Plotinus

Egyptian-born Greek philosopher and founder of Neoplatonism — the third-century revival and synthesis of Platonic thought that became the dominant philosophical framework of late antiquity, deeply shaping early Christian theology (through Augustine), medieval Islamic philosophy, the Jewish kabbalah, and the European mystical tradition through Eckhart and beyond. Born around 204 CE, probably in Lycopolis (Asyut, Egypt), Plotinus studied for eleven years in Alexandria with the Platonist Ammonius Saccas before settling in Rome in 244, where he taught for the rest of his life. His pupil Porphyry collected his lectures into the six Enneads (each containing nine treatises) — the foundational text of Neoplatonism. The Plotinian system describes reality as flowing from the One (the ineffable, transcendent source) through Nous (Intellect) and Soul to the material world, and traces the philosopher's path of return — through virtue, contemplation, and ultimately mystical union — back to the One. Porphyry reports that Plotinus achieved this union four times during the years they lived together. He died in 270 CE in Campania.