Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Richard Sorabji for his patience and sound advice; Ilsetraut Hadot, Pierre Hadot, and Philippe Hoffmann for teaching me everything I know about Neoplatonism in general and the Commentators in particular; and John Dillon and Frans de Haas for their useful comments on the translation.

Research cannot be done without good libraries, and I thank M.-O. Goulet-Cazé, M. Narcy, and C. Robine for access to the library of the CNRS Fédération 33 (Villejuif, France), and P. Petitmengin for access to the Bibliothèque des Lettres (Library of Letters) of the École Normale Supérieure (Higher Normal School).

This work is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Jack Stephens.

M.C.