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Elias Neoplatonicus

Elias Neoplatonicus

c. 515 CE–c. 580 CE · Alexandria

Elias was a Neoplatonist philosopher of the Alexandrian school, active in the 6th century CE. He is known for commentaries and introductions to philosophy, including works on Porphyry's 'Isagoge' and on Aristotle's 'Categories,' associated with the teaching tradition of Olympiodorus. Details of his life are scarce, and even his name and identity are somewhat uncertain.

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AlexandriaEgypt

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About Alexandria

Alexandria is the main Mediterranean port of northern Egypt and the country's second city. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, it became the capital of the Ptolemies, whose Museum and Great Library made it the leading centre of Hellenistic learning. It also held one of the largest Jewish communities of antiquity, where the Greek Bible translation known as the Septuagint was produced and Philo wrote. Church tradition traces its patriarchate to Mark the Evangelist, and its catechetical school was led by Clement and Origen. Arab forces under Amr ibn al-As took the city in 641, and it remained a commercial and scholarly hub of the Islamic world; the Sufi master Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari was born there.

Across the traditions, in Alexandria at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Elias Neoplatonicus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Elias Neoplatonicus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(2)

Eliae (Olim Davidis) In Aristotelis Categorias Commentarium

Alexandria