Themistius

Themistius (c. 317 – c. 388 CE), surnamed Euphrades ("the eloquent"), was a Greek rhetorician, philosopher, and statesman active in Constantinople. He opened a school there in the mid-340s CE and composed close paraphrases of several of Aristotle's works, including the Physics, De anima, De caelo, the Posterior Analytics, and Book Lambda (Book 12) of the Metaphysics, intended to make the Aristotelian texts more accessible. As one of the principal late representatives of the Peripatetic tradition, his interpretation of Aristotle's account of the intellect later influenced medieval thinkers, notably Averroes and, through Latin translation, Thomas Aquinas, as well as Jewish philosophers such as Gersonides and Moses of Narbonne. From around 350 CE he also held a prominent public role, serving as adviser, senator, and ambassador under a succession of eastern Roman emperors, a career documented in his surviving orations.