John Italus or Italos was a neoplatonic Byzantine philosopher of the eleventh century.
13 Facts About John Italus
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John Italus was Calabrian in origin, his father being a soldier.
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John Italus came to Constantinople, where he became a student of Michael Psellus in classical Greek philosophy.
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John Italus succeeded Psellus in his position as head of the philosophical school.
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John Italus was born in Italy from where he derived his name.
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John Italus was the son of an Italian, who was engaged as an auxiliary in an attempt by the Sicilians to withdraw from their subjection to the Byzantine emperor, and took with him his son, then a child, who thus spent his early years not in the schools but the camp.
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John Italus had already made some attainments, especially in logic.
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John Italus is described as having a commanding figure, being moderately tall and broad-chested, with a large head, a prominent forehead, an open nostril, and well-knit limbs.
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John Italus acquired the favour of the emperor Michael VII Doukas and his brothers; and the emperor, when he was contemplating the recovery of the Byzantine portion of Italy, counting on the attachment of Italus, and expecting to derive advantage from his knowledge of that country, sent him to Dyrrachium; but having detected him in some acts of treachery, he ordered him to be removed.
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John Italus was passionate, and rude in disputation, not abstaining even from personal violence; but eager to acknowledge his impetuosity, and ask pardon for it, when the fit was over.
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John Italus's school was crowded with pupils, to whom he expounded the writings of Proclus and Plato, Iamblichus, Porphyry, and Aristotle.
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The disturbances which arose from the teachings of John Italus attracted the emperor's attention apparently soon after his accession; and by his order, John Italus, after a preliminary examination by Isaac Comnenus, the brother of Alexios, was cited before an ecclesiastical court.
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John Italus was charged with teaching the transmigration of souls, with holding some erroneous opinions about ideas, and with ridiculing the use of images in worship; and he is said to have succeeded in diffusing his heresies among many of the nobles and officers of the palace, to the great grief of the orthodox emperor.