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Proclus

Proclus

c. 412 CE–c. 485 CE · Athens

Proclus (c. 412-485 CE) was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher who led the Platonic school at Athens and became one of the most systematic and influential thinkers of late antiquity. His works include the Elements of Theology, the Platonic Theology, and extensive commentaries on Plato's dialogues, in which he organized Neoplatonic metaphysics into a rigorous hierarchical system. His ideas deeply shaped later Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, and medieval Christian philosophy.

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AthensAttica (Greece)

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About Athens

Athens, the capital of Greece since 1834, was the leading intellectual centre of the classical Greek world. Socrates taught there, and four major philosophical schools took root in the city: Plato's Academy, founded around 387 BCE, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Stoa of Zeno, and Epicurus' Garden. Under Hellenistic and Roman rule Athens remained a place of study that drew students from across the empire; in the 4th century CE the Christian writers Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus studied there together, while Neoplatonist teachers kept lecturing. Emperor Justinian's ban on pagan teaching of philosophy in 529 is generally taken to mark the end of the city's ancient history.

In Athens at the same time

Plutarch of Athens, Syrianus, Proclus the Grammarian, Marinus, 5th century, Damascius, Simplicius

Across the traditions, in Athens at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Proclus’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 Proclus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(1)