Lives of the sophists

 to follow, having scattered it like some mist. At once, therefore, the divine Plutarch records his own life, scattered throughout his books, and that

 not one man has written a biography, at least so far as we know but for one collecting from the signs given during the reading, such were the things

 And after these things he deals with many other matters, how one must take care of them. And he says that he also pursued and cast out a certain demon

 ungrudging. Therefore, he did few things by himself, apart from his companions and pupils, revering the divine but for the most part he was with his

 Golden locks gleamed about his back and his breast, and he seemed altogether as one bathing and having been bathed. And when his companions were aston

 of beauty. Thus that man also, choosing to praise him for the sake of the truth, on the one hand reveals the magnitude of the punishments and misfortu

 they neglected the plot. Therefore, just as in the time of the old and great Socrates, no one of all the Athenians (even though they were a democracy)

 But she happened to be skilled also in delivering women in their confinement. <and> as she was setting a cup before the Egyptian and pouring the spice

 his own hand and the things written, he found the oracle written on his hand. 6.4.4 And it is this: Threads are set on the threads of two Fates for yo

 with easy proofs, he orders him to come out, and he came out, having overthrown a tyrant with his speech and he immediately invited him to his table

 is your life as well, a gift as high as heaven and reaching the stars, leave this Sosipatra with us, her truer nurses and fathers, and for five years

 is it, child? And she, pausing for a little, said, But now I understand what was said. For as they, weeping, handed these things to me, they said, '

 he was doing, and revealed the signs that appeared. And as he fell gaping to the ground, and confessed that Sosipatra was openly a goddess, Rise up,

 I have no need to write their names for the account hastens on not to the base but to the good. Except for what one of her children (Antoninus was hi

 human. For collecting the bones and heads of those convicted of many crimes, whom the civil court had punished, they both declared them gods, and they

 he had arrived, and his body was weary and foremost among his school, and holding first place, were Maximus, on whose behalf this is being written, a

 the torches will light up, which the goddess carries in her hands and the light, flaring up on the torches, anticipated the words. We then, for the

 sent him gifts <and> an escort for the care of the temples of Hellas, he immediately summoned 7.3.10 Maximus and Chrysanthius. And the summons was one

 nevertheless unmoved, not lifted up by the imperial power, but bringing down the imperial power and leveling it to a more philosophical state. 7.4.8 B

 he contributed great good will to affairs, exposing his body to the foremost dangers, and being openly at odds with the praetorian prefect, so that no

 for immediately those who had conspired and been numbered and with everyone everywhere being seized and slaughtered, like hens at a festival and symp

 Pergamon, and the more honored of the companions were present 8.1.6 but the teacher, implanting a certain harmony and care for what is human in his s

 in imitation of the public theaters 9.1.6, but smaller and as is fitting for a house. For so great was the strife in Athens of the men and youths of t

 (And Tusciunus, who was present at the trial, and within the group of the accused, related these things to the author) Prohaeresius came forward into

 the sun makes the night longer by becoming more southerly (for it had entered Libra and the nights were about to lengthen) and the ship-captain, bein

 he was handsome, and one marveled at the power of his beauty, that for so great a body 10.3.2 it sufficed throughout for the most excellent form and

 for the sake of wealth, but for Prohaeresius argument alone was enough, just as the Homeric Hermes escorting Priam to the tent of Achilles10.3.17 even

 no one knew the future but when he said I will ask for another, more difficult thing, then, having been ordered 10.5.2 to speak, he says, let not

 being of a most distinguished rank, to grasp, and to draw into sight the phantom conceived from ancient images, 10.6.4 he hurried to Greece. And havin

 transferring their astonishment to his appearance and what they saw, they were amazed at both the beauty and height of his body, as if looking up with

 very quickly leaped into political life. 10.8.1 But when Julian was emperor, being excluded <ἐν> from his position of teaching (for he was thought to

 they say. HIMERIUS: Bithynia bore this man, but the one writing these things did not know him and yet he was living in those times. But having crosse

 to Libanius 16.1.10 and of those thought worthy of his company he departed unstung but his character was immediately recognized for what it was, and

 blaming the greatness of that man's nature, but himself testifying to his own 17.1.3 hyperattention and precision regarding petty words as if unaware

 he was a distinguished child, having partaken of all education which both contributes to and perfects virtue. 21.1.2 And advancing in age, he became a

 precision, and to confess openly that when they met with Ionicus, they learned in practice the things said by the ancients, and brought them out for u

 having something contentious and stubborn in his nature, resisting the signs that had appeared from the gods, he would ask for and demand 23.2.2 other

 of those present, a stir arose, and it seemed good to him to contribute something to what was being said, everything was full of silence, as if no peo

 All were present, and he who is writing these things was present but Justus, standing over it, and fixing the gaze of his eyes (for the victim lay in

 shook souls into fear, he alone remained unshaken, so that 23.6.2 one might have conjectured * that the man was not even on earth. At those times inde

not one man has written a biography, at least so far as we know; but for one collecting from the signs given during the reading, such were the things concerning him. <PORPHYRY>. Tyre was Porphyry's homeland, the first city of the ancient Phoenicians, and his parents were not undistinguished. 4.1.2 And having received a proper education, he both advanced and progressed so much, that—he was a student of Longinus—and 4.1.3 he adorned his teacher within a short time. And Longinus at that time was a living library and a walking museum, and indeed he was appointed to judge the ancients, just as many others before him, and 4.1.4 Dionysius of Caria most renowned of all. Porphyry was at first called Malchus in the Syrian city (which can mean king); but Longinus named him Porphyry, turning the appellation towards the royal mark of his garment. With him indeed he was educated in the highest form of education, having arrived at the height of all grammar, just as he had, and of rhetoric; except that he did not incline toward the latter, 4.1.5 but rather absorbed every form of philosophy. For Longinus was by far the best in all things of the men of that time, and a great multitude of his books are in circulation, and what is in circulation is admired. And if anyone passed judgement on any of the ancients, the former opinion did not prevail, but the judgement of Longinus always 4.1.6 prevailed. Thus having received his initial education and being admired by all, desiring to see the great Rome, so that he might take the city by wisdom, as soon as he arrived in it and entered into conversation with the great Plotinus, he forgot all other things, and committed 4.1.7 himself to him. Being insatiably filled with that learning and those original and divinely inspired discourses, for some time he contented himself with listening, as he himself says, then being overcome by the greatness of the discourses, he hated both his body and being a man, and sailing across the strait of Charybdis to Sicily, where Odysseus is said to have sailed up, he did not endure to see a city, nor to hear the voice of men (thus he put away their pain and pleasure), but stretching himself out towards Lilybaeum (which is the one of the three promontories of Sicily that rises up and looks towards Libya), he lay groaning and starving himself, 4.1.8 neither taking food, and avoiding the path of men. Nor did the great Plotinus keep a blind watch over these things, but following on his heels <and tracking him> or searching for the young man who had fled, he finds him lying there, and he was resourceful with words for him that called back the soul that was just about to fly out of the body, and he strengthened the body for the retention 4.1.9 of the soul. And the one was breathing and arose, while the other set down the spoken words into a book of his writings. And while the philosophers cover their secrets with obscurity, just as the poets do with their myths, Porphyry, having praised the remedy of clarity and having tasted it through experience, 4.1.10 writing a commentary brought it to light. He himself then returned to Rome, and held to the study of discourses so that he went forth even into public for a display; but every marketplace and every crowd attributed the fame of Porphyry to Plotinus. For Plotinus, on the one hand, on account of the heavenly quality of his soul and the obliqueness and enigmatic nature of his discourses, seemed weighty 4.1.11 and difficult to hear; but Porphyry, like some Hermetic chain nodding towards men, through his varied learning announced everything in an intelligible and clear manner. He himself then says (but perhaps being young he wrote these things, as 4.1.12 it seems), that he had encountered none of the public oracles; but in the book itself he records,

βίον ἀνέγραψεν οὐδὲ εἷς, ὅσα γε [εἰς] ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι· ἀναλεγομένῳ δὲ ἐκ τῶν δοθέντων κατὰ τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν σημείων τοιαῦτα ὑπῆρχε τὰ περὶ αὐτόν. <ΠΟΡΦΥΡΙΟΣ>. Πορφυρίῳ Τύρος μὲν ἦν πατρίς, ἡ πρώτη τῶν ἀρχαίων Φοινίκων πόλις, καὶ πατέρες δὲ οὐκ ἄσημοι. 4.1.2 τυχὼν δὲ τῆς προσηκούσης παιδείας, ἀνά τε ἔδραμε τοσοῦτον καὶ ἐπέδωκεν, ὡς-Λογγίνου μὲν ἦν ἀκροατής-καὶ 4.1.3 ἐκόσμει τὸν διδάσκαλον ἐντὸς ὀλίγου χρόνου. Λογγῖνος δὲ κατὰ τὸν χρόνον ἐκεῖνον βιβλιοθήκη τις ἦν ἔμψυχος καὶ περιπατοῦν μουσεῖον, καὶ κρίνειν γε τοὺς παλαιοὺς ἐπετέτακτο, καθάπερ πρὸ ἐκείνου πολλοί τινες ἕτεροι, καὶ ὁ 4.1.4 ἐκ Καρίας ∆ιονύσιος πάντων ἀριδηλότερος. Μάλχος δὲ κατὰ τὴν Σύρων πόλιν ὁ Πορφύριος ἐκαλεῖτο τὰ πρῶτα (τοῦτο δὲ δύναται βασιλέα λέγειν)· Πορφύριον δὲ αὐτὸν ὠνόμασε Λογγῖνος, ἐς τὸ βασιλικὸν τῆς ἐσθῆτος παράσημον τὴν προσηγορίαν ἀποτρέψας. παρ' ἐκείνῳ δὴ τὴν ἄκραν ἐπαιδεύετο παιδείαν, γραμματικῆς τε εἰς ἄκρον ἁπάσης, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος, ἀφικόμενος καὶ ῥητορικῆς· πλὴν ὅσον οὐκ ἐπ' ἐκείνην 4.1.5 ἔνευσε, φιλοσοφίας γε πᾶν εἶδος ἐκματτόμενος. ἦν γὰρ ὁ Λογγῖνος μακρῷ τῶν τότε ἀνδρῶν τὰ πάντα ἄριστος, καὶ τῶν βιβλίων τε αὐτοῦ πολὺ πλῆθος φέρεται, καὶ τὸ φερόμενον θαυμάζεται. καὶ εἴ τις κατέγνω τινὸς τῶν παλαιῶν, οὐ τὸ δοξασθὲν ἐκράτει πρότερον ἀλλ' ἡ Λογγίνου πάντως 4.1.6 ἐκράτει κρίσις. οὕτω δὲ ἀχθεὶς τὴν πρώτην παιδείαν καὶ ὑπὸ πάντων ἀποβλεπόμενος, τὴν μεγίστην Ῥώμην ἰδεῖν ἐπιθυμήσας, ἵνα κατάσχῃ διὰ σοφίας τὴν πόλιν, ἐπειδὴ τάχιστα εἰς αὐτὴν ἀφίκετο καὶ τῷ μεγίστῳ Πλωτίνῳ συνῆλθεν εἰς ὁμιλίαν, πάντων ἐπελάθετο τῶν ἄλλων, καὶ προσέθετο 4.1.7 φέρων ἑαυτὸν ἐκείνῳ. ἀκορέστως δὲ τῆς παιδείας ἐμφορούμενος καὶ τῶν πηγαίων ἐκείνων καὶ τεθειασμένων λόγων, χρόνον μέν τινα εἰς τὴν ἀκρόασιν ἤρκεσεν, ὡς αὐτός φησιν, εἶτα ὑπὸ τοῦ μεγέθους τῶν λόγων νικώμενος, τό τε σῶμα καὶ τὸ ἄνθρωπος εἶναι ἐμίσησεν, καὶ διαπλεύσας εἰς Σικελίαν τὸν πορθμὸν τὴν Χάρυβδιν, ᾗπερ Ὀδυσσεὺς ἀναπλεῦσαι λέγεται, πόλιν μὲν οὔτε ἰδεῖν ὑπέμεινεν, οὔτε ἀνθρώπων ἀκοῦσαι φωνῆς (οὕτω τὸ λυπούμενον αὐτῶν καὶ ἡδόμενον ἀπέθετο), συντείνας δὲ ἐπὶ Λιλύβαιον ἑαυτὸν (τὸ δέ ἐστι τῶν τριῶν ἀκρωτηρίων τῆς Σικελίας τὸ πρὸς Λιβύην ἀνατεῖνον καὶ ὁρῶν), ἔκειτο καταστένων καὶ ἀποκαρτερῶν, τροφήν 4.1.8 τε οὐ προσιέμενος, καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων πάτον. οὐδ' ἀλαοσκοπιὴν ὁ μέγας εἶχε Πλωτῖνος ἐπὶ τούτοις, ἀλλὰ κατὰ πόδας ἑπόμενος <καὶ ἀνιχνεύων> ἢ τὸν πεφευγότα νεανί σκον ἀναζητῶν, ἐπιτυγχάνει κειμένῳ, καὶ λόγων τε πρὸς αὐτὸν εὐπόρησεν τὴν ψυχὴν ἀνακαλουμένων ἄρτι διΐπτασθαι τοῦ σώματος μέλλουσαν, καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἔρρωσεν ἐς κατοχὴν 4.1.9 τῆς ψυχῆς. καὶ ὁ μὲν ἔμπνους τε ἦν καὶ διανίστατο, ὁ δὲ τοὺς ῥηθέντας λόγους εἰς βιβλίον κατέθετο τῶν γεγραμμένων. τῶν δὲ φιλοσόφων τὰ ἀπόρρητα καλυπτόντων ἀσαφείᾳ, καθάπερ τῶν ποιητῶν τοῖς μύθοις, ὁ Πορφύριος τὸ φάρμακον τῆς σαφηνείας ἐπαινέσας καὶ διὰ πείρας γευσάμε4.1.10 νος, ὑπόμνημα γράψας εἰς φῶς ἤγαγεν. αὐτὸς μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν Ῥώμην ἐπανῆλθε, καὶ τῆς περὶ λόγους εἴχετο σπουδῆς ὥστε παρῄει καὶ εἰς τὸ δημόσιον κατ' ἐπίδειξιν· τὸ δὲ Πορφυρίου κλέος εἰς Πλωτῖνον πᾶσα μὲν ἀγορά, πᾶσα δὲ πληθὺς ἀνέφερεν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Πλωτῖνος τῷ τε τῆς ψυχῆς οὐρανίῳ καὶ τῷ λοξῷ καὶ αἰνιγματώδει τῶν λόγων βαρὺς 4.1.11 ἐδόκει καὶ δυσήκοος· ὁ δὲ Πορφύριος, ὥσπερ Ἑρμαϊκή τις σειρὰ καὶ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἐπινεύουσα, διὰ ποικίλης παιδείας πάντα εἰς τὸ εὔγνωστον καὶ καθαρὸν ἐξήγγελλεν. αὐτὸς μὲν οὖν φησι (νέος δὲ ὢν ἴσως ταῦτα ἔγραφεν, ὡς 4.1.12 ἔοικεν), ἐπιτυχεῖν χρηστηρίῳ μηδενὶ τῶν δημοσίων· ἐν δὲ αὐτῷ τῷ βιβλίῳ καταγράφει,