Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras

Iamblichus1 left behind him many roots and fountains of philosophy, which, through the cultivation of succeeding Platonists, produced a fair variety of vigorous branches and copious streams.

For an account of the theological writings of Iamblichus, I refer the reader to my above-mentioned History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology; and for accurate critical information concerning all his works, to the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabricius.

Regarding the following work, the Life of Pythagoras, it is necessary to observe that the original has been transmitted to us in a very imperfect state—partly from the numerous verbal errors of the text, partly from the lack of connection in the events narrated, and partly from many particulars being related in different places using the exact same words. Thus, the conjecture of Kuster, one of the German editors of this work, is highly probable: that it had not received the final polish of Iamblichus, but that others formed this treatise from the confused materials found among his manuscripts after his death. Notwithstanding all its defects, however, it is, as I have previously observed, a most interesting work, and the benefits it is calculated to disseminate are inestimable. And as two of the most celebrated critics among the Germans, Kuster and Kiessling, have produced two splendid editions of this work, it is evident they must have been deeply impressed with a conviction of its value and importance.

As to the Pythagoric Ethical Fragments, all praise of them is superfluous when it is considered that, independently of their being written by very early Pythagoreans, they were some of the sources from which Aristotle himself derived his consummate knowledge of morality, as will be at once evident by comparing his Nicomachean Ethics with these fragments.

¹ The exact time of Iamblichus’ death is unknown. It is, however, certain that it was during the reign of Constantine; and according to the accurate Fabricius, prior to the year of Christ 333. See Bibliotheca Græca, Vol. IV, p. 283.