of Neoplatonism, concealed his background; statements by later writers that he was an Egyptian are implausible. At the age of 28, he became a student of the Platonist Ammonius Sakkas in Alexandria. In 243 he ¶ joined the Persian campaign of Emperor Gordian III to gain a knowledge of Persian and Indian philosophy. When Gordian was murdered, Plotinus fled to Rome in 244, where he taught philosophy for 26 years. He had …