Select Works of Porphyry (On Abstinence, Cave of the Nymphs, Auxiliaries)

INTRODUCTION.

PORPHYRY, the celebrated author of the treatises translated in this volume, was honored by his contemporaries and by succeeding Platonists with the title of the philosopher, on account of his extraordinary philosophical achievements. He is likewise called by Simplicius the most learned of the philosophers, and is praised by Proclus for his hieroprepe neomata, or "conceptions adapted to holiness" original: "ἱεροπρεπη νοηματα"—the truth of which titles is abundantly and clearly confirmed by the following treatises.

Only a few biographical details have been passed down to us regarding this great man, which are as follows: He was born at Tyre in the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, in the year 233 of the Christian era. He died in Rome when he was more than seventy years old, during the latter part of the Emperor Diocletian's reign. He was a disciple first of Longinus, and afterwards of the great Plotinus, with whom he became acquainted in the thirtieth year of his life.