Plotinus

Plotinus (about 205–270) was the philosopher from whom Neoplatonism descends. Probably born in Egypt, he studied for eleven years in Alexandria with Ammonius Saccas, joined a Roman military expedition against Persia in the hope of learning the wisdom of the East, and from 244 taught in Rome, where senators and physicians attended his school. He taught that all reality flows from a single, transcendent One and that the soul can return to it through philosophy and contemplation. His pupil Porphyry, who wrote his life, edited his treatises into six groups of nine, the Enneads. Porphyry says that Plotinus seemed ashamed of having a body.