X. HOW PLOTINOS TREATED HIS ADVERSARY, OLYMPIUS.
Among those who pretended to be philosophers, there was a certain man named Olympius. He lived in Alexandria, and for some time had been a disciple of Ammonius. As he desired to succeed better than Plotinos, he treated Plotinos with scorn, and developed sufficient personal animosity against Plotinos to try to bewitch him by magical operations. However, Olym pius noticed that this enterprise was really turning against himself, and he acknowledged to his friends that the soul of Plotinos must be very powerful, since it was able to throw back upon his enemies the evil practices directed against him. The first time that Olympius attempted to harm him, Plotinos having noticed it, said, “At this very moment the body of Olympius is undergoing convulsions, and is contracting like a purse.” As Olympius several times felt himself undergoing the very ills he was trying to get Plotinos to undergo, he finally ceased his practices.
HOMAGE TO PLOTINOS FROM A VISITING EGYPTIAN PRIEST.
Plotinos showed a natural superiority to other men. An Egyptian priest, visiting Rome, was introduced to him by a mutual friend. Having decided to show some samples of his mystic attainments, he begged Plotinos to come and witness the apparition of a familiar spirit who obeyed him on being evoked. The evocation was to occur in a chapel of Isis, as the Egyptian claimed that he had not been able to discover any other place pure enough in Rome. He therefore evoked Plotinos s guardian spirit. But instead of the spirit appeared a divinity of an order superior to that of guardians, which event led the Egyptian to say to Plotinos, “You are indeed fortunate, O Plotinos, that your guardian spirit is a divinity, instead of a being of a lower order.” The divinity that appeared could not be questioned or seen for as long a period as they would have liked, as a friend who was watching over the sacrificed birds choked them, either out of jealousy, or fear.
PLOTINOS S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE PUBLIC MYSTERIES.
As Plotinos s guardian spirit was a divinity, Plotinos kept the eyes of his own spirit directed on that divine guardian. That was the motive of his writing his book (iii. 4.) that bears the title “Of the Guardian Allotted to Us.” In it he tries to explain the differences between the various spirits that watch over mankind. Amelius, who was very scrupulous in his sacrifices, and who care fully celebrated the Festivals of the New Moon (as Numenius used to do?) (on the Calends of each month), one day besought Plotinos to come and take part in a function of that kind. Plotinos, however, answered him, “It is the business of those divinities to come and visit me, and not mine to attend on them.” We could not understand why he should make an utterance that revealed so much pride, but we dared not question the matter.