Guthrie: Vida de Plotino XVIII

XVIII. POLEMIC BETWEEN AMELIUS AND POR PHYRY; AMELIUS TEACHES PORPHYRY.

I have quoted this letter in full to show that, even in the times of Plotinos himself, it was claimed that Plotinos had borrowed and advertised as his own teach ings of Numenius; also that he was called a trifler, and in short that he was scorned which happened chiefly because he was not understood. Plotinos was far from the display and vanity of the Sophists. When lectur ing, he seemed to be holding a conversation with his pupils. He did not try to convince you by a formal argument. This I realized from the first, when attend ing his courses. I wished to make him explain himself more clearly by writing against him a work to prove that the intelligible entities subsist outside of intelligence. (See v. 5) Plotinos had Amelius read it to him; and after the reading he laughingly said to him, “It would be well for you to solve these difficulties that Porphyry has advanced against me, because he does not clearly understand my teachings.” Amelius indeed wrote a rather voluminous work to answer my objections.f In turn, I responded. Amelius wrote again. This third work at last made me understand, but not without difficulty, the thought of Plotinos; and I changed my views, reading my retraction at a meeting. Since that time, I have had complete confidence in the teachings of Plotinos. I begged him to polish his writings, and to explain his system to me more at length. I also prevailed upon Amelius to write some works.