17 Facts About Iamblichus

1.

Iamblichus was the biographer of the Greek mystic, philosopher, and mathematician Pythagoras.

2.

The son of a wealthy, well-known family, Iamblichus was descended from the Emesene dynasty.

3.

Iamblichus initially studied under Anatolius of Laodicea and later studied under Porphyry, a pupil of Plotinus.

4.

Iamblichus disagreed with Porphyry about theurgy, reportedly responding to Porphyry's criticism of the practice in.

5.

Iamblichus returned to Coele Syria around 304 to found a school in Apamea, a city known for its neoplatonic philosophers.

6.

Iamblichus designed a curriculum for studying Plato and Aristotle, and wrote commentaries on the two which survive only in fragments.

7.

Iamblichus wrote the Exhortation to Philosophy in Apamea during the early fourth century.

8.

Unlike Plotinus, who broke from platonic tradition by positing a separate soul, Iamblichus re-affirmed the soul's embodiment in matter and believed that matter was as divine as the rest of the cosmos.

9.

Iamblichus placed the Monad at the head of his system, from which emanates the Nous and the psyche.

10.

Iamblichus divided them into two spheres: intelligible and intellective.

11.

Iamblichus multiplied the number of divine entities according to universal mathematical theorems.

12.

Iamblichus conceived of gods, angels, demons and heroes: twelve heavenly gods, 72 other gods proceeding from them, 21 chiefs and 42 nature-gods.

13.

Iamblichus posited that numbers are independent, occupying a middle realm between the limited and unlimited.

14.

Iamblichus believed that nature was bound by fate, differing from divine things which are not subject to fate and turn evil and imperfection to good ends; evil was generated accidentally in the conflict between the finite and the infinite.

15.

Only a fraction of Iamblichus' books have survived; knowledge of his system is preserved in fragments of writings preserved by Stobaeus and others: notes by his successors, his five extant books and sections of his work on Pythagoreanism.

16.

Iamblichus was praised by his followers, and contemporaries credited him with miraculous powers.

17.

The Roman emperor Julian, not content with Eunapius' modest eulogy that Iamblichus was inferior to Porphyry only in style, regarded him as second only to Plato and said that he would give all the gold in Lydia for one of his letters.