Hierocles of Alexandria

"Hierocles of Alexandria was an influential teacher of Neoplatonic philosophy in Alexandria in the mid-fifth century AD. His one wholly surviving work is a commentary on a poem famous in late antiquity, known as The Golden Verses of the Pythagoreans. In addition, Hierocles wrote a treatise, On Providence, of which the Byzantine scholar Photius has given summaries and excerpts. Professor Schibli here provides the first modern English translation of both works, based on the best Greek texts, and has helpfully annotated them throughout. The translations, which form Parts II and III of this book, are preceded in Part I by a survey of Hierocles' life and writings, a sketch of the late antique and early Christian world he inhabited, and finally by a systematic account of his philosophy. Instead of presenting him as a proponent of a particular 'Alexandrian' form of Platonism, the author situates Hierocles in the mainstream of the Neoplatonic tradition that extended from Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus through Plutarch of Athens (Hierocles' own teacher) to Proclus and Damascius."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Philosophy. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.