Enneades
Rome · 270
P
Plotinus
Plotinus
c. 204 CE–c. 270 CE · Lycopolis (Egypt)
Founder of Neoplatonism; his Enneads articulate a triadic metaphysics — the One, the Intellect, and the Soul — that decisively shaped late-antique philosophy and the early Christian and Jewish mystical traditions.
Did you know?
The great interpreter of Plato lived closer to the fall of Rome than to Plato
Plotinus (c. 204–270 CE) built his entire philosophy on Plato, founding what later became known as Neoplatonism — yet he lived so late that his death fell only about 200 years before the conventional fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, but more than 600 years after Plato died (c. 348 BCE). The devoted successor stood far nearer to Rome's collapse than to the master he spent his life expounding.
Meet Plato →How we know
Plotinus c. 204–270 CE; Plato d. c. 348 BCE; fall of the Western Roman Empire conventionally 476 CE. Death→Plato ≈ 617 yrs; death→476 CE = 206 yrs. 206 < 617.
“The ancient Greeks” spanned more time than separates us from the printing press
From Thales, the first Greek philosopher, to Plotinus at the tradition's late height, classical Greek philosophy ran for roughly nine centuries — a longer stretch of time than separates us today from Gutenberg's invention of the printing press.
Meet Thales →How we know
Thales b. c. 624 BCE; Plotinus d. c. 270 CE → span ≈ 893 yrs (~9 centuries). Gutenberg's press c. 1440 CE → 2026 − 1440 = 586 yrs. 893 > 586.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→
✦
Stop 1 of 3205Born
Lycopolis (Egypt)
What they did here
Reportedly born at Lycopolis in Roman Egypt c.205 CE (the exact site is uncertain — Porphyry's Life, our main source, says Plotinus refused to discuss his origins). Early life sparsely documented.
About Lycopolis (Egypt)
Lycopolis, modern Asyut in Upper Egypt on the west bank of the Nile, was a Greco-Egyptian city. It is generally given by ancient sources as the birthplace of the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus, founder of Neoplatonism. The later epic poet Colluthus was also a native of Lycopolis.
In the same place & time
✦
Sages whose lives overlapped with Plotinus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
In the same tradition
Valerian, Diophantus Alexandrinus, Gallienus, Volusianus, Hostilian, Porphyrius
The world in their lifetime
✦
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Plotinus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.