Porphyry (philosopher)
Porphyry (c.233 AD - c.305) was born Malchus ("king") in either Tyre or Batanaea in Syria, but his teacher in Athens, Cassius Longinus, gave him the name Porphyrius (clad in purple), a jesting allusion to the color of the imperial robes. Under Longinus he studied grammar and rhetoric. In 262 he went to Rome, attracted by the reputation of Plotinus, and for six years devoted himself to the study of Neoplatonism. Having injured his health by overwork, he went to live in Sicily for five years. On his return to Rome, he lectured on philosophy and endeavoured to render the obscure doctrines of Plotinus (who had died in the meantime) intelligible to the ordinary understanding. His most distinguished pupil was lamblichus, who differed with Porphyry on the issue of theurgy. In his later years, he married Marcella, a widow with seven children and an enthusiastic student of philosophy. Little more is known of his life, and the date of his death is uncertain.
Porphyry is well known as a violent opponent of Christianity and defender of Paganism; of his Adversus Christianas (Against the Christians) in 15 books, perhaps the most important of all his works, only fragments remain. Counter-treatises were written by Eusebius of Caesarea, Apollinarius (or Apollinaris) of Laodicea, Methodius of Olympus, and Macarius of Magnesia, but all these are lost. Porphyry's view of the Book of Daniel, that it was the work of a writer in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, is given by Jerome. There is no proof of the assertion of Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, and Augustine, that Porphyry was once a Christian.
He also wrote widely on astrology, religion, philosophy, and musical theory; and produced a biography of his teacher, Plotinus. His most famous existant book is about Pythagoras, named Vita Pythagorae or Life of Pythagoras, not to be confused with the book of the same name by Iamblichus. He is widely remembered today by the astrological community for inventing the astrological house system that is named after him.
