[40] Plato in Phædro. Meminit et Plutarch. VIII. Sympos. Suidas in μήτοι. Fabricius.
[41] For a full account of the distribution of the virtues according to the Platonists, consult the sentences of Porphyry, and the Prolegomena of Fabricius to this work.
[42] See the sixth book of his Republic, and the Epinomis.
[43] We are informed by Fabricius, that the Platonic Olympiodorus in his MS. Commentary on the Alcibiades of Plato, divides the orders of the Gods, into ὑπερκόσμιοι, or super-mundane, which are separate from all connection with body; and into ἐγκόσμιοι, or mundane. And that of these, some are οὐράνιοι, or celestial, others αἰθέριοι, or, or etherial, or πύριοι, fiery, others ἀέριοι, or aerial, others ἔνυδροι, or watry, others χθόνιοι, or earthly; and others ὑποταρτάριοι, or subterranean. But among the terrestrial, some are κλιματάρχαι, or governors of climates, others πολιοῦχοι, or rulers over cities, and others lastly κατοικίδιοι, or governors of houses.
[44] This epithet is likewise ascribed by Onomacritus to the Moon, as may be seen in his hymn to that deity; and the reason of which we have given in our notes to that hymn.
[45] Divine visions, and extraordinary circumstances, may be fairly allowed to happen to such exalted geniuses as Proclus; but deserve ridicule when ascribed to the vulgar.
[46] What glorious times! when it was considered as an extraordinary circumstance for a teacher of rhetoric to treat a noble and wealthy pupil as his domestic. When we compare them with the present, we can only exclaim, O tempora! O mores! Philosophy sunk in the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome.
[47] Fabricius rightly observes, that this Olympiodorus is not the same with the Philosopher of that name, whose learned commentaries, on certain books of Plato, are extant in manuscript, in various libraries. As in these, not only Proclus himself, but Damascius, who flourished long after Proclus, is celebrated.
[48] Concerning the various mathematicians of this name, see Fabricius in Bibliotheca Græca.
[49] The word in the original is λογικὰ, which Fabricius rightly conjectures has in this place a more extensive signification than either Logic, or Rhetoric: but I must beg leave to differ from that great critic, in not translating it simply philosophical, as I should rather imagine, Marinus intended to confine it to that part of Aristotle’s works, which comprehends only logic, rhetoric, and poetry. For the verb ἐξεμάνθανω, or to learn, which Marinus uses on this occasion, cannot with propriety be applied to the more abstruse writings of Aristotle.