Severus Philosophus

Severus was a Platonist philosopher of the 2nd century CE, active in the period of the so-called Middle Platonism. He is known mainly through later testimonia and the reports of others, especially the commentaries of Proclus, who discusses Severus's views on the soul and his distinctive interpretation of Plato's "Timaeus." These reports reflect characteristic Middle Platonist concerns with the nature, generation, and immortality of the soul. Little is securely known about his life, including his birthplace, and most of his thought survives only secondhand through critical reports by later Neoplatonists.