[525] De Princip., ii., quoted by Ritter and Preller, p. 536 f.
[526] Inst. Theol., lxxii., cp. Zeller, p. 808, where it is denied, wrongly, as we think, that Plotinus held the same view.
[527] The following sketch is based on the accounts given of the period to which it relates in the works of Zeller and Vacherot.
[528] De Civit. Dei, VIII., v., quoted by Kirchner, p. 208.
[529] Enn., II., ix., 18, p. 217, C; for Syrianus and Proclus, see Zeller, p. 738. The Emperor Constantine is said to have remained a sun-worshipper all his life (Vacherot, II., p. 153); and even Philo Judaeus speaks of the stars as visible gods (Zeller, p. 393).
[530] Quoted by Ritter and Preller, p. 539.
[531] Compare the report of Agathias with the series of questions put to Priscian, quoted in the Dissertation by M. Quicherat, prefixed to Dübner’s edition of Priscian’s Solutiones (printed after Plotinus in Didot’s edition, pp. 549 ff).
[532] M. Vacherot says (II., p. 400), without giving any authority for his statement, that the Neo-Platonists were driven from Persia by the persecution of the Magi; and that they returned home ‘furtivement,’ which is certainly incorrect. They returned openly, under the protection of a treaty between Persia and Rome.
[533] Repub., IX., sub fin.
[534] Hauréau, Histoire de la Philosophie Scolastique, I., p. 372.