The Enneads

He wrote nothing [at first]. By spending his time if [in random] study, he occupied himself with questions from his many companions, which were full of disorder and much nonsense original: "phluarias," meaning idle talk or chatter, as he himself used to tell us. Amelius joined him when Plotinus was in his third year in Rome, during the third year of the Emperor Philip's reign Philip the Arab, reigned 244–249 AD. And having remained until the first year of Claudius's reign Claudius Gothicus, reigned 268–270 AD, he stayed for eighteen and four years in total Calculating to 22 years of study. He [Amelius] was coming from the circle of Lysimachus when he joined. In industry original: "philoponia," meaning a love of labor or scholarly diligence he surpassed all those of his own time. Because he possessed almost everything from [Plotinus's] circle and in? taking notes from the meetings, he composed around one hundred books indices of notes, which he also presented as a gift to his companion Porphyry.

In the during? fifteenth year of Gallienus's reign roughly 263 AD, I, Porphyry, having come from Greece with Antonius of Rhodes, found Amelius in his eighteenth year of association with Plotinus. He [Amelius] had not yet dared to write anything except for the notes—of which he had not yet collected one hundred. In the tenth year of Gallienus's reign, Plotinus was around fifty-nine years old. I, Porphyry, first joined him then, being myself thirty years old at the time. From the first year of Gallienus's rule, Plotinus began to write on various subjects; by the end of the tenth year of Gallienus, when I, Porphyry, first became known to him, he was found to have written twenty-one books.

These I found had been given out to only a few. For there was not yet any public distribution, nor did it happen in a haphazard or unsystematic way,

to be
near the second
and Plotinus

but with full judgment regarding those who received them. These had no titles assigned to them, because he did not title them himself; different people gave different titles to each work. The titles that eventually prevailed are these. We are placing the dates? of the books in order, so that each of the works listed may be recognized by its time of writing.

1. On Beauty. and?...