Numenius of Apamea: The Father of Neo-Platonism

...also, the Stoics [say it is] neither good nor bad. Consequently, as if some evil were to occur in the course of life, when asked whence come evils, they blame the perversity of the seeds of evils. Yet they still do not explain whence this perversity itself comes, since according to them there are two principles of things: God and matter; God being the highest and most excellent good, and matter, as they believe, being neither good nor bad.

But Pythagoras does not fear to stand by the truth, even with assertions that are wondrous and operate against the opinions of men. He says that because Providence exists, evils also necessarily exist, for the reason that matter exists and is endowed with malice. If the world is from matter, it was certainly made from a nature that was already malicious. For this reason, Numenius praises Heraclitus for criticizing Homer, who wished for the destruction and devastation of evils in life, because he did not understand that he was asking for the world to be wiped out, since matter, which is the source of evils, would be exterminated. And Numenius also praises Plato for assuming that there are two souls of the world: one most beneficent, the other malevolent, namely, matter. Although it may fluctuate only moderately, because it is moved by its own internal motion, it must necessarily live and be animated, by the law of all things that move by their own innate motion. This, indeed, is also [the cause of] the passible part of the soul, in which there is something corporeal and mortal and similar to the body...