Basil's "Neoplatonism":

Its Background and Nature

John M. Rist"
University of Toronto

I. PLATONISM AND CHRISTIANITY: 270-325

A.

INTRODUCTION

"Platonism" is much less clear than it was once thought to be.

much oli::ler talk about Platonism in the fourth century tends
since it is hard to determine whether "Platonic"
were supposed to be derived directly from Plato himself, from
now called Middle Platonist writers active from approximately
250 AD, from Christian Platonists like Clement of Alexandria and
from Plotinus who can usefully be called the founder, though not
typical member of the Neoplatonic school, or from Porphyry,
somewhat erratic successor and
so it is said - the most
propagator ofNeoplatonism in the West. Much of the standard
on Christian Platonism in the fourth century still fails to observe
of this discussion were read at a symposium on Neoplatonism and Christianity
Washington, oc, in October 1978, other parts at the Eighth International
on Patristic Studies in Oxford in September 1979. I should like to thank all
who, on these occasions or in Toronto, helped to improve it: especially L.
D. Balas, P. Burns, l den Boeft, P. Fed wick, J. Gribomont and A. Ritter. At
stage the whole manuscript was subjected to the searching scrutiny ofT. D.
Above all Anna Rist forced me to be precise, to call a spade a spade where I was
,,,,;;-,\'','.liitnea to call it a digging instrument.
p . Ba.~i/ of Cae.mrea: Chri.~tian. Humanisl, Ascelic, ed. Paul J. Fedwick (Toronto:
Ontificallnstitute of Mediaeval Studies. 19&1). pp. 137-220. P.I.M.S.

138

JOHN M. RIST

these necessary distinctions, or blurs them inaccurately, and

brilliant pioneering efforts such as that of Pierre Hadot on
Victorinus 1 and the considerable improvements made in our
understanding of the "Platonism" of Ambrose, 2 there can be little ~cent
that the role of philosophy in the background of Christian writers ~Ubt
the mid-third century to the year 379 -particularly, but by no rolll
111
entirely, in the East - is still largely misunderstood. Essentiallyeans
background of Christian thought, from the death of Origen to the 3SQ the
8
least, must be rewritten. From errors of fact errors of interpretation b at
theolog1cal and more generally ideological have proliferated. To rec:h
this situation there can be no alternative but to examine the texts With cay
and in detail, with particular attention to the trap into which many eructi~:
students have fallen, that of the discovery of the false parallel. For false
parallels are not only themselves false; they can become the basis on
which false deductions about the derivation of ideas are built. The present
study can be viewed as little more than preliminary. work to what 1 am
convinced is needed: no less than a rewriting of the intellectual history of
the fourth century.
Problems in fourth century Platonism can for the most part be traced
back to the ambiguous position of Plotinus, pupil of the unofficial
Platonist Ammonius Saccas in Alexandria and teacher of his own variety
of Platonism, the Platonism of the philosopher rather than the philologist
or historian of philosophy3 - and moreover at Rome! Let us therefore
begin by noting certain peculiar features of Plotinus' philosophy: his

1 P. Hadot and P. Henry, Marius Victorinus: Traites tlufologiques sur Ia Trinite (Paris
1960); P. Hadot, Porphyre et Victorinus (Paris 1969).
2 P. Courcelle, "Plotin et s. Ambroise," RPh 76 (1950) 29-56; idem, Recherches sur les
Coll{essions des. Augustin (Paris 1950) pp. 93-138; A. So!ignac, "Nouveaux paralleles
entre s. Ambroise et Plotin, Le 'De Jacob et vita beata' et le llepi euoatf1ovia,; (Enn. 1.4),"
A Ph 20 (1956) 148-156; L. Taormina, "Sant'Ambrogio e Plotino," MSLC 4 (1953) 41-85;
P. Hadot, "Platon et Plotin dans 3 sermons des. Ambroise: REL 34 (1956) 202-220; P.
Courcelle, "Nouveaux aspects du platonisme chez s. Ambroise," REL 34 (1956) 220-226;
idem, "Anti-Christian Arguments and Christian Platonism: from Arnobius to St
Ambrose," in The C01l/1ict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Cemury, ed.
A. Momigliano (Oxford 1965) pp. 151-192; idem, Recherches sur les "Coll{essions" des.
Augustin (Paris 1968) pp. 311-382; G. Madec, Ambroise et Ia phi/osophie (Paris 1974).
Exaggeration has inevitably set in: P. Courcelle, "Ambroise et Calcidius," in Recherches
sur s. Ambroise (Paris 1973) pp. 17-24.
3 Cf. Plotinus' attitude to Longinus (Porphyry, Vita Plot. 14) and his conversion of
Porphyry from a historically accurate account of the Forms (which he had learned from
Longinus) to his own version (Vita Plot. 18, with A. H. Armstrong, "The Background of
the Doctrine That the Intelligibles are not Outside the Intellect'," in Les Sources de Plotin
(Geneva 1960) pp. 391-425.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

139

art of the soul remains "above" and does not descend-

t.ha~~its .himself to be outside the tradition; 4 his peculiar doctrine

a of the soul with the One and the claims made by him and on
to have experienced such union in his own person; 5 his
acceptance of a Neopythagorean tradition associated with
of Moderatus and Eudorus that led to his postulating a first
which is to be identified not as Nous but rather as the One. 6 Such
no means won universal approval; even those who genuinely
of Plotinus as their master took him seriously enough to accept
as that of a follower of Plato, and therefore frequently go back to
to Plato himself rather than to his pupil, for their inspiration.
ma~ observe, this tendency to revert to the source is particularly
among those who were less professional philosophers than
wishing to employ from time to time, and on their own terms,
philosophical ideas; and such people are particularly visible
the Christians.
more basic points: to be influenced by a man's philosophy one
him directly or to have access to his work indirectly either
other written documents or through oral sources. Porphyry's
Plotinus, the edition which we know today as the Enneads,
round about 301 AD. If, therefore, we find allusions to Plotinus'
works before 30 I, we must assume either an earlier edition,
"''""""'-'u of individual works, or an oral tradition. That there was
of oral tradition must be regarded as almost certain in view of
of Plotinus' pupils and their spread over the Mediterranean
JArn"'r" himself went to Sicily at least once, and Amelius retired
in Syria before Plotinus' death. 7 We should therefore consider
of the earliest diffusion of Neoplatonism, the Platonism of
and his philosophical successors, in two stages: the spread of
ideas before about 30 I, and their spread after 301. Both stages,
the latter, are indissolubly linked with, and complicated
spread of the knowledge of the works of Porphyry himself as well
of Plotinus in their various versions.

Enn. 4.8.8.1.
1.6.7 .2-3: 6.7 .40.2: 6.9.4.1.15 f.: 6.9.9.47 ff.: and possibly 4.8.1.1 ff.: Porphyry.
Plot. 23.
6
Pl For Plotinus' background on this matter see especially J. M. Dillon. The Middle
. a:onists (London/Ithaca 1977) pp. 115-135. 344-351.
Porphyry. Vita Plot. 2.

140

JOHN M. RIST

B.

THE EDITION OF EUSTOCHIUS:

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

270-301

Let us concentrate on the period before Porphyry's edition of the Ennea

There is not much to be said. Apart from a reference, which we shds.
consider, to an edition by Eustochius, presumably compiled during t~:l
period, there is virtually no evidence about the influence of Plotinus apa~s
from the work of Porphyry. We have already observed that Plotin ~
pupil Amelius retired to Apamea in Syria before Plotinus' death ~s
apparently set up a school there, 8 but we know nothing of its succes~ a d
to judge by the comparatively low estimate in which Amelius was' he~d
among later Neoplatonists we may surmise that he either died b d
fore surrounding himself with an enthusiastic group of pupils or th:;
his version of Platonism was rather unappealing. 9 Amelius was not, of
course, the only source from which knowledge of Plotinus' written Work
might have spread early in the East, but in his case we have concrete
evidence of such diffusion: Porphyry, citing a letter of Longinus, tells usio
that the latter (his former master) had received from Amelius copies of at
least the greater part of Plotinus' writings; and also that Longinus wrote a
reply to controversial material now found in Ennead. 5.5 but which he
knew as On Ideas. 11 Longinus later urged Porphyry to leave Sicily and
come East himself, to bring further copies of Plotinus, if possible in better
condition, with him, and to convey in addition any writings which
Ameli us might have omitted, or which Longinus had not already obtained
from Porphyry himself. The date of this request may be very soon after
Plotinus' death, or possibly even before, for Longinus perished after the
Emperor Aurelian suppressed the Palmyrene Zenobia in 272.
What then do we know of the edition of Eustochius? There is, and has
always been, only one apparently secure piece of evidence, a scholion
which appears in several manuscripts of the Enneads (A E R J c) after
chapter 19 of Ennead 4.4 (A Second Book of Problems about the Sou/)} 2
a Ibid., 2-3.
9

For Amelius' variants on Plotinus see A. H. Armstrong, The Cambridge History of

Later Greek and Early Medieval Phi/osoplly (Cambridge 1967) pp. 264-266 and R. T.
Wallis, Neoplatonism (London 1972) pp. 94-95.
10
Vita Plot. 19-20.
II Ibid., 20.
12
In general see the Introduction to Henry and Schwyzer's editio maior of Plotinus
(Paris 1951 ff.) 2: ix-xvii: P. Henry, Recherches sur Ia Pn!paralion Evangelique d'Eusebe
et l'r!dition perdue des ceuvres de Plotin publiee par Eustochius (Paris 1935) pp. 5913 3;
idem, Etudes Plotiniennes I, Les Etats du texte de Plotin (Paris/Brussels 1938) pp. 68-139.
For scepticism about Eustochius activities see especially W. Theiler, rev. of HenrY

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

141

holion tells us that, in the edition of Eustochius, book 2 of the

rne sc ended here, and that book 3 began with what is chapter 20 of
1
rroble~ ~n the edition of Porphyry. For what it is worth, the scholion
book. ns Eustochius before Porphyry, a slight additional confirmation of
m.enti~rns almost certain on more general grounds, that Eustochius' text
wnatthe earlier of the two. But we should be careful not to assume, as
was to have been assumed by many of those who take the Eustochian
seeO:S0 seriously, that this version must have contained all the material
ver~t~ we find in Porphyry's edition. It might have been much briefer
wbtC porphyry's, indeed just a few treatises - which would make
~a~hyry's own silence about its existence more understandable; and it
~~ht have contained some material which Porphyry lacks. We shall
~~ve Eustochius at this point, for whatever he may have done has left no
;ace of its existence, at least until the appearance ofEusebius' Praeparatio
, angelica, begun about 313 at Caesarea. 13 In this work Eusebius is
,;~eatly concerned with Porphyry, so it is appropriate to defer considerof it until the general question of the influence of Porphyry as an
ii,'fiaUtnor in his own right, and not simply as the editor and biographer of
; has been investigated - at least as regards the period of
own lifetime and the years immediately after his death. We
return to Porphyry in Eusebius and appropriately link such an
with a consideration of Plotinus in Eusebius and the vexed
of Eusebius' possible use of the edition of Eustochius.
C. THE EARLY HisTORY oF PoRPHYRY's
AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS, DE REGRESSU ANIMA,

AND RELATED MATTERS

question of the influence and spread of Neoplatonic ideas at the time

which we are concerned is not limited to a study of the diffusion of
of Plotinus. We have already assigned Amelius comparatisignificance in his own right, though possibly more as a source
t'lotin:ian writings either from his own establishment in Apamea or
the intermediacy of Longinus. The same comparative insignificannot be attributed to Porphyry, at least without careful scrutiny,
'""""'"'-'
as it has been frequently argued, and is now almost canonical,
~

.&'~ff~~ G:.z 41 0941) 169-176; R. Harder, Gnomon 24 ( 1952) 185; E. R. Dodds, CR 66

13

th 'Gocs 43.1 (ed. Mras) lv; T. D. Barnes, "Sossianus Hierocles and the Antecedents of
e reat Persecution'," HarvClassPhil 80 (] 976) 240.

142

JOHN M. RIST

that his work, especially the fifteen books Against the Christians, was Well
known in Christian circles even before the year 300, and indeed rebutted
in Christian texts which we have in our possession. There is, of course, no
doubt that Porphyry had published a large variety of material, including
presumably the influential De regressu animae, before 300; what we are
concerned with, however, is whether Christian writers made use of any
material derived from Porphyry which is obviously Neoplatonic, rather
than more strictly Platonic or Middle Platonic in content. For, in the
absence of such material, evidence for the knowledge and use of Porphyry
(as distinct from Porphyry's sources) is lacking. In practical terms our
enquiries must boil down to the following questions: the date of the
undoubted responses to Porphyry's Against the Christians by Methodius
and Eusebius of Caesarea as well as the date of Against the Christians
itself; the supposed references to Porphyry in Arnobius of Sicca's
Adversus Nationes; the sources of Lactantius' anti-Christian opponent
Hierocles; and the nature of the Platonic material in Calcidius'
Commentary on the Timaeus. Calcidius in particular, if properly
understood, will help us to appreciate why it is not Neoplatonism, either
that of Porphyry or of Plotinus, which is the dominant mode of Platonism
either in the East or in the West either before the appearance ofEusebius'
Praeparatio, or in the period that follows: the period of the Emperor
Constantine's Address to the Assembly qf the Saints, of the early writings
of Athanasius and of the Council of Nicaea. The Praeparatio, we shall
argue, is to be treated as a case apart, and an important one, but, as an
additional witness to our discussion of the "early Athanasian" period of
Christian intellectual history, we shall also invoke a rather neglected
pagan Platonist of late third-century Alexandria: Alexander of Lycopolis,
author of an extant treatise against the dualist theses of Mani.
i. Observations on the Date qf Porphyry's Against the Christians
First of all we are faced with the matter of the date of the work Against
the Christians. Until recently the dominant view was that it was written
under Claudius Gothicus or Aurelian, 14 but as T. D. Barnes has observed,
this depends on deducing, from the statement of Eusebius that Porphyry
wrote Against the Christians in Sicily, 15 that he must have written it
during his known visit to Sicily between 268 and the early 270s. As

14
For Aurelian see A. Cameron, "The Date of Porphyry's xara xpuntavwv," CQ 18
(1967) 384.
15
Hist. eccl. 6.19.2.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

143

porphyry could not have written it during a later visit to Sicily! In

Hl'li:J~.<Eeu
..sebius' phrase xaB' iJtui~ ("in my lifetime") may even suggest a later
_ as does a passage of Libanius who, comparing Porphyry's anti'.; datestt'an writings with those of Julian, says that the Emperor's are
'Chfl
; . . erior to those of the "old man of Tyre." 16 In short, we need in;:~~~endent evi~ence before locating Against the Christians in or near the
, gn of Aurehan .
.ret:Most ofthe problems about the date of Against the Christians have been
,. ared up by Barnes,l7 but a little can be added. In chapter 16 of his L~fe
1
C, e
Porphyry tells us that there were many Christians in Plotinus'

as well as sectaries who had given up traditional philosophy and

over to Gnosticism, relying on various books of revelations. Plotinus
urged his pupils to refute these fraudulent shortcuts to wisdom,
both Amelius, in his forty volumes against the book of Zostrianus,
Porphyry himself took up the challenge. Porphyry's own role, he
us, was to attack what passed for a book of Zoroaster, which he
.~ ... ct.-oorPn to be a recent forgery. The passage recalls Porphyry's more
work in this area: his argument in Against the Christians that the
of Daniel, perhaps the most influential of all Old Testament writings
Christian circles, was composed comparatively late, after (or less
he meant during) the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (17 5-164 BC). 18
seem to perceive an argument from silence. If Porphyry had already
Against the Christians in 301 when the final struggle between
and pagans in the reign of Diocletian was about to issue in
~ the army had probably already been purged19 - it seems
that he would have mentioned it in the L~fe Q{ Plotinus. By then at
Porphyry knew that orthodox Christianity was far more of a threat
Plotinian and Greek heritage than any sub-variety of Gnosticism;
there was no reason to be silent about it if he had already composed
gainst the Christians. But, as Barnes has shown, the most likely
)tanaucm is that he had not composed it by 301.

Or. 18.178.
17

T. D. Barnes, "Porphyry Against the Christians: Date and Attribution of the

" JThS 24 (1973) 424-442~ I accept most of Barnes' arguments, with the
of his proposal that Jerome, Ep. 133.9 Porphyry, ed. Harnack, fr. 82, means
.
rnrnn"~" spoke of Britain asfertilis tyrannorum. The remark seems more likely to be
of Jerome himself, as Barnes himself allows is possible (p. 437).
16
Porphyry, ed. Harnack, fr. 43 (SABPh [1921] 266-284). SeeM. Casey, "Porphyry
an~ the Origin of the Book of Daniel," JThS 27 (1976) 16-17.
9
A . Lactantius <Div. Tnst. 4.27.5) indicates that persecution had already begun in
ntioch by 299.

'

What then of the refutation by Methodius, bishop of Olympus

. .,
20
perhaps also of Patara in Lycia, martyred probably in 311 ? There 'is . .. . ..
evidence to suggest that this was written during the third century. Whno
brings us to the beginning of the fourth century and the evidence lCh .
Lactantius, resident, like Methodius, in Asia Minor, but in the imPerof
1 1
capital of Nicomedia. Now according to Lactantius there were two w ~
1
known attacks on Christianity circulating in Nicomedia in 303, one t~
work of Sossianus Hie:ocles, governor of Bithynia. and later prefect ~
Egypt, 21 the other wntten by an unknown "pnest of philosophy,,
according to Lactantius a debauchee and landowner in Asia Minor, Wh
composed three books against Christianity. 22 The latter publicist io
dismissed by Lactantius as an upstart fool who came to be recognized
such; 23 the former is of more interest Lactantius stresses his lack of
originality, but his source, named by Lactantius and suggested in the very
title of his work, The Lover of Truth (or perhaps even Truth-loving
Arguments), is not Porphyry but Celsus. From Eusebius' work against
Hierocles we learn a significant detail: Hierocles, according to Eusebius
was the first to undertake a systematic comparison of Jesus With
Apollonius ofTyana, 24 a course, as we hear from Jerome, which was also
adopted by Porphyry. It looks as though Eusebius, writing his Contra
Hieroclem in Caesarea (ca. 303), 25 did not know of Porphyry's similar
tactic, or at least that it antedated Hierocles. At the same time, in
Nicomedia, Lactantius is similarly silent about Porphyry's Against the
Christians, and it may be deduced from his dependence on Celsus that .
Hierocles, to whom Porphyry would doubtless have been very congenial,
was obliged to pillage other writings - and above all those of Celsus from an earlier generation.

a:

For the chronology of Methodius see T. D. Barnes. "Methodius. Maximus and

Valentinus: JThS 30 (1979) 47-55. Jerome (E'p. 70.3) says that the length of Methodius
work was 10.000 lines. For Middle Platonism in Methodius' On Free Will see J. Pepin.
"Platonisme et Stolcisme dans le 'de Autexusio' de Methode d'Oiympe." in Forma Fwuri:
Studi in onore del Cardinale Michele Pellegrino (Turin 1975) pp. 126-144.
21
For Hierocles see Lactantius. Div. /nst. 5.2.12; De mort. pers. 16.4.
22 Barnes. "Porphyry," pp. 438-439. disposes of the possible identification of this
"priest" with Porphyry himself. For Lactantius' own knowledge of Platonism (which is
limited and with a slight Middle Platonic veneer) see most recently M. Perrin. "Le Platon
de Lactance." in Lactance et .~on temps (Paris 1978) pp. 203-231. Perrin lists other recent
discussions.
13
Div. Ins/. 5.2.3-11.
24 C. Hier .. GCS 43.1 (ed Mras. 1954) 370.9-12.
25
For the date see A. Harnack. Chronologie der altchristlichen Uteratur bi.~ E'usebius.
2 0904) 118: Barnes "Sossianus Hierocles," p. 240.
2

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

145

L ctantius, writing in Nicomedia, let us turn to his master,

, . :riting in North Africa at a slightly earlier date. Evidence from
j\:rflobtUS, r earlier misinterpreted, will point in the same direction. The
tlJis quartea~d certainly possible date for the second book of Arnobius'
prob~bl~dversus Nationes is 297. 26 In a long digression from Arnobius'
treattse me of the wickedness of pagan religion, he attempts to deal with
111ain ~he s of various misguided philosophers (chapters 11-66). These
. tlJe vteWt one point said to be believers in Plato, Cronius, Numenius, or
people.:me if' (cui /ibuerit), i.e., anyone other than Christ but no later
t~e Middle Platonic period (ch. 11), are considered (ch. 13) in three
TheY are followers of Mercury (i.e., Hermetists), or of Plato and
or they are "of one mind and people who proceed by the
paths in the unity of their doctrines." The phrase "of one mind"
mentis) has sometimes been interpreted to mean that they claim to
from one divine Mind or GodY More likely it refers more
to a less obviously specifiable group whose basic outlook is
Elsewhere (ch. 15) this latter group are called novi viri, modern,
people, who, inflated with self-importance, proclaim the natural
of the human soul, its kinship with its father and its
purity. We are indebted to Festugiere for what seems to be a
~~~~ 6
identification of the objects of Arnobius' distaste; 28 they
.c,;v'""''""'~'"' no single school. Arnobius is thinking of people with
attitudes, but influenced by a variety of sources: Platonic,
Hermetist, and others. Arnobius has in fact specifically
them from the less eclectic Hermetists, Platonists and
In their eclecticism, and their arrogance, they even bear
to the Gnostics denounced by Plotinus.
made an innocent, but harmful, mistake. He suggested,
he did not show, that some of the eclectic material was specifically
29
Others rushed in where Festugiere had feared to tread:
attempted to argue, with a series of parallels, that the novi viri, 30
tarrgrc:lo people, conscious enemies of Christianity, are to be
as Porphyry and his clique. Porphyry would thus not only have
the De regressu ani mae before 297, but the Against the Christians
..-.T

For the date see G. E. McCracken, ACW 7 (I 949) 7-1 I.

27
..
SeeP. Courcelle. "Les Sages de Porphyre et les 'Viri novi' d'Arnobe," REL 31 (1953)
257-27!.
za A
A
J. Festugiere, "La doctrine des 'Viri novi' sur l'origine et Ie sort des ames d'apres
rt;~be, 2: 11-66," in Memorial Lagrange (Paris 1940) pp. 97-132.
Festugiere, p. 127.
30
Courcelle, "Les Sages"; repeated in "Anti-Christian Arguments," p. 156.

146

JOHN M. RIST

as. well; and he would have written it long e~oug? befo~e this for its
existence to have penetrated to the less than maJor City of Sicca in North
Africa. The parallels adduced by Courcelle, however, are all vague and
imprecise. None of them is a doctrine which must be particular)
associated with Porphyry (or for that matter with Plotinus), though it
certainly true that Porphyry and Plotinus may (or did) accept some ~
them as part ofthe general deposit of religious/philosophical debris Which
they inherited. In particular one might suppose that the notion of the viri
novi concerning the pure impeccable soul might have Neoplatonic
associations, but if so Plotinus, as the fount of the doctrine of the upper
soul which remains above the level of sin and ordinary sociallife, 31 would
be the more likely source. However, such doctrines of a pure soul in some
version or other are commonplace among a wide spectrum of philosophers and theologians from the Plato of Republic x to the obscene
Carpocrates and his new-style agapeistic Christians32 -with all sorts of
other in betwe.ens. In fact, so far from there being good reason to suppose
that Arnobius is attacking Porphyry (or even Plotinus), there are good
reasons to think that he is not.
Arnobius indicates in book 1 that he will name his adversaries, 33 and in
book n he does so. As we have seen, they are Hermetists, Platonists and
novi viri. Had he meant Porphyry, why should he not have said so? He is
not, in fact, very clear on the "authorities" of these novi viri, but he does
mention Plato again, 34 and, as we have seen, he makes earlier reference to
Plato, Numenius and Cronius. The influence of the latter two, both on
Porphyry himself and on others of this period such as Calcidius, is
established beyond reasonable doubt. Since Arnobius names them, is it
too much to suppose that he read them: that they, not the unnamed
Porphyry, are the sources of the eclectic positions happily identified as
eclectic by Festugiere?
A further pointer in the same direction is provided if we revert to the
role in anti-Christian polemic of Apollonius of Tyana. We have already
noticed that, according to Eusebius, Sossianus Hierocles was the first to
offer a detailed comparison between Apollonius and Jesus, a task later
attempted by Porphyry. Interestingly, however, Arnobius also knows of
Apollonius and refers to him. Some would infer the influence of
Porphyry. That, however, is most unlikely. Apollonius is allowed no

31

Enn. 2.9.2.4; 4.8.8.1 ff.; 4.8.4.31 etc.

For Carpocrates see Eusebius,Hist. eccl. 4.7.9, and in general for sexual agape see
A. Nygren, Agape and Eros (Philadelphia 1953) pp. 308-309.
33
A dv. Nat. 1.27.
34
E.g., Adv. Nat. 2.36.
32

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

147

ial importance, which he surely would have had if Arnobius had had
spec hyry's treatment in mind. Instead he is merely mentioned among a
por? ty of run-of-the-mill magicians like Zoroaster and Julian the
~:~~daean. 35 Arnobius knows nothing of Porphyry's attitude to Apol~us of Tyana- which while having admittedly no direct bearing on
lo:lDe regressu certainly confirms his ignorance of the (ex hypothesi notth t-written) Against the Christians.
ye NoW if the arguments which Arnobius directs against influential
ponents of Christianity are not directed against the author of Against the
~ristians. it seems implausible that they are directed against the author of
the De regressu or any other Porphyrian text, for these works alone
hardly qualify Porphyry as a major opponent of Christianity. At the same
time, it would be more than merely implausible to suppose that when
dealing with the so-called "positive teachings" of the viri novi Arnobius is
thinking of Porphyry's De regressu, while when considering the negative
attitudes of these same no vi viri to Christianity he is referring to someone
.else.
ii. Porphyry and Victorinus

, Before leaving the Latins behind, at least temporarily, we shall have to

at another and much more influential work, presumably of a
'".,.,'"'"'mn later period than the fulminations of Arnobius and Lactantius,
.still to be dated within the first quarter of the fourth century. It is
to deal with it in this context, however, for by confirming that
vru"'"'"'~ commentary on the Timaeus is also free of strictly Neoplatonic
~~H'.!-'"'''"'"'' whether that ofPlotinus or of Porphyry, we clear the ground in
IH:->:"+'"'"u West. We can then assert that apart from some philosophically
m'"'"'t'"'t references to Porphyry in Firmicus Maternus, 36 we must

For lengthy comment on Firmicus Maternus' use of Porphyry, seeP. Henry, P/otin
(Louvain 1934) pp. 25-43. Henry believed that Firmicus knows the Life of
and parts of the Enneads, especially Ennead 3.1. That he knows the Life seems
it is probabiy, as Henry argued against Oppermann, the only written source of his
ofPlotinus' death in the Mathesis (8.1.1), datable to between 335 and 337. Neither
detailed descriptions of Plotinus' leprosy, nor other information at his disposal
the appearance of comets) need imply a second written source. (That comets were
to be seen at somewhere near the right time seems clear. See Ho Peng Yoke,
1""'"'"''m and Mediaeval Observations of Comets and Novae in Chinese Sources," in
in Astronomy, ed. A. Beer (Oxford 1962) 5: !57.
'. 'ab Although we may leave aside Henry's vague and quite unconvincing suggestions
. a clear reference to Ennead
. OUtHFirm.reus, know Iedge o f Enn. !. 4 and 1.6, he also clarms

131
e thmks that the phrase "in quadam parte orationis suae" must refer directly to

148

JOHN M. RIST

await the labours of Marius Victorinus - mainly in his theological

writings against the Arians and his translation of a few books of the
Platonists into Latin - in order to find significant traces of the influence
of Porphyry Oet alone of Plotinus) in the West in the fourth century. To
deal first with Victorinus: the dates of the anti-Arian treatises may be set
between 357 and 363Y The date of the translation of the libri platonicorum38 must remain uncertain, 39 but 350 is a probable approximation.
It has yet to be proved that the libri platonicorum included works by
Porphyry. 40 Much of what has been proposed as Porphyrian material in
the early Augustine is indeed Porphyrian but equally Plotinian and often
more generally "Platonic." And it is Plotinus, not Porphyry, whom
Augustine mentions in his relevant writings before the year 400. If such a
reading of the evidence is correct, and if Porphyry was not a formative
influence on Augustine at this stage of his career,41 more general
propositions may be advanced about Neoplatonic influences in the West
before 400. At about this date, indeed, Porphyry does become important

Plotinus. But this does not follow. Knowledge of the end of chapter 15 of the Life would
be sufficient to explain the rhetorical comment in the Mathesis, which, as Henry himself
admits, is hard to attach to specific texts in Enn. 3.1.
Firmicus' remarks in the Mathesis are those of the "religious" man observing (with
some relish) the fate of a great figure, Plotinus, who paid too little respect to astrology and
stellar destiny. He is probably more interested in Porphyry, perhaps on the trivial grounds
that he can be claimed as in some sense Sicilian. He uses the phrase noster Porphyrius
which has plausibly been taken to refer to a claim of this sort, and we may note that the
commentators on Aristotle suggest that Porphyry's lsagoge was written in Sicily (see J.
Bidez, Vie de Porphyre [Ghent 1913] pp. 58-59); Augustine too calls Porphyry "Sicilian"
We cons. evang. 1.15.23; Retract. 2.31). (For discussion, with some scepticism, Hadot,
Porphyre et Victorinus, p. 84.) Later (AD 347), when Firmicus has turned Christian,
Porphyry's Philosophy from Oracles is denounced (De err. prof. ref. 13.4); that is to be
expected, but there is no evidence that Firmicus gave (or was capable of giving) Porphyry
serious philosophical attention. The condemned and now notoriously anti-Christian
Porphyry is a "bad hat." Denunciation need not entail attention.
37
See the Henry-Hadot edition, csEL 83: 28-61.
38
Augustine, Co11f 7.13.
39 Cf. Aug., De vita beata 4 with the reading Plotini, Henry, Pfotin et /'Occident, pp.
82 ff.; C. acad. 2.5; 3.41.
40
See (at last) the firm statements of R. J. O'Connell, St. Augustine's Early Theory Q{
Man. AD 386-.~91 (Cambridge, Mass. 1968) and his damning assessment (pp. 20 ff.) of the
work of W. Theiler, Porpl!yrios und Augustin (Halle 1933); R. Beutler, "Porphyrios,"
RECA 22~(1953) 275-313, esp. 301-312; P. Courcelle, Recl1erches sur fes CO!l{essions
(Paris 1956) pp. 157-167 and others.
41
The best case for Porphyrian influence on the early Augustine is made by J. J.
O'Meara in "Porphyry's Philosophy from Oracles in Eusebius's Preparatio evangelica and
Augustine's Dialogues ofCassiciacum,"Reci!Aug 6 (1969) 103-139, esp. 122-131.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

149

for in the De consensu evangelistarum Augustine has in

porphyry's attack on Gospel consistency in the Against the
In Augustine's later City of God Porphyry figures prominently
~entlY as the anti-Christian polemicist par excellence, as a
freq " author m
h'ts own ng
ht, espect'all y m
Vl'rtue of h'ts De
-'',u.liP.OliO!;;l'"""
antmae, 42 and finally as a recently important Platonist who can
.aa,n:""u.p in opposition to Plotinus. 43
,, .. phyry is indeed a major source for Victorinus,44 but his writ.ings did
~.Po~nificantly influence Augustine until after 400; and even then
s
's concerns, at least in the first instance, were very different
those of Victorious. Despite his prominence in Rome after Plotinus'
Porphyry seems to have made surprisingly little immediate
IOSlJI-'lllW"" impact. In support of this assertion we shall shortly take up
of Calcidius, but first two questions must be faced, both of
demand and can be provided with an answer. First, in the light of
neglect of Neoplatonism, what was it that in the first place drew
attention to Porphyry, and perhaps through him to Plotinus?
is there an historical explanation of the silence which in fact
Porphyry in the first half of the fourth century in the West? A
answer to the first question is as follows: Victorious' attention to
was primarily and in the first instance the result of his activity
exponent and commentator on the logical works of Aristotle. 45 It is
to observe in this connection that according to Jerome46
' writings against Arius are composed in the dialectical manner
dialectico): the Aristotelian manner which the orthodox also
to see in the writings of the latter-day Arians Aetius and
47
Above all, the Aristotelianism ofVictorinus' writings against
the source of (e.g.) 10.9. Despite J. J. O'Meara, Porphyry's Philosophy
in Augustine (Paris 1959), the De regressu is not to be identified with the
.from Oracles. P. Hadot convincingly replies to O'Meara in "Citations de
chez Augustin (a propos d'un livre recent)," REA 7 (1960) 205-244.
Civ. Dei 10.23.
.
Porphyre et Victorinus.
CSEI. B3: 10-11.
46
De vir. in/. I 01.
47
J. Danielou, "Eunome l'arien et I'exegese neoplatonicienne du Cratyle," REG 69
(
1~56) 412-432, esp. p. 429; E. Vandenbussche, "La part de Ia dialectique dans Ia
~eologie d'Eunome le technologue," RHE 10 (1945) 47-72; A. Meredith, "Orthodoxy,
( eresy and Philosophy in the Latter Half of the Fourth Century," The Heythrop J. 16
/ 975) 10; Gregory of Nyssa, C. Eun. 2.411, ed. Jaeger, I: 346; 3.5.6, ed. Jaeger, I:
.. 53:14. In the first of these passages lt is Eunomius who hurls reproaches of
LAnstote~ian" at Basil, but generally Eunomius and Aetius were on the receiving end. See
R. WJckham, 'The Syn/agmation of Aetius the Anomoean," JThS 19 (1968) 561. It
t<r"'m"''tl\/

150

JOHN M. RIST

Arius is the Aristotelianism of the commentator on the Categories, and th

translator of Porphyry's lsagoge to the Categories. From Porphyry's lo .e
to Porphyry's philosophy may be but a short step.
glc
As for the second question - why is there so little trace of Porphyry .
the West from the time of his death to the time of Victorious? _ ~n
answer we can give is plausible but cannot claim demonstrable certaintye
However, the important fact is often neglected that Porphyry's Writing
were condemned to the flames by Constantine. We do not have the detau:
of what happened, and the date of the condemnation is unclear, but the
fact is indisputable and a likely date may be proposed. In about the Year
333 the Emperor Constantine wrote as follows, calling for the destruction
of the writings of Arius: 48 "Since Arius has imitated wicked and impious
persons, it is just that he should undergo the like ignominy. Wherefore as
Porphyry, that enemy of piety, for having composed licentious treatises
against Religion, found a suitable recompense, and such as thenceforth
branded him with infamy, overwhelming him with deserved reproach,
his impious writings having been destroyed .... This therefore I decree,
that if anyone shall be detected in concealing a book compiled by Arius
and shall not instantly bring it forward and burn it, the penalty for this
offence shall be death ... " (adapted slightly from Stevenson). Constantine
also mentions, in the section of the letter which I have not quoted, that the
purpose of destroying Arius' writings is not merely to suppress his
"depraved doctrines" but "that no memorial of him may be by any means
left." Presumably he had hoped to achieve the same results in the case of
Porphyry
and in the short run I suggest that he succeeded - and if
such was his attempt it surely follows that it was not only the Against the
Christians which was condemned. The most likely date for such an attack
is certainly 324, at the time when Constantine had just completed his
Christian crusade against Licinius in the East. If this suggestion is correct,
it en(lbles us to account for much of the silence about Porphyry in the first
half of the fourth century: it paid to conceal one's knowledge of his works.
Notice the timing of the anti-Porphyrian tracts: Methodius apparently
in the first decade of the fourth century, that is, very soon after Against the
Christians was written; Eusebius' Against Porphyry in 25 books49 at

should be noted that Origen already uses rExvo2oyia to refer to "professional" Greek logic
(perhaps predominantly Stoic), but the Stoic/ Aristotelian distinction had faded by the 4th
century. (Origen, C. Celsum 3.39; cf. Sextus Empiricus, Pyrr. hypot. 2.205.)
4s Socrates, Hist. eccl. 1.9.30-31 (H. G. Opitz, Urkunden zur Geschichte des
arianischen .weites 318-328 [Berlin 1934], Urkunde J3); Gelasius, Hist. eccl. 2.36.
49
See A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, 2 (Leipzig !898) 564 f.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

151

the same time, and his f'raeparatio Evangelica, Demonstratio

and Ecclesiastical History (at least the version of the latter
'the notorious reference to Porphyry in 6.19.8) not long after
After that there appears no further need to refute Porphyry, and the
50
of the .fidei defensores. Methodius and Eusebius is put on an
footing by the ban on Porphyry's writings. The work only
to be done again, we may speculate, after the reign of Julian, who
Porphyry not, certainly, as his favourite philosopher, but at least
important figure in the great tradition. 51 Hence new refutations, first
of Laodicea (ca. 370), then by Philostorgius (ca. 425), and
renewed condemnations by Theodosius II and Justinian.
was the official fate of Porphyry's writings. What of the man
Apart from Constantine's oblique reference to his "suitable re
" we are virtually in the dark. According to Eunapius he died at
age, and, it was said, in Rome. 52 The Suda observes that he
until the time of Diocletian, but that is almost certainly a mere
from the text of the Life of Plotinus and has no value for fixing a
ante quem. We do not know when Porphyry died, though, if
is to be trusted, he worked and wrote when Christianity was
53 It is true that Augustine is referring specifically to the De
animae at this time - and the precise date of that work is
-but if any credence is to be placed in what Augustine says,
supposed Porphyry to be still writing after the outbreak of
under Diocletian, and possibly therefore also after DiodeThere is in fact no reason why Porphyry should not have
about 310.

aim of most of the discussion up to this point should now be

neither Porphyry nor Plotinus, except at times the Porphyry of
the Christians, is prominent in that number of Christian texts in
,they have often been supposed to be manifest Other evidence,
in Greek, remains to be scrutinized; the one remaining prominent

Barnes. "Porphyry," p. 441, points to the great importance of the absence from
of any mention of Porphyry's attack on the authenticity of
s... book of Daniel or of the date of its composition. The Eel. proph. seems to date from
~on after 300.
>.$1 F
?r Julian the "modern" master is larnblichus, Or. 4 046A).
52
VItae soph. 457.
53
Augustine, De Civ. Dei 10.32.
uu'"""'~ Ec/ogae prophetir:ae

152

JOHN M. RIST

Latin text is, as I have stated, the work of Calcidius on the Timaeus
Fortunately this need not occupy much of our time, for in addition to th~
massive text and commentary of J. H. Waszink, 54 we have, following
upon various detailed studies by Waszink's pupils and continuators,ss an~
eminently sane and convincing reappraisal of the problems surrounding
Calcidius' sources from John Dillon. 56 It only remains to conftrm, and
occasionally but not, I think, uninterestingly to enlarge on Dillon's
exposition.
There is no need to discuss at any length the reasons why, until
W aszink, it was generally assumed that the Ossius to whom Calcidius'
work is dedicated, is to be identified, following certain indications in a
number of the manuscripts, with Ossius, bishop of Corduba, ecclesiastiCal
adviser of the emperor from his conversion (and doubtless before) until
some time after the Council of Nicaea. One family of manuscripts has it
that Calcidius was Ossius' deacon. Waszink and others dismiss this
evidence. If Calcidius were a deacon of Ossius of Corduba, he would have
rated a mention by Isidore of Seville (560-630) whose policy it is to boast
of Spanish writers whenever possible. Rather, says Waszink, Ossius may
be an imperial official known of in Milan about 395 57 - or he may be
someone else. Waszink's arguments, as Dillon has shown, are inadequate,
and Dillon's case can be backed up with fresh evidence.
First of all, although it is true that Isidore frequently boasts of Spanish
writers and also that he uses Calcidius' commentary, 58 all that can be
concluded from this is that he may not have known the identity of the
author. But Isidore may also have known of a deacon of Ossius and also
of the name Calcidius as that of the author of the commentary without
identifying the two. To Waszink's second point, that the language of
Calcidius has many features in common with that of late fourth-century
or even later writers, Dillon rightly replies that this is inconclusive:
Calcidius could, but need not, be late fourth century: that is, he might
54 Timaett$ a Ca/cidio trans/at us commentarioque in.~trucftls. Plato Latinus 4 (London/
Leiden 1962).
ss J. C. M. van Winden. Calcidius on Matter: His Doctrine and Sources (Leiden 1959):
J. den Boeft. Ca/cidius on Fate: His Doctrine and Sources (Leiden 1970).
56
Dillon. The Middle P/ato11ists. pp. 401-408.
57 Timaeus a Calcidio. p. xvi. Implausible developments of a Milanese Calcidius are
available: Courcelle. Recherches sur S. Ambroise. pp. 17-24.
58
J. Fontaine. Isidore de Seville et Ia culture classique dans f'Espagne Wi.~igotfliqile
(Paris 1959) p. 658. Dillon. Middle P/atonists. p. 402 seems to suggest that Isidore did not
know the commemary. but Fontaine's texts seem decisive against this: and perhaps all
Dillon means is that Isidore did not know that Calcidius of Corduba wrote the
commentary.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

153

siblY be put into the late fourth century did not the kind of Platonism

pla~dvocates make this unlikely. And Dillon is again right to point out
be t were is nothing peculiarly . Neoplatonic, that is, redolent of the
~atonism of Plotinus and Porphyry (let alone lamblichus) to be found in
~ ~cidius. The sum total of Calcidius' Platonism could be derived from
: ddle Platonic writers, particularly from Numenius. In fact, as W aszink
.~self admits, Calcidius' main sources are the Peripatetic Adrastus and
\ne other writer whose views are very like the Platonism of Numes~us.s9 Dillon himself hesitantly proposes Cronius - we recall him as
nutnoritative among Arnobius' viri novi- as this Platonic source,60 and
~ronius is regillarly mentioned in company with Numenius. 61
There is a further item of information which may help to strengthen
tbis identification. According to Calcidius, Plato did not believe in the
transmigration of human souls into animal bodies. 62 This thesis, argued in
different ways by Porphyry and Iamblichus but not held by Plotinus,
migbt seem to point to a post-Plotinian influence (i.e., that of Porphyry)
:on the text ofCalcidius; 63 but interestingly enough there is just one writer
tbe Platonic/Pythagorean tradition before Plotinus who seems to have
. it: none other than Cronius, in his book On Reincarnation. 64 Cronius,
should add, though little more than a name to us, was regularly read in
of Plotinus and was an influence in the education of Origen. 65

11

Timaeu.5 a Calcidio, pp. xxxv-cvi. Henry and Schwyzer's Index testium (P/otini
3: 422) lists two parallels between Calcidius and Plotinus, 4.5.1.29"32 =ch. 237 and
1112 = ch. 294. Both are too general to indicate derivation.
Dillon, The Middle Platonists, p. 407.
Porphyry, Vita Plot. 14; Iamblichus. De an. (Wachsmuth. pp. 375.12 ff.; 380.6 ff.);
Hist. eccl. 6.19.8. Since Waszink, the most interesting attempt to insist that
Cronius and others are mediated through Porphyry is that of J. den Boeft,
on Fate (l.eiden 1970); idem Calcidius on Demons (l.eiden 1977). But for
chapters 176, 177 and 188, the influence of Middle Platonism, especially Ps.De .falo. is adequate explanation. The account of fate given by Calcidius has
necessarily Plotinian or Porphyrian. nor, as den Boeft interestingly admits. is the
term "One" used in Calcidius' commentary, even in these chapters. As for
den Boeft himself admits it is unlikely that Porphyry "has denied the system
(p. 53). Exactly; this is an unnecessary hypothesis. Middle Platonic exegesis of
Epinomis will account both for Porphyry and for Calcidius.
2
1 f In Tim. 42c, ch. 196.
63
For Iamblichus and Porphyry see Nemesius of Emesa, De IWI. hom. 2. Matthaei,
[ 117 This text may seem ambiguous in the case of Porphyry (who is wrongly held to
'tavour. transmigration by Wallis, Neop/ato11ism, p. 113), but that Porphyry rejected
~ansm~gration into animal bodies is confirmed by Augustine, De Civ. Dei 10.30, and
eneas of Gaza. Po 85: 893. In general see H. Dorrie. "Kontroversen urn die
See!;nwanderung im Kaiserzeitlichen Platonismus." Hermes 85 (1957) 414-435.
Nemesius, De nat. hom. 2, Matthaei, p. 117.
65
Porphyry, Vila Plot. 14; Eusebius; Hist. eccl. 6.19.8.

154

JOHN M. RIST

The lack of any clear evidence for Neoplatonic rather than Mictcti
Platonic influence on Calcidius is obviously important for the dating ofhe
lS
work. Advocates of a later date than the early years of the fourth century
and indeed many advocates of an early fourth-century date as well, hav'
no difficulty in admitting that there is much of Numenius (or Cronius) t e
be found in Calcidius, but claim that this is all mediated throug~
Porphyry's commentary on the Timaeus. 66 It is hard to disprove this, sine
there is no doubt that in his commentary on the Timaeus Porphyry
good use of Numenius; however, the claim is made implausible by the
fact that not only does Calcidius not name Porphyry - perhaps, in view
of the ban, he may have feared to do so! - but much more importantly
that he quotes nothing that is peculiarly Porphyrian or even Plotinian. To
which we must add that whereas Porphyry commented on the whole of
Timaeus, with frequent resort to allegorization, Calcidius is selective and
neglects allegorical interpretation altogether. 67
If we can argue that Calcidius knows no Plotinus and no Porphyry, the
task of dating him to the later part of the fourth century, after Victorious,
becomes far more difficult. The nearer Calcidius is in time to Porphyry,
the less likely he is to have used him. And a date between 324 and the
time of Victorious is, as I have already observed, not the most suitable
period for a Christian to flaunt knowledge of Porphyry's commentary,
even anonymously. But in fact there is a further reason for thinking that
the work was written even before 324, before Christians were accorded
legal recognition
and therefore, incidentally, before bishops obtained
official status in the Roman Empire: Calcidius dedicates his work to
Ossius, but without giving his Christian patron official recognizance, a
neglect hardly likely after 324.68 If Ossius were an imperial official, as
W aszink proposed, the omission of his title becomes additionally bizarre.
Of course, we could still say that Ossius is not an imperial official of the
380s, and indeed that he lived at a time when it would have been
imprudent or unwise to identify him further, that is, before 324, yet that
though named Ossius, he is not Bishop Ossius of Corduba. But then
merely to elaborate such a justification is to highlight its implausibility. All
in all it can safely be concluded (a) that Calcidius' work falls into the early
part of the fourth century, (b) that it is dedicated to Ossius, bishop of

rnau:

66
Thus van Winden. Calcidius, p. 247. He realizes that Calcidius "represents a pre
Plotinian style in the evolution of Platonic thinking," but still prefers unnecessarilY to
introduce Porphyry as an intermediary.
67
Dillon, The Middle Platonists, p. 403.
6
s I owe this point to T. D. Barnes.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

155

and (c) that it reflects the Middle Platonism of Numenius and

not the Neoplatonism of Porphyry and Plotinus. Thus we
that Calcidius' commentary on the Timaeus defends some of
varieties of Platonism which his co-religionist Arnobius rejects.

"~n ... ~-..

Constantine's Oration to the Assembly of the Saints

Before concluding our general survey of Neoplatonic-Christian

at the turn of the third and fourth centuries and returning,
a little better prepared, to the question of Plotinus in Eusebius and
that
to wider problems of the influence of Neoplatonism during
1\'E'!'l,nfl'VVearlier part of the fourth century, particularly in the philosophical
of Alexandria and Athens, we should glance, however briefly, at a
~sciiJ<:tLlUE> document, much discussed by historians, but largely neglected
those concerned with the intellectual developments of the fourth
and the relationship between Christianity and paganism during
period. The document is the Oration of the Emperor Constantine to
~Assembly of the Saints," perhaps delivered at Serdica in 321 AD. That
a genuine document has recently been strongly reaffirmed. 69 An
element in that demonstration, however, has thus far been
In Constantine's discussion of the Greek philosophical tradition
is commended for his theology in terms which would hardly have
used by the emperor after the Council of Nicaea.
chapter nine the emperor observes that Socrates, who was "buoyed
, by dialectic, makes the worse argument the better,1 and fools about
arguments which weaken one's confidence in argument/' was
destroyed through the malice of his fellow-citizens; and that
who claimed to practice temperance was detected in a blatant
he published as his own in Italy various kinds of material deriving
the Hebrew prophets which he had picked up in Egypt. Then, says
~stan1tin~~. came Plato, who first raised men's minds from the sensible
the intelligible. His teaching on first principles was as follows: he
'V!,I,Ua,u;;u a first god UTCEP -ci}v ouaiav this probably means beyond all
and is approved by Constantine - and below this there is a
god.'' Secondly he distinguished these two beings (ova ouaiad
'

69

T. D. Barnes, 'The Emperor Constantine's Good Friday Sermon," JThS 27 (1976)

414-423. Barnes dated the speech to 317; he now prefers 32L
7
Cf. Plato. Apol. 18o.
71
Cf. Plato, Phaedo 90oc.
72
Cf. the comment of E. P. Meijering, Orthodoxy and Platonism in A thanasius (Leiden
19 74) pp. 6-7 on Athanasius, C. Gentes II; c[ C. Gentes 35,and 40 and Justin, Dial. 4. L

156

JOHN M. RIST

numerically, though "the perfection of both is one and the being of

second god has its hyparxis, its existence, from the first." The first .
the demiurge and director of the whole, the second is the logos and 8
God. So far so good, says Constantine, but after that Plato went 0
rails and introduced a mass of subsidiary gods.
tile
This is clearly a very Christianized Plato, or rather a Christian
Numenius - perhaps mediated by Origen - for it seems beyond d:ea
that it is some kind of Numenian Plato that Constantine has in mind.
language of first and second gods is certainly Numenian, 73 but the
application of it is not, for whereas Constantine insists that it is the fi .e
god who is the "demiurge" and the director enthroned above the univer~st
Numenius associates demiurgic activity with the second god. As
e,
12 has it, the first god is inactive in regard to all works and is king, but
demiurgic god takes command as he progresses through heaven. A fellow
pupil with Plotinus of Ammonius in Alexandria, the pagan Origen, in fact
brings us nearer to the emperor's position: he wrote a work, presumably
against Numenius, arguing that the king (i.e., the first God) is the
Creator. 74 That N umenius was still of paramount importance in the
in which Plotinus and Origen moved is certain: he was studied
Plotinus' seminars; 75 Plotinus himself was accused of plagiarizing
Amelius transcribed and arranged most of his works, and indeed
knew them by heart. 77
The apparent influence ofNumenius, or ofNumenian~style
is not the only pointer in the speech to the early fourth century.
it might be argued (perversely) that in any case such influence
brought to bear on (pseudo-) Constantine by Porphyry's commentary
the Timaeus - if the material will bear that degree of irony. But
combination of Numenian language and pre-Nicene theological attitudes
would surely suggest not only that the work is to be dated to the
quarter of the fourth century, but that Numenian Platonism is the

;n

;:t

73

Numenius, rr. II, 12, 15, 16, Des Places. Plotinus, we should observe, is prepared to
speak of a .~econd god, but not of a first, probably because "first god" might suggest a
Numenian (or other) nous. In his early 6.9 (chronologically no. 9) he allows "first Nature"
(6.9.7.16) and "that (ekeinos) God" (6.9.11.28). Cf. J. M. Rist, 'Theos and the One in Some
Texts of Plotinus," MS 24 (1962) 169-180, though I now think that Plotinus is already
more unwilling to be Numenian than I suggested then. Christ as "second God" is to be
found in Origen. C. Celsum 5.39, 6.61, 7.57. (Numenius is mentioned in 5.38.)
14
Porphyry, Vita Plot. 3.
75 Vila Plot. 14.
76
Vita Plot. 17.
77 Vita Plot. 3.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONJSM"

157

known to the emperor, or rather to the emperor's theological

For although there seems no reason to deny that Constantine
be speech himself, it also seems highly likely that the content,
t especially the philosophical content, has been ghosted. Where
ould the "ghost" come from ? There is no more likely milieu than
~
tbe retinue of Bishop Ossius, the same milieu from which the
0
" Calcidius appears. That is not to say that it was Calcidius
who ghosted the Oration to the Assembly of the Saints. It is too
for tbat; the comment on Socrates and Pythagoras is too abrasive
-M;;cp!Ho But if there was knowledge of school Platonism, such
:.atl.'l"'"~ represents, around Ossius, then a less able (and less broadly
"'"''n"'"'LI'' exponent could have been Constantine's script-writer. The
would put forward the name of the bishop himself; after all
does suggest in his introduction that Ossius is equipped to write
only remains the matter of the pre-Nicene theological language.
following points should be noted.
'In the Platonic material which Constantine finds acceptable, i.e.,
the language of first and second gods can be squeezed into a
theology of Father and Son, the word homoousios is missing.
it was not even included in the "orthodox" and largely scriptural
originally proposed at Nicaea, and apparently composed by
, 78 but was inserted later precisely because it was seen to be
to Eusebius of Nicomedia and the Arians. 79 Its importance was
grasped only after the Council of Antioch - where a strongly
creed did not include it - and before the time of the final
decisions; and its appearance at Nicaea is associated with the
himself (and his theological advisers), who also added it in as an
:na;:tttcm to a Creed put forward at one point - probably before the
of the Nicaenum - by Eusebius of Caesarea. 80 Indeed its

., Elnoc. [81].

PG

32: 457A; Courtonne, I: 183.24-26 - a letter written to

I.

Ambrose, De .fide 3.15 (Opitz, Urkunde 21, p. 42). Arius himself specifically rejected
as Manichaean in his letter to Alexander; for Arius it suggested that the Son is a
the Father (Opitz, Urkunde 6, p. 12). Similarly in his Thalia (Athanasius, De
15). Philostorgius, Hist. ecc/. I. 7, claims (possibly correctly) that Ossius and
ct"'"'~>anoer had decided to insert the ofJoouaw, before the Council opened. Philostorgius
.. oes not say, however, that Ossius and Alexander presented to the assembly a ready-made
~~ed ~hat included the homoousios, as claimed by V. C. de Ciercq, Ossius qf Cordova
~:hmgton 1954) p. 257.
See Eusebius' own words in a letter to his congregation (Socrates, Hist. eccl. 1.8).

158

JOHN M. RIST

association with the emperor at Nicaea makes its omission in the Orau011
to the Assembly qf the Saints the more striking; while the history of its
appearance at Nicaea renders its absence in 321 intelligible.
(b) The relationship between the first and second gods is that they are
two substances (ouaiat) with a single perfection. This is certainly
Christianized Platonism in that "subordinationist" ideas have been
expurgated in part, but the Origenist two substances remains81 and the
emperor remains Platonic enough to add, in phraseology surely un.
acceptable after Nicaea, or even after Antioch, that the existence
(hyparxis) of the second god comes from the first. The Council of Antioch
avoids the ambiguous hyparxis and prefers to speak of the Son's being the
image of the Father in all things and of the Father's substance
(hypostasis). 82 Nicaea too seems to have treated ousia and hypostasis as
synonomous, professing one ousia,83 but to have avoided hyparxis,
perhaps as too dangerously associated with and tainted by philosophical
assocations. To speak of the Son's having his hyparxis from the Father
might, in an Arian context, easily be misread. As for the "two substances"
(ouaiat), Ossius found that too unacceptable in Eusebius and Narcissus at
Nicaea itself.
(c) In the last sentence of his analysis of those parts of Plato which he
finds sound, Constantine observes approvingly that "the Father of all
things would be rightly held to be the father of his own Logos." Though
in peaceful times again this kind of deduction might seem harmless, in
times of Arian controversy it might well seem to place the Son too close to
the Father's creation- an Arian thesis clearly denounced at Antioch84 and indeed suggest that he is a creature.
Scrupulous analysis of the Oration to the Assembly qf the Saints might
provide further evidence; sufficient is available for our present purpose,
which is a limited one: to argue that, written in 321, this document gives

81
Cf. Origen. De ora/. 15: i!7:cpo,; Jca7:' ouaiav. For the absence of homoousios in Origen,
see R. P. C. Hanson, "Did Origen apply the word homoousios to the Son?'' in t"pektasis,
Melanges Patristiques offerts au Card. J. Danielou (Paris 1972) pp. 339-347. Origen's

formula is 8uo 'zi1 U'TioiJ'tcitm 7rp6.yf.1.ara iiv 8e 'zi1 of.i.ovolfl xai 'zi1 rauroTI)r. roiJ {iouk/jf.l.aro,; (C.
Celsum 8.12).
82
A Greek version (of E. Schwartz) is to be found in Opitz, Urkunde 18. There is a
suspicious (to the orthodox) use of the verb u7r6.pxstv to be found in Arius' Thalia (see note
79 above); cf. letter ofEusebius ofCaesarea (Opitz, Urkunde 3); for Arius' use of unrjpgs see
G. C. Stead, "The Platonism of Arius," JT/zS 15 (1964) 26.
83 Cf. Eusebius, C. Marcellum 1.4.39, GCS 26: 5-10. Socrates tells us that when in
Alexandria Ossius began to investigate the terms ousia and hypostasis (}list. eccl. 3.7).
84
Opitz, Urkunde 18, pp. 38-39.

BASIL'S "NEOPLA TONISM"

159

support to our proposition that Platonism, in Christian circles at

'""~''n'""~ still means Middle Platonism.
D.

EusTOCHIUS, PoRPHYRY AND EusEBIUS

, Some time between 303 and 307

.~usebius

does not know Porphyry's

~~~'A ainst the Christians when wntmg the Eclogae propheticae. 85 He

~~~' ~blished his Chronicle in about 303, but the references to Porphyry may
~ . ~i~nlY occur in the second edition (after 326). 86 He apparently did not know
~~.
s polemic when he wrote the Contra Hieroclem (ca. 303). 87 His
attack was probably in the rapidly compiled though lengthy Against
later we have the Ecclesiastical History where Porphyry is
and, above all, our present concern, the Praeparatio evangelica,
its extensive use both of Porphyry and of Plotinus. Even from the
however, we cannot discover exactly what Porphyry and
Eusebius had read, and beyond that where he obtained his
Of course he had access to the library at Caesarea, presumably
back in some form to the time of Origen, and developed perhaps by
and certainly by Eusebius' master Pamphilus, the martyr and
defender of Origen. What Porphyry do we find in the
? The following works are named: De statuis, 90 Philosophy
Oracles, Recitatio philologica, Against the Christians, Letter to
nebo, De abstinentia, On the Soul in Reply to Boethus. 91
From the writings of Porphyry as we know them in Eusebius we
construct Porphyry's own metaphysical system, or even the major
of it in so far as those lines are Neoplatonic. If we had to describe
metaphysics from Eusebius, we should fail, and fail worse
~

85

Barnes, "Porphyry," pp. 441-442.

Ibid.
87
Barnes, "Sossianus Hierocles," p. 241.
88
Harnack, Geschichte, 2: 564 f.
89
For Anatolius, bishop and mathematician, see J. M. Dillon, lamb/ichi Clw/cidensis
fifragmenta (Leiden 1973) pp. 8-9; and for different interpretations R. M. Grant,
/'"Porphyry among the Early Christians," in Romanitas et Christianitas, Studia Waszink
''(Amsterdam 1973) pp. 181-187. But Grant's dating of Porphyry must be rejected. If Paul
; of Samosata was condemned in 268, Anatolius probably only remained in Caesarea a
short time. There is also no reason to accept Grant's suggestion that only Porphyrian work
earlier than 279 was collected at Caesarea. Grant makes or follows arbitrary assumptions
about the dating of Porphyry's work, especially Against the Christians, and leaves
Anatolius at Caesarea too long. His time there was short and his impact on the library
Presumably limited.
90
De stafllis 3.7.1.
91
For references see Mras' index.
86

160

JOHN M. RlST

than we do now. 92 But Porphyry's writings are of a very varied nature

and much of his technical philosophical work appeared in the form
commentaries on Plato and Aristotle. With Plotinus, however, the case is
different. If Eusebius knew Plotinus, it was clearly philosophical and
indeed Neoplatonic material that he knew; there are no non-philosophical
or semi-philosophical Plotinian texts. It becomes therefore a matter of
considerable importance for our study of the spread of Neoplatonic ideas
to identify exactly what Plotinus Eusebius did know, and then to consider
with some care the manner in which he came by his knowledge. There
is no doubt, of course, that Eusebius used a text like that of Ennead 5.1 in
Praep. ev. 22 and of 4.7 in Praep. ev. 15. I shall, however, defer a
consideration of this material until we have had time to look at other
proposed evidence. To deal with this, the most convenient method seems
to be to consider a set of passages listed in Henry and Schwyzer's Index
testium 93 and in Henry's Etats du texte de Plotin. 94

of

(a) Praep. ev. 11.21.1 (543o) and Enn. 1.1.8.9-10. This is an allusion
in Plotinus to Numenius' doctrine of nous. Eusebius himself quotes
Numenius On the Soul directly, 95 not through the intermediary of
Plotinus.
(b) Praep. ev. 1 I.l8.14 (538c) and Enn. 5.9.5.28. Again Eusebius
quotes Numenius' On the Soul directly. It is not even clear that Plotinus is
alluding to Numenius here. Only the word vof.to8f:rTJ~ might suggest it.
Originally Henry and Schwyzer did not propose it as Numenian. Their
restraint may well have been proper.
(c) Praep. ev. 15.6.15 (802o) and Enn. 2.1.1.2. Here Eusebius is
quoting not Numenius96 but Atticus97 as p. 342. Again there is no
question of Eusebius' use of the Enneads.
(d) Praep. ev. 15.7.7 (804c ff.) and Enn. 2.5.3.18. Another confusion
(this time on the fifth body) in Henry and Schwyzer. On p. 343 we are
rightly referred to Atticus98 which Eusebius indeed quotes; on p. 424 we

92 For the best brief reconstruction see P. Hadot, "La metaphysique de Porphyre," in
Entretiens Hardt 12. Porpl!yre (Geneva 1966) pp. 125-164 with A. C. Lloyd in Tile
Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Mediaeval Philosophy (Cambridge 1967)
pp. 287-293 and Wallis, Neoplatonism, pp. ll0-ll8.
93
Opera Plotini, 3: 424.
94
Henry, Etats, p. ISS.
95
Fr. 2 (ed. Des Places). fr. 11 (ed. Leemans).
96
As Henry-Schwyz;er, 3: 424.
97
Fr. 4. 87 (ed. Baudry).
98
Fr. 5, 66-69 (ed. Baudry).

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

161

find mention of Numenius. Again, however, no question

.....~~veu'se of Plotinus.
}5.12.3 (814A) and Enn. 3. I .4.1. Perhaps we have merely
praeP ;:ion about Atticus. 99 Certainly Atticus is named as the
~0wer
uebius, but Henry and Schwyzer originally simply cited a
~ce of ~~ 0 and this is probably right. There is no particular reason
source, ate Atticus with Ennead 3.1.4; and of Numenius there is no
to associ

co;

ev. 11.18 (538c 7-8) and Enn. 5.4 (title). In the Etats 101
aeP
that Eusebius quotes from Numenius' flepl -roiJ nwr; &no
al1:iou -co &!.mpov - which sounds rather like the title of
. .4 _ and thinks Eusebius may have Plotinus in mind: first
chapter 18 of Eusebi~s is located between two other chapters ( 1.6
where Plotinus IS quoted; and second because 5.4 IS
number 7 and 5.1 is number I 0. Eustochius, he thinks,
OUJ,.,v-
in chronological order; hence Eusebius, using that
from one treatise to the next.
and Schwyzer have abandoned all this speculation in
of Plotinus.
the results of the discussion thus far: Eusebius, as
has only read the two treatises of Plotinus which so far
that is, Enneads 4. 7 (in book 15 of the Praeparatio) and
1). It is, therefore, to this material that we must now turn,
if we are to make any suggestions about the influence of
,..,,,"'"'" and (importantly) on the Christian tradition which
fact: Eusebius cites only two of Plotinus'. tracts. The
immediately arises is where did he get his knowledge of
as it from Porphyry's edition of the Enneads? If it was,
to assert that that edition was at least obtainable in the
tt<>rr"""'"'"' by about 317 and that (presumably) the library at
)SSe:sse:d a copy. Or was it from what has been claimed to be
Eustochius, in which case we may have to deduce that only
writings.of Plotinus were readily available in about 317 a comparatively small number? Or, as has sometimes been
does Eusebius' text go back to the apparently good copies of

:
16!

~r; ~S 9Baudry pp.

'

P. ISS.

15-16, as Henry-Schwyzer, 3: 344.

162

JOHN M. RIST

some ofPiotinus' writings which, as we have already noted, were brought

East by Amelius? If so, we have to assume that someone (say Pamphilus)
secured the books for Caesarea perhaps soon after 270; in other words
that many Christians in at least some parts of the East could have obtained
access to much Plotinian thought for at least thirty years before Eusebius
wrote his Praeparatio. Perhaps in the end, even if this matter could be
resolved, even if we could know the source of Eusebius' knowledge of
Plotinus, we might not be able to progress with our primary concern
namely the influence of Plotinus on Christian writers of the fourth
century. But we would have to admit that were Plotinus' text, or some of
it, already available in the 270s at Caesarea, there would be at least an
argument a priori for diffusion of knowledge of that text in the East in the
forty or fifty years before the Council of Nicaea.
Let us first look at Eusebius' use of Ennead 5.1 in Praeparatio
evange/ica book 11. Of this comparatively little need be said: Eusebius
knows material corresponding to large chunks of 5.1.4, 5.1.5, 5.1.6 and
5.1.8, as well as the title of the treatise On The Three Basic Hypostases. I
do not propose to discuss the textual variations between Plotinus in the
Ennead and Plotinus in Eusebius. It seems to me that as the text of
Eusebius improves, the two grow closer; but that there is insufficient
purely textual evidence to decide upon the question of whether Eusebius'
text is dependent on Porphyry's edition or on another. We can only, I
think, conclude with a reasonable degree of certainty that Eusebius knows
more of Ennead 5.1 than he quotes, presumably in fact the whole of it. 5. I
is number 10 in Porphyry's chronological list. We should finally observe
that he quotes it under the same title as that which Porphyry uses; but
Porphyry himself tells us that although the treatises were not given titles
by Plotinus, he himself has quoted them by what eventually came to be
the headings in common use. 102 So from Eusebius' similarity of title
nothing can be inferred.
The use by Eusebius of material to be found in 4.7, in contrast to his
treatment of 5.1, is far more complicated. I shall discuss Ennead 4.7.l.l4.7.85.5l under the three sections or pericopae isolated by Henry. 103
Section A Enn. 4.7.1.l-4.7.8.28; Praep. ev. 15.22.1-48. These chapters
occur in all the MSS of the Enneads and of the Praeparatio, but the titles are.
different. Eusebius says that the work comes from Plotinus'.first book On

102

Porphyry, Vita Plot. 4.

103

Henry, Recherches.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

163

(against the Stoics that the soul is not material), whereas

1
the SoU y's edition knows of only one book on the immortality of the soul.
porph~ n B Enn. 4.7.8.28-4.7.84 .28; Praep. ev. 15.22.49-67. This material
sectl?n the Praeparatio but in only three MSS of the Enneads (JMV ). There
oecurs ~Y a lacuna in the Porphyrian archetype of the Enneads; probably
is cJea\his has been filled in from manuscripts of the Praeparatio.
ill JMV'. n c Enn. 4. 7.8 5.1-4. 7.8 5.51; Praep. ev. 15 .I 0, 1-9. Here all MSS of
S~~~eads are defective; we are left with Eusebius alone. Eusebius'
we tion is entitled, Of Plotinus, from the second book on the immortality
quohta soul against Aristotle who said it is an entelechy.
oft e
There seems no good reason to deny that Eusebius knows of an edition
. fPlotinUS divided differently from that of Porphyry, i.e., with two books
0
The Immortality of the Soul. This fact cannot be subverted merely by
0
{ming that Eusebius has made a mistake: it is an odd mistake to make;
c ai. by claiming that although he gets his material from Porphyry, some
' of Porphyry's edition were divided differently from ours.
in fact, as he tells us himself, made a very careful arrangement
1 vw........... material he had, dividing it up to make exactly 54 treatises
There seems no way of avoiding the conclusion that
Plotinus does not come from Porphyry. And if that is the case,
to admit that there is no certain evidence in Eusebius that he in
any more than the treatises from which he actually quotes:
4.7 and 5.1.
both these treatises are from the earliest group of Plotinus'
. . ,being numbers 2 and 10 in the chronological list. The question
where did they come from ? And in practice this means did
from an edition by Eustochius, from the material in the
of Amelius, or from some third, presumably written, source.
the last possibility cannot be ruled out; odd treatises ofPlotinus'
. . been in circulation, and Eusebius or Pamphilus may have got
few of them. But not necessarily, we may note, more than two.
Eustochius' edition? Here we must indeed raise again the
of whether it in fact existed. The evidence is only the scholion to
sceptic might suspect some sort of error by the scholiast or iri the
but such scepticism should probably be resisted. There may
an edition by Eustochius, but there is no particular reason at all
,cuseb,ius should have used it; after all it was probably issued in Italy.
more likely, it seems to me, is that Eusebius' version derives either
104 '"

rua Plot. 26.

164

JOHN M. RIST

from the treatises in the hands of Amelius or from a copy of these or from
some other source such as Longinus. Ameli us, we recall, had a good deal
but not all, of Plotinus, and Eusebius knew the writings of Amelius, or a~
least his comments on John's Gospel. 105 Perhaps the school of Amelius did
indeed affect the Christian community at Caesarea, either in the time of
Pamphilus or in that of Eusebius himself. This seems to be at least the
likeliest alternative.
There is, perhaps, a further text which may be considered at this point.
The Aristotelian commentator Elias preserves what he calls a quotation
from a single book of Plotinus On Voluntary Death; 106 Henry and
Schwyzer print it after the treatise On Suicide. 107 Westerink has argued
strongly that this material, to which parallels can be found in other late
Neoplatonic sources, 108 derives in the first place either from Proclus'
commentary on the Enneads or from a commentary on Plato's Phaedo.
That may be true, but the source of the material would still be Plotinus
himself; and if so, presumably not from Porphyry's edition. That we have
non-Porphyrian Plotinus was argued by Henry, 109 and presumably we
have to agree. The choices are Porphyrian Plotinus, which it is probably
not (unless by chance all our manuscripts of the Enneads and the
archetype are defective as in 4. 7 .8 5); or non-Plotinus, which is possible but
which there is no good reason to suppose; or Plotinus from some other
source. That other source could be Eustochius, but why should it be, since
all we know of his "edition" is that it included Ennead 4.4? More likely
the origin of the material again is Apamea, latter-day home of Amelius. Or
if not that, Longinus.
But we should recall that Amelius did not publish an edition of
Plotinus; he had a collection of material. So there is no reason to suppose
that all his material reached Eusebius. In fact Eusebius may well have
known little if any more than the two treatises of Plotinus which he
quotes. We shall have to bear this possibility in mind as we consider the
more general matter of the dissemination of Plotinus' text among
Christian communities in the fourth century. And where better to start
than in Alexandria, the most important of the Eastern sees and long a
105 On Amelius see Praep. ev. 11.18.26. Cf. H. Dorrie, "Une exegese neoplatonicienne
du Prologue de J'Evangile deS. Jean (Amelius chez Eusebe, Prep. r!v. II, 19.1-4)," in
Epektasis. pp. 75-87; though Dorrie's speculation on the sources of Augustine, De Civ. Dei
10.29 is suspect.
106
Prof. Phil. 6, ed. Busse, CAG 18: 15.23-16.2.
107
Enn. 1.9.
108
L G. Westerink, "Elias und P1otin," BZ 57 (1964) 26-32.
109
"Vers Ia reconstitution de J'enseignement oral de P1otin," BAB 23 (1937) 337.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

165

centre of Christian learning? There if anywhere we should look for

pJotinus.
E.

PAGAN ALEXANDRIA,

270-325

But we find nothing. Already in Plotin et l'Occident 110 Henry had pointed
to the comparatively slight influence of Plotinus in the East during the
fourth century, though, as we have already shown, he may have misstated his position in detail. Plotinus himself, ~f course, wrote nothing
before leaving Alexandria. Of his fellow-pupils with Ammonius, Origen
and Erennius, we know comparatively little, 111 but it is certain that Origen
followed Middle Platonic metaphysics in making an intellect the first
principle of reality and in identifying that intellect not with the One
"beyond Being" but with Being itself. 112 Longinus too, who had attended
the lectures of Ammonius and Origen in Alexandria113 and who later
taught in Athens and Palmyra, probably took a similar position, 114 despite
his having a detailed knowledge of Plotinus' work and a great admiration
for its author. I leave the matter of Origen the Christian aside for the
moment. At the time ofPlotinus' death, therefore, it would be reasonable
to assume that the Middle Platonism of Origen and Longinus was still
dominant in Alexandria; and it was to remain so for more than a century
at least.
We have a further important piece of evidence for late third century
the treatise in which Alexander of Lycopolis criticizes the
...... c.. ..,u.u of Mani, recently translated into English and commented by Van
der Horst and Mansfeld. !IS Alexander seems to have been a professional
active in a philosophical school, 116 teaching in Alexandria not

uo P. 15.
Porphyry, Vita Plot. 3, 14, 20. The fragments of Origen have been collected by K.
Origenes der Neuplatoniker (Munich 1962). Weber's speculations about Origen
Ammonius are unreliable: I should prefer to call Origen a Middle Platonist despite his
cf. Dillon, The Middle P/atonists, p. 382. His notion of a first principle is probably the
!li{SIUbjectofthe work The King is the Sole Creator, for which see below and Porphyry, Vita
3.
112
Proclus, In Plat. Thea/. 2.4, ed. Portus pp. 87 f. (Weber fr. 7).
113
Vita Plot. 20.
114
Proclus, In Tim. 1. 332.24 (ed. Diehl); cf. Armstrong, "The Background," p. 393.
15
(
~ P. W. Van der Horst and J. Mansfeld, An Alexandrian Platonist against Dualism
LLeiden .1974). They have used Brinkmann's 1895 edition of the Greek text, Alexandri
Ycopo/uani contra Manic/wei opiniones disputatio. For what follows see especially Van
de r Horst and Mansfeld pp. 6-4 7.
116
'
Ed. Brinkmann, p. 8.14, ch. 5; Vander Horst-Mansfeld, p. 58.

166

JOHN M. RIST

much before the year 300, though Van der Horst and Mansfeld misle
in calling him a Neoplatonist. 117 His awareness of and concern Wi~~
Manichaeism is of great interest: he regards it as a Christian heresy l!s
apparently sharing common ground on the matter with Arius and
giving us important evidence about an intellectual concern of both paga ~
and Christians in Alexandria around 300.
ns
Alexander is not a Neoplatonist; rather his theories bear a marked
similarity with those of the pagan Origen, 119 in particular in that he POsits
a first principle which is not a Plotinian One but an intellect - a fact
which should not surprise us since Origen apparently wrote a major work
entitled The King is the Sole Creator some time between 260 and 265, in
the reign of Gallien us, 120 that is, when he was quite old and familiar With
the views of Plotinus. 121 Alexander may even have heard Origen lecture in
Alexandria when he himself was young. Beyond doubt the influence of
Origen as an Alexandrian master lasted for the best part of two centuries:
he is cited by Hierocles (early fifth century) as a mainstream Platonist
carrying on the influence of Ammonius Saccas. Hierocles lists the series of
masters as Ammonius, Plotinus, Origen, Porphyry, Iamblichus and his
successors. 122
Alexander talks of hypostases, 123 and makes Nous supreme, but he does
not call it One even though it is in some senee "beyond Being." 124 The
word "hypostasis" is not a regular Middle Platonic term; its philosophical
importance derives particularly from Plotinus and Porphyry, but its use
by Alexander need not indicate influence from these sources. We should

thu

P. 10.
Alexander. ed. Brinkmann ch. 2. Vander Horst-Mansfeld p. 52. For corroboration
of this view see A. Henrichs and L. Koenen, "Ein griechischer Mani-Codex," ZP 5
(1970) 97-216. esp. 140. For Arius see Opitz, Urkunde 6; 6!1oouut01; is attributed to Mani.
119
Van der Horst-Mansfeld evoke Ammonius (Saccas) here (pp. 8-9), .though justly
criticizing Theiler's "reconstruction" of Ammonius and his principle for doing so (i.e ..
where Porphyry differs from Plotinus he goes back to Ammonius!l. I should prefer to say
even less about Ammonius than Van der Horst-Mansfeld, while a fortiori rejecting W.
Theiler's excesses in his "Ammonios und Porphyrios," in Emretiens Hardt 12 Porphyre
(Geneva 1966). pp. 85-121 ( Umersuchungen zur am. Lit. [Berlin 1970] pp. 519-542).
120
Vita Plot. 3.
121
Origen heard Plotinus in Rome. presumably during Porphyry's time there (263-268
AD) (Vita Plot. 14).
122 Cf. Photius. Bibf. 214. 251 (ed. Henry), and J. M. Rist. "Hypatia," Phoenix 19
( 1965) 218. though the influence of Iamblichus is much greater than I then believed.
123
Brinkmann, pp. 24.18-19.
124 Brinkmann. p. 39.18; Plato. Rep. 509B. Cf. H. Dorrie. "Zum Ursprung d~r
neuplatonischen Hypostasenlehre," Hermes 82 0954) 331-342. and idem. "HypostasJs,
Wort und Bedeutungsgeschichte." NAG 0955) 35-92. Note the use of unouaut; in the
Tf1eaetetus Commentary. ed. Diels-Sohubart. col. 63.20, 68.3); and "Hypostasis." P 64
t17

118

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

167

that Alexander does not talk of three hypostases in the characupte. allY Plotinian manner exhibited by the title of Ennead 5.1: On the
teristlC
.. Hypostases. t2S
'hree Baste
Alexander's use of hypostases tells us that the word was by his time
nt in Alexandria, not that he got it from Porphyry or Plotinus; and
~u;re d we know that it was used there, perhaps particularly in the
10
~tian circles with which Alexander was familiar. A somewhat similar
~h~tion seems to exist in regard to his attitude to matter, very well
~t~urnented by Van der Horst and Mansfeld. Alexander believes that
0
atter derives from the first principle which, as we have seen, is Intellect
Ill a vieW similar to that advanced by certain Neopythagoreans, 126 but
, which cannot be found in Middle Platonism. The derivation of matter,
b.owever, was at the centre of controversy, as a well-known passage of the
heretical Hermogenes (criticized by Tertullian) makes clear. According to
Berrnogenes, God made things (a) out of Himself, or (b) de nihilo, or (c)
of something else. 127 The last is Hermogenes' view, and most Middle
would have agreed; the first (out of Himself) seems to be that of
, 128 though he wishes to understand this in some sort of nonsense (n:l erpEgij<; pivovro<; 7:0U 8t:oiJ unocmiUEl<; cluw). The clumsy
Iuu'"'"'1'"""' nature of this formulation should be compared with the
argument of Plotinus for a totally transcendent first principle
makes things and leaves them outside of itself. 129 Though
view has resemblances to Plotinus', as with the use of the
"hypostasis" itself, he can hardly have known Plotinus' own work
produced such confusion. Alexander's ~ti:vovro<; may be designed to
the First Principle from "movement," thus reminding us of
static first principle, 130 and contradicting Origen.
to the relation between matter and evil Alexander is simplistic.
wishes to argue both that matter is the last product deriving
from the One, and that it is evil in its effects, though not in
for in itself it is absolute non-being. And he does not find the

125

Cf. Enn. 2.9.1.40 ff.

Eudorus, apud Simplicius, In Pflys. 181. 33-34o; Moderatus, apud Simplicius,
\~id., 231, 5 ff. D.
121
Tertullian, Adv. Herm., ed. Waszink p. 16.11 ff.
128
Vander Horst-Mansfeld p. 18; ed. Brinkmann p. 24.16 ff.
129
Enn. 6.8.19.18. Porphyry too holds that all (including matter) comes from the One:
dip' um:ou YEVVWV TO oA.ov (Proclus, In Tim. 1' ed. Diehl p. 300.2 ff.).
130
Numenius, fr. 12 (ed. Des Places). As Plotinus and Numenius, Alexander does not,
of course, advocate creation de nihilo, as Praechter, arguing for Christian influence,
1,

126

SUpposed.

168

JOHN M. RIST

reconciliation of the two aspects of his theory easy. 131 Porphyry's view is
in certain important respects close to that of Plotinus; for him too there is a
special sense in which matter is a "cause" of evil. 132 Alexander's solution
is simple: he nowhere connects matter with evil - conveniently enough
in a treatise against the Manichaeans - but leaves unanswered (as far as
we are informed) the question of the reason for the soul's fall. There is
nothing in his comments to suggest that he knew the more complex
Plotinian philosophical position, let alone that he rejected it.
Mansfeld, however, finds a close parallel between Alexander and
Porphyry in their rejection of the theory that the movement of matter is
random, 133 a Middle Platonic view used by Manito provide a definition of
matter itself. 134 Mansfeld points out that in attacking Mani Alexander is at
the same time attacking both Plato and a strong tradition in Middle
Platonism. 135 Does Porphyry argue similarly? Mansfeld finds the
"conceptual parallel striking," for Porphyry, according to Philoponus
'
argued against the Middle Platonists that Timaeus 30A and 53s suggest
that it is not unformed matter, but composites of form and matter which
are in confused motion. 136 But it is not clear from this what Porphyry
thought the "native state" of matter is, though in general one might say
that both Plotinus and Porphyry, in so far as they view matter as nonexistent, could hardly view it as in motion. Alexander, in contrast, does
not think of matter as non-existent at all. It does exist, though it is not a
body nor strictly an incorporeal, nor even an individual ho& rt). 137 Thus
though there may appear some similarity between Alexander and
Porphyry on matter, it is not sufficient to support the derivation of one
from the other. Alexander's version is simpler, showing not that he
rejected Porphyry, but more likely that he was ignorant of him.
What then are we to conclude? That Alexander is some kind of Middle
Platonist, probably considerably influenced by Origen and possibly
(though indeterminably) by Ammonius. As such he is a most important
testimony to the non-importance of Plotinus and Porphyry in later third-

13 1
Recently varied views on this topic are to be found in J. M. Rist, "Plotinus on
Matter and Evil," Phr011esis 6 (1961) 154-166: D. O'Brien. "Plotinus on Evil," Le
Neoplatonisme (Paris 1971) pp. 113-146: J. M. Rist. "Plotinus and Augustine on Evil," in
Plotino e il Neoplatollismo ill Oriente e in Occidente (Rome 1974) pp. 495-508.
m xaxoi Jj UA'rf (Sent. 30.2, ed. Mommert p. 16.6-7); Van der Horst-Mansfeld p. 20).
133 Vander Horst-Mansfeld, p. 21.

134
Ed. Brinkmann pp. 5.8, 10.5, 26.1.
m See Van der Horst-Mansfeld for references.
136
Philoponus, De aet. mundi 546.5-547.19 (ed. Rabe).
137
Ed. Brinkmann p. 10.19-20.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

169

turY Alexandria. That this non-importance persisted in important areas

ce!l ve a century more is well attested by what we know of Hypatia and
abo esius, and even by Hierocles in the first part of the fifth century.
~:rocles still denied that the first principle is a One 138 and taught a theory
; matter similar to Alexander. 139 Synesius certainly knows Plotinus and
~orphyry (as Hierocles did too), but he reveres Plotinus rather than uses
hirtl porphyry is indeed his major late source, but in many areas he is still
n the Middle Platonic world. 140 As for Hierocles, even if he did study
~ith Plutarch in Athens, which I still doubt, he did not easily unlearn his
Middle Platonism; 141 and Synesius is contemptuous of the Plutarchians he
. m
. Athens. 142
found lurkmg
We can, I believe, claim that a conservative Middle Platonism was
'taught in Alexandria in the late third century. And it was taught to pagans
and Christians alike. Alexander is a witness to a pagan interest in
, Christianity and to the problems posed for its teaching by the sects, and of
.ieourse by Mani in particular. He regards Christians as rather simple;l:thinded, but is not hostile; and his attitude in many ways reflects that of
~Synesius later on. Christianity and Platonism, in its conservative Middle
'!atonic form, can generally co-exist in Alexandria at this period. The
ter killing of Synesius' teacher Hypatia cannot be viewed as in any way
resentative of conditions at this earlier period. And it is against
exander's Middle Platonism that we should view the prominent
ristians of early fourth-century Alexandria, above all the two
ponents who dominated the theological world of the fourth century:
hanasius and Arius. If we want to know how prominent Christians in
he East looked at the philosophers at the time of Nicaea, these are the
eople with whom we should be concerned. Christianity in the East
138

Hierocles apud Photius, Bib/. 214, 251; In Car. A ur., ed. Mullach, p. 28.12-15; Rist,
ypatia," pp. 218-219. Wallis notes the importance of post-Porpl!yrian Platonism in
Jiierocles; we leap over Plotinus and Porphyry (Neoplatonism, p. 143).
139
\'(:;
On matter see Photius, Bib/. 251, 461A-B, ex nihilo according to Wallis (Neop(atonism, p. 143); also In Carm. A ur., Mullach p. 71.11.
140
.
Rist, "Hypatia," p. 216.
141
Ibid., p. 219. The most recent study ofHierocles, that of I. Hadot, Le probleme du
Neop/atonisme alexandrin: Hieroc/es et Simplicius (Paris 1978) has persuaded me of the
existence of far more Iamblichean elements than I had previously supposed, but I am not
convinced by the argument (pp. 115-116) that Hierocles must have taught that the One is
the supreme principle, even though he does not say this in our texts. It has been claimed
that Syrianus and Proclus too, though pupils of Plutarch, were perhaps more influenced
elsewhere - in their case by the Syrian school (see E. Evrard, "Le Maitre de Plutarque
d'Athenes," ACt [1960]398). Hierocles' own divergences from Plutarch would, of course,
be on different lines.
142
Synesius, Ep. 136.

170

JOHN M. RIST

already had one teacher, Origen, who though soaked in Plato could
1
come to replace Plato as an educational authority. Athanasius symbot so
an important decision of fourth century Christianity: in important resp~Zes
he became a greater than Origen, while at the same time joining Origencts
a founder-figure of the ever more autonomous Christian culture.
as
F.

ARIUS

Of the philosophical and theological antecedents of Arius discussio

seems to be endless; 143 we have insufficient evidence ever to reach a fin~
conclusion. But a number of modern critics have spoken of the Platonism
of Arius, and it is therefore necessary to consider the question of the
philosophical sources of such an influential figure against a background of
the knowledge of pagan Platonism in Alexandria as we have now
discovered it to be. There is no reason to believe that Arius, who may
have been Libyan in origin, received any theological or philosophical
training outside of Alexandria. Some would deny this, citing his appeal to
Eusebius of Nicomedia as a fellow Lucianist144 as proof that Arius had
himself studied with Lucian; 145 one has gone so far as to talk of Arius
being "trained for the priesthood under Lucian in Antioch." 146 But Arius
is nowhere included in the evidence about the disciples of Lucian, 147 and
Epiphanius at least distinguishes his following from the Lucianists. 148 The
appeal to Eusebius of Nicomedia can easily be construed as that of a man
who has read and admired the work of Lucian writing to one of the
master's pupils, indeed his most influential pupil. Time was to show (for

143
Among other studies we may note the following: T. E. Pollard, "Logos and Son in
Origen, Arius and Athanasius," SP 2 (Berlin 1957) 282-287; idem, 'The Origins of
Arianism," JThS 9 (1958) 102-111; idem, "The Exegesis of Scripture and the Arian
Controversy," BJRL 41 (1959) 414-429; idem, Johannine Christianity and the Early
Church (Cambridge 1970); E. Boularand, L'heresie d'Arius et Ia ':foi" de Nicee (Paris
1972); these works emphasize the importance of Lucian of Antioch. The next group
represents those who emphasize primarily Alexandrian influences on Arius: M. Wiles,
"In Defence of Arius," JThS 13 (1962) 339-347; G. C. Stead, 'The Platonism of Arius,"
JThS 15 (1964) 16-31; L. W. Barnard, 'The Antecedents of Arius," VigChr 24 (1970) 172188.
For judicious mixing of sources see M. Simonetti, "Le origini dell'Arianesimo,"
RSLR 7 (1971) 317-330; H. I. Marrou, "L'Arianisme comme phenomt!me alexandrin."
CRAI (1973) 533-542.
144
Theodoret, Hist. eccl. 1.5.3, 11.7-8 (Opitz, Urkunde 1, p. 3).
145
So G. Bardy, Recherches sur S. Lucien d'Antioch et son ecole (Paris 1936) p. 194.
146
Pollard, Johannine Christianity, pp. 142 ff.
147
Philostorgius, Hist. eccl. 2.14, 3.15.
148
Epiphanius, Ancor. 33 (PG 43: 77).

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

171

rnple at Antioch) that not all the Lucianists were willing to go all the
ex:a with the blunt formulations of Arius.
warriUS probably admired Lucian for his scriptural exegesis, but he might
e found similar (though perhaps inferior) versions of the same kind of
}la~ook - at least in so far as it denied the validity of Origen's allegorical
ou thod -- at home in Alexandria, and in the person of Bishop Peter, 149 a
~etirn of the Great Persecution. Peter, admittedly himself not always
~~~ndlY to Arius, 150 may also have denounced Origen more generally as a
:ublemaker for his predecessors in the see of Alexandria. m
tr AriUS then is an Alexandrian, and could well have known something of
the pagan philosophy in Alexandria in his time. Scholars have detected
parallels between his account of the origin of the Son and the views of
Albinus and Atticus on the existence of time before the cosmos. 152 Like
Alexander of Lycopolis (and Athanasius) Arius worried about Manichaeism: homoousios sounded to him to smack of it, 153 and it was indeed
prominent enough, at least in Africa, to be denounced and penalized in a
rescript of the Emperor Diocletian in the 300s. 154 Yet beside his readings
Lucian, we may detect a variety of possible sources for Arius within the
tradition. Origen 155 and Theognostus 156 used the word x1:iap.a of
Dionysius of Alexandria clearly disliked homoousios as Sabellian
Christ a noiTJp.a. 157 Basil made it clear: Dionysius was one of the
of Arianism. 158 And there is also Pieri us, a clear subordinationist, 159
as an allegorizer admittedly distasteful to Arius. All in all there
little reason to go outside the purely Christian tradition, seasoned

Procopius, Comm. in Gen. 3.21.

For Peter's attitude to Arius see Sozomen, Hist. eccl. 1.!5.2; Socrates, His1. eccl.
So the bogus Acts of Peter's martyrdom (J. Viteau, Passions des SS. Ecaterine et
I'Aiexandrin [Paris 1897] p. 75; see Barnard, "The Antecedents," p. 183).
Note Atticus and Albinus on Tim. 38a, and especially Albinus, Ep. 14.3 (ovro6' 1rore
iv i[; oux ljv 6 xoaf.Lo~). Note also that Origen We Prine. 4.4. I) already rejects the view
was once when the Son was not For all these matters see Stead, "The Platonism
16; F. Rieken, "Nikaia als Krisis des altchristlichen Platonismus," ThPh 44
329; and E. P. Meijering, "Hv 1rim OT< oux ljv o ulo~. A Discussion on Time and
," VigChr 28 (1974) 161-168 (=God Being History [Amsterdam 1975] pp, 81-88).
153
Opitz. Urkunde 6. 12.
154
Note the outbreak of war with Persia in 294 .
. Iss De Prine. 4.4. 1.
156
Apud Photius, Bib/. l 06 (Routh, Ref. sac. 3.412-414).
1s1 A
thanasius, De sent. Dion. 4 (cf. 14, &.U' ljv on 01.ix i)v).
15
: Basil, EMax. ph/. [9] 2, PG 32: 267c ff.; Courtonne, l: 38 ff.
15
'bl Cf. LB. Radford, Theognostus, Pierius and Peter (Cambridge 1908) 44-57; Photius,
BI 1!9,

172

JOHN M. RIST

occasionally with Middle Platonism as available in Alexandria, to find th

roots of Arius' thought, provided one allows Arius himself a certai~
ability as a synthesizer. That is not to say, of course, that the older
tradition of exegesis, with the view that his work is in some sense a
relapse into Hellenism, is entirely misconceived. In so far as his theology
is subordinationist, it might seem easier for a hellenically trained mind to
accept, as is also the case with Origen. But to talk of the attractiveness of
Arius is not to talk of his sources.
In a recent paper, which to some extent represents a trend in current
attitudes to Arius, it has been argued that the main thrust of Arius'
position is not his doctrine of God, his Trinitarian theology, but his
soteriology. Arius, so it is argued, has constantly been misinterpreted in
this connection, and the misinterpretation began with the "Nicene party,"
with Alexander, Athanasius and the rest. 160 The real argument, according
to this theory, was about sound views of salvation: Arius' doctrine of
Christ was developed with a view to arguing that Christ is the "pioneer
and perfecter of that Sonship into which men too shall be adopted."l61
Certainly this aspect of Arius' thinking was already recognized or unearthed by Bishop Alexander, who claimed to see in Arius' views the
suggestion that Christ became Son by the practice of moral progress
(npoxonij~ aax?}act); 162 and it is true too that the orthodox found talk of the
Son's ignorance of his own or the Father's nature (necessary for such
moral advance) offensive. 163 Whether soteriological questions were really
central for Arius seems not to have been established; nor do we know
whether, even if Arius talked in this way at some early stage of his career,
he moderated his language later on. It is possible, however, that he at least
toyed with such ideas, and we might recognize in them a philosophical
influence. Yet that influence is not primarily Platonic, but Stoic or even
Cynic; 164 and we may add that Arius' attempt to sell his theology to the
man in the street by composing songs, like his Thalia, for sailors and mill
hands, in what could be taken to be the popular, not to say notorious

160

So R. C. Gregg and D. E. Groh, "The Centrality ofSoteriology in Early Arianism."

AngtThR 59 (1977) 260-278; Pollard takes a somewhat similar view.

161

Gregg and Groh, "The Centrality," p. 270.

Opitz. Urkunde 14.34, p. 25. 11.1-2. If Arius ever spoke in this language it is
possible he dropped it when he was readmitted to communion.
163
Athanasius. C Arianos 1.9.
164 For Cynic influences in Alexandria later on with Hypatia and Synesius. see C.
Lacombrade, Synesios de Cyrime (Paris 1951) pp. 44-45; J. Rist. "Hypatia," pp. 220-221:
E. Evrard. "A que! titre Hypatie enseigna+elle Ia philosophie?" R[iG 90 (1977) 71.
162

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

173

dean metre, 165 points in the same direction. I should prefer, in fact, to
S~tak of the Cynics rather than of the Stoics; and if that is right it provides
thtnber evidence not of Arius' use of the positive philosophy of his day,
rurt
' .
f 't
bUt of his reJeCtton o 1 .
G.

THE EARLY ATHANASJUS

A.thanasius' date of birth is unknown, but in 313, apparently as a

nager, he became some sort of protege of Alexander, the new bishop of
~~exandria. 166 In Alexander's household he studied the writings of Philo,
oftbe pagan Middle Platonists, and of a number of the Christian Fathers,
~specially perhaps Origen and his Alexandrian successors, bishops
Dionysius and Peter, Pierius and Theognostus. 167 At no time in his life
does A.thanasius show significant knowledge of Neoplatonism, the
Platonism of Plotinus and Porphyry; the nearest he comes to this is a
'
in De decretis Nicaenae synodi (28) that "the Greeks" speak of a
of principles (the Good, Nous, Soul), but even here it is interesting to
that he refers to the Good rather than the more obviously
u1 unvuv One.
is only in the minor work Contra gentes -De incarnatione verbi that
concerns himself with Greek philosophy, so his remarks there
of particular relevance to our present concerns. Athanasius was a
of immense weight and influence in the developing Christian world
fourth century. It may be assumed a priori that whatever he said or
about the Greek philosophical heritage would make a noticeable
on his contemporaries and successors. His view, even in the
gentes De incarnatione verbi, is clear enough: the days of Greek
{"\""'"'""' are over. So far from Greek wisdom making progress, it is in
dying out. 168 The work of the great "sophists" is overshadowed by the
of Christ. 169 By contrast the churches are full.
The metre of the Thalia has been interpreted variously. Athanasius calls the work
, referring to form or content or both. The most recent study, that of G. C. Stead,
Thalia of Arius and the Testimony of Athanasius," JThS 29 (1978) 20-52, finds the
metre to be anapaestic. though he admits that at least the first seven lines could (with W. J.
w, Koster. Mnemosyne 16 [1963} 135-141) be read as Sotadeans. The problem with Stead's
solution is that it leaves Arius' work as Sotadean neither in form nor content. thus
COmpelling us to conclude that Athanasius' description is merely indiscriminate abuseWhich is possible but rather implausible.
166
Rufinus, Hist. eccl. 1.14.
167
For the influence of Middle Platonism see especially Meijering, Orthodoxy and
Platonism, passim: for particular tendencies pp. I04-105.
168
De Inc. 55.
169
De Inc. 50.

174

JOHN M. RISf

It has been much debated why Athanasius wrote these treatises: they
purport to be aimed at pagans, but the "reader" is often assumed to be
Christian. F. L. Cross argued that they are primarily a theological exercise
set by Athanasius to himself, 170 a summary of what he has learned frotn
his teachers, whose books, he somewhat mysteriously tells us, he does not
have to' hand. 171 Naturally such a view, eminently attractive though it is
would be rendered more or less likely if we could be certain of the date of
composition. Traditionally this has been held to pre-date the Arian
controversy - since Arius is nowhere mentioned - but there have been
objectors, 172 most recently and powerfully Charles Kannengiesser. i73
Kannengiesser's best argument is that in those of Athanasius' Festal
Letters written before his exile of 335-336, there is no explicit connection
drawn between the rending of the body or robe of Christ and the
particular heresy of Arius; afterwards there is. Thus after 337, the death of
Constantine, argues Kannengiesser, Athanasius feels no inhibitions about
making the association; previously he avoided it for fear of offending the
emperor. Now in the De incarnatione (24) there is a reference to the same
topic, heresy and rending, but no explicit mention of Arius; for Kannengiesser, however, reference to him is implicit; hence the De incarnatione
appears to have been written at a time when Athanasius was deliberately
avoiding mention of Arius, such as during his exile; that is why, Kannengiesser adds, he had no books.
But Kannengiesser's argument is inadequate, depending as it does on
the dubious assertion of an allusion to Arius in chapter 24. While it
suggests that Athanasius might have written De incarnatione about 336, it
in no way compels us to believe that he actually did so. In fact, a
somewhat similar argument could be used to suggest that Athanasius
actually wrote the De incarnatione before about 324- under Licinius,
not Constantine. For in that year (or perhaps as early as 321) Alexander,
bishop of Alexandria and Athanasius' superior, sent out a circular letter174
in which he accuses the Arians, and Arius himself, of rending the robe of
Christ which the executioners did not divide. Now, it might be said, since

170

The Swdy Q( St. A thanasius (Oxford 1945) p. 14, followed by Meijering, OrthodoxY
and Platonism, p. 106.
111
C. Gentes I.
112 H. Berkhof thinks they are too mature to be this early (Kerkeliike Klassieken
[Wageningen 1949] p. 23); this is answered by Meijering, Orthodoxy, p. 109.
m "Le temoignage des Lettres Festales... ," RSR 52 (1964) 91-100, viewed with
suspicion by Pollard, Joflannine Christianity, p. 131 and followed (confusedly) by R. W.
Thomson in A thanasius: Contra Gemesl De lncarnatione (Oxford 1971) p. xxi.
174
Theodoret, Hist. eccl. 1.4 (Opitz, Urkunde 14).

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

175

the text of John 19 had been specifically and officially related to Arius
even by Alexander, the fact that this association is not mentioned in the De
incarnatione means that Athanasius was then ignorant of it, that is, that
the De incarnatione is prior to 324.
Kannengiesser's date, therefore, is no more than a possibility, and in
fact it is a possibility which has been proved to be mistaken, and that on
the basis of a text of Contra gentes cited by Kannengiesser himself. 175 In
chapter 9, Athanasius says that until recently, and perhaps even up to
now, the Senate at Rome has deified emperors. 176 According to Kannengiesser this must put Contra gentes between 324 (the death of Licinius)
and 339 (Athanasius' first visit to Rome itself). But that is incredible;
Athanasius certainly knew that, whatever honours were bestowed on
Constantine at his death, emperors were not deified between 324 and 339.
In fact, he is referring to the last known deification before the time of
Julian, either of Diocletian, as Eutropius says, 177 or, more likely, of
Maximian, as divus Maximianus on the coins attests. 178 The year is 318.
Plus or minus, that is the date of Contra gentes- De incarnatione. It is
thus indeed an early work, and in it we find the Middle Platonism that
Athanasius would have met, as we have seen, in the schools of
Alexandria, together with an opposition to heresies primarily viewed as
dualistic accounts of creation, such as Arius also seems to have
abhorred. 179 In other words heresy is viewed against a late third rather
than a fourth century background: it is Mani, not Arius.
Granted that 318 is the approximate date of the treatise Contra
gentes De incarnatione, we can allow ourselves to be impressed by the
implicitly non-Arian theology to be found there. This is not the place to
upon detailed discussion, but we can simply assert that already here
there is no trace of "subordinationist" theology of an Arian or an Origenist
type: let a single example suffice, the use by Athanasius of the phrase
dxwv arrapaAAaXTOG" 180 to describe the kind of likeness the Son has to the
Father. He did not drop this language in his Orationes contra Arianos, and
one can presume that he acquired it either from his theological teachers or

175

"Le temoignage," p. 100.

This evidence is mis-stated by Thomson, Athanasius, p. xxii.
177
Eutropius, Brev. 9.23.
178
See R. Brun, The Roman Imperial Coinage, 7 (London 1966) 180 (Trier), 252
(Aries), 310 (Rome), 394 (Aquileia), 429 (Siscia), 502 (Thessaloniki).
179
J. C. M. van Winden, "On the Date of Athanasius' Apologetical Treatises," VigChr
29 0975) 291-295.
18
C. Gentes 4L3; 46.60.
176

176

JOHN M. RIST

from his patron, Bishop Alexander, who himself used it in a letter to

Alexander of Byzantium. 181
We are now in a position to review briefly some comments of Anders
Nygren on the position of Athanasius in the development of Christian
thought in the fourth century. 182 According to Nygren Athanasius'
Christianity is "double-sided": in his anti-Arian works he is directed by a
consciousness of the descending love of God, exemplified above all in the
fact of the Incarnation, in the belief that Christ is fully God, not the
"second God" of Platonism and of the theology of Arius. But, continues
Nygren, in the Contra gentes and the De incarnatione (which Nygren
rightly thinks of as early), as well as in the L({e qf Antony, Athanasius is
dominated by the "Eros-motif," the ascetic-ethical desire for perfection
which Nygren regards as specifically Hellenistic and anti-Christian. It is
the same mixture of motifs in Athanasius, thinks Nygren, that one can see
plainly in his earlier contemporary Methodius who worships Agape in the
anti-Origenist De resurrectione and Eros in the "Platonic" Symposium.
That the L({e qf Antony displays a desire for sanctification is obviousI have no intention of commenting on the theological "rightness" of this
- but the theory of that desire is perhaps best summed up in a text of De
incarnaUone 183 which, while rightly reminding Nygren of Irenaeus, 184
is at the same time anathema: the Word became man in order that we
may become divine. Despite Athanasius' obvious gloss of "divine" by
"incorruptible," Nygren rebukes him for failing to safeguard the
distinction between man and God, and thus for falling into a "hellenistic"
-by which he means "Platonic"- position. ~ut Athanasius seems to
know well where, in the tradition in which he lives, Platonism ends and
Christianity begins. That is why he does not follow Origen, or later Arius.
"Platonist" doctrines of the subordination of the logos, however ancient
and however backed by Christians of repute like Origen, conflict with
scripture, above all with the Gospel of John, but there is nothing to
co1~/lict with that Gospel about the ethical-ascetic ideal of sanctification
and of the divinization of man. In this area the Platonists can be used.
John himself, Nygren was reduced to saying, has already "weakened"
Agape in the interests of Eros. 185
181

Opitz. Urkunde 14, p. 25, 25.

Agape and Eros (Philadelphia 1953) pp. 421-429.
183
De Inc. 54.
184
Nygren. Agape, p. 428; cf. p. 410 and Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 4.33.4.
185 Nygren. Agape, pp. 151-157; for more general comment on Nygren's views see J.
M. Rist. "Some Interpretations of Agape and Eros," in The Philosophy and TheologY of
Anders Nygren (Carbondale 1970) pp. 156~173.
182

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

177

Athanasius agrees in a sense with Nygren's assessment, but not with

th pejorative terms in which it is couched. For him the Eros-motif does
. ~eed occur in John, and therefore it can be used when found outside
hn. that is. in the Platonic tradition. (Methodius may have had the same
~ w ) And at this stage we should give due weight to an important fact,
v1e
he significance of which must be remembered in any study of the fourth
~entUfY down to the time of Basil and beyond: in 318 Athanasius in a
uphoric mood; the world and at least one emperor are turmng to
~hristianity; the wisdom of the pagans is failing and is losing its terrors:
we are the masters now ! And in that spirit the new masters can pick and
choose from pagan philosophy (as also from pagan literature). Pagan
philosophers can supplement the Christian teachers where necessary.
Origen is already, of course, in some sense a master; Athanasius himself
was to become one; the Great Council ofNicaea, with whose spirit he was
to be forever identified, was never to lose . its overwhelming and
fundamental importance as a Christian event. The world was prepared
(especially in the East) for this change in the intellectual climate before
Athanasius' time, but in over-facile modern comment about gradualness
and an imperceptible replacement of paganism by Christianity the new
consciousness of that new reality in the fourth century is easily forgotten.
A:n example of how Athanasius will pick up something valuable from the
wreckage of the past: Adam, before the fall, had his mind set entirely
God in unembarrassed frankness (avenw.axuvrftJ nappr]aiq.). 186 The
~,. ..5 , .,.6 .... is Cynic, but a Cynicism turned on its head: no longer a defiance
rejection of convention, but a society where conventions would have
meaning. When Adam (and Eve) realized they were naked and felt
desire, it was not so much a realization that they were stripped of
but that they were stripped of the desire to contemplate God. 187
vn'"'"'YY\ restored, one might say; perhaps Arius had something of the
insight if he set his theological ideas out in Sotadean metre. 188
leaving Athanasius, it is impossible entirely to forget the subject
virginity, for this especially Christian theme is locked together with
...- ...~.,....., version of the "Platonic" drive towards sanctification, the
.....~"'"'vu of man, the restoration of the fallen Adam. For Athanasius, 189
is a mark of Jesus' superiority that he taught men to attain the "virtue"

!s

186

C. Gentes 2. Cf. PGL s.v. rtappl]oia.

C. Gemes 3.
18Sp
f N or Gregory ofNazianzus' interesting attitude to Cynicism seeR. Ruether, Gregory
Q azianzus (Oxford 1969) pp. 170-172.
tn D
e Inc. 51. Cf. Methodius, Symp. 1.4 ..
187

178

JOHN M. RlST

of virginity, which in earlier ages had been regarded as unattainable. In

the L{fe qf Antony virginity is particularly associated with the monastic
and eremitical ideal. Athanasius, as we know, wrote at length on this
subject, though his writings De virginitate, so influential in their own day
have only partially been recovered through the patient labours of moder~
scholars. 190
Of course, Christian interest in virginity and its cultivation did not begin
with Athanasius. It dates back to the earliest times, and the benefits of
virginity are variously described; 191 but for our present purposes it is the
association of the ideal of virginity with Platonic motifs that is important.
Before Athanasius Methodius had written his Symposium, where, despite
modern doubts, 192 it is impossible not to see that Virginity is meant in
some sense to stand for the Platonic Eros as the way to the Good.
Virginity is an actualization of the sublimated Erotic ideal; and the
language of the Platonic ascent through Eros can be transferred to it. But
this kind of Platonism, we should note, is a Christian. Platonism with
Christian roots; the cult of virginity as Eros has no direct Platonic or
Neoplatonic source. Methodius uses language which transmutes not
Neoplatonic texts but Plato's Phaedrus directly when he talks of "flying
on the heaven-going wings of Virginity." 193 When, therefore, we meet in
Athanasius and later fourth century writers the language of Eros and
Virginity, we should think in terms of an already well established
Christian Platonism which needs no stimulus from contemporary or nearcontemporary pagan philosophy. Origen, in the commentary on the Song
of Songs, Methodius and Athanasius himself are the makers of the new
varieties of the life o_f ascent; Plato can be used, where appropriate, as
confirmation, not as foundation.
H. SoME

CoNCLUDING REMARKS:

270-325

What has been exposed in this section is a sketch, but it is a sketch which
already embodies an important fact: intellectual life in Christian circles
was reformed in a number of fundamental respects during the period
which culminated in the Council of Nicaea. At that Council, a

190

SeeM. Aubineau, "Les ecrits des. Athanase sur 1a virginite," in his Recllercl!es

patristiques (Amsterdam 1974) pp. 163-196 (=RAM 31 [1955]140-173).

191 See especially T. H. C. van Eijk, "Marriage and Virginity, Death and Immortality."
in Epektasis. pp. 209-235.
192 So van Eijk. "Marriage," pp. 221-224.
193
Symp. 8.12.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

179

fundamentally "unplatonic" account of the nature of God was proposed

and accepted. 194 The new logos-theology allowed no place to Middle or
Neoplatonic versions of subordinationism, whether they came from
pagans or from Christians in the "hellenizing" traditions of Origen or
Arius. In the new Christian culture Platonic theologies (or accounts of
God) were thus largely excluded, and later Arian (or Origenist) attempts to
reinstate them were ultimately unsuccessful. Among those of unimpeachable Nicene orthodoxy (such as Basil) we should least of all expect to
find traces of Platonism, whether from Middle Platonic, Neoplatonic or
Christian Platonic sources, in this particular area of thought. However,
other areas remained where harmony between Christian orthodoxy and
Platonism was intact: primarily, as we have already seen, the area of
asceticism and ethical progress. But not only there: we could also discuss
questions of theodicy and the making of man and the world, but these are
not especially prominent in Christian writers of the period at present
under discussion, though we find them returning at a later date. Even on
these occasions, however, we must not forget the new Christian spirit of
the fourth century, nor must we fail to apply it whenever it can properly
be applied within the area of intellectual and moral life: the spirit of which
we are the masters now. Eusebius of Caesarea expresses the new spirit
somewhat differently in his Oration on the Tricenna/ia of Constantine in
336 195 : He who is the pre-existent Word, the Saviour of all things, imparts
.to his followers the seeds of true wisdom and salvation, and makes them
at the same time truly wise, and understanding of the kingdom of their
Father. Our Emperor, His Friend, acting as interpreter to the Word of
aims at recalling the whole human race to the knowledge of God;
v..,......,,.. u 6 clearly in the ears of all, and declaring with powerful voice
laws of truth and godliness to all who dwell on the earth.
It is an Arian who speaks, 196 a man influenced by Middle Platonists, by
by Pamphilus, for in 336 Arianism was in the ascendent, and
himself had been rehabilitated. But the note of triumph in the
Empire and the New World (symbolized by the New Rome) is
mrrnstaKeable; its expression was not limited to Arians.

94

Rieken, "Nikaia," pp. 321-341.

2.14; tr. Stevenson.
196 See
F. Rieken, "Die Logoslehre des Eusebios von Caesarea und der Mittel
"illEnlsn."" ThPh 42 (1967) 341-358;.idem, "Zur Rezeption der platonischen Ontologie
useb1os von Kaesareia, Areios und Athanasios," ThPh 53 0978) 321-352.
:

95

180

JOHN M. RIST

II. PLATONISM AND CHRISTIANITY: 325-355

A.

INTRODUCTION

After studying in his home town of Caesarea, then at Antioch With

Libanius in 348/9, 197 and then at Constantinople, Basil took up residence
in Athens in about 351, and remained there as a student for four or five
years. 198 While at Athens he fell in with Gregory Oater ofNazianzus) and,
in 355, with the future Emperor Julian. Since it is obviously important in
considering Basil's thought to discover what he read and thought about in
his student days, we need to know what we can about the philosophy
available in Caesarea, Antioch, Constantinople, and in particular Athens.
Of Caesarea in Cappadocia we know little; 199 rhetoric flourished (as in .
Antioch), but of philosophy we are more or less ignorant. In
Constantinople the position is somewhat similar. Iamblichus' pupil
Sopater had made a brief and unhappy appearance there earlier in the
century- we shall return to that- but no philosophical tradition of note
subsisted. Where, then, was Neoplatonism, as distinct from various
surviving brands of Middle Platonism, being taught at this time in the
Eastern Mediterranean? To answer that, we have three possible approaches, which we shall consider in turn: the activities oflamblichus and
his pupils in Antioch and elsewhere; the philosophical world of Athens in
the first sixty years of the fourth century- which will include the period
of Basil's residency; and the new "philosophical" versions of Arianism
which arise and are particularly associated with Aetius, his pupil
Eunomius of Cyzicus, and Victorinus' apparent correspondent Candidus.

B.

IAMBUCHUS AND HIS PUPILS

Traditionally Porphyry died about 305; I have argued that about 310 may
be more appropriate. Traditionally Iamblichus died about 325, 200 or
330; 201 we have no evidence that he survived beyond 319, 202 but he may
m Cf. Gregory of Nyssa. Ep. 13.4 (po 46: 1049A) with A. J. Festugiere. Antioc/Je
pai'enne et clm!tieune (Paris 1959) p. 409 and M. Aubineau, Gregoire de Nysse, Le Traite
de Ia virgiuite (Paris 1966) p.A5.
198
Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 5.23.24; cf. Or. 43.22-23.
199 The town's culture is passed over quickly in modern works, such as those of Gallay
and Ruether on Gregory of Nazianzus.
200
J. Bidez. "Le philosophe Jamblique et son ecole," REG 32 (1919) 29-40. esp. p. 32.
201
G. Mau. RECA 9 (1916) 645.
202
SoT. D. Barnes. "A Correspondent oflamblichus," GrRoBySt 19 (1978) 99-106.
The correspondent is the Pseudo-Julian whose letters were once thought to be the

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

181

have lasted until Constantine's court came to Nicomedia in 324. In other

ords much of the careers of Porphyry and Iamblichus overlapped. 203 For
;e East that fact is particularly important Iamblichus is not only almost
porphyry's contemporary; he had been teaching in Syria, either at
Apamea or Daphne (a suburb of Antioch), since the 290s. 204 Porphyry's
influence in the East, on the other hand, is at one remove. He was there
little. if at all, during the later years of his life, and students had to send for
his writings if they wanted them. Obviously Against the Christians was in
circulation, but at the level of purely technical philosophy we should
expect Iamblichus and his pupils to be more influential. In fact we might
suspect that at Alexandria, for example, the Middle Platonist period
(Numenius, Origen) would pass gradually into an Iamblichean period: and
it is indeed precisely that unusual mix - a Middle Platonic doctrine of a
Supreme Intellect and an Iamblichean doctrine of triads and mean terms
_ which we find in early fifth-century Alexandria, in the work of
Hierocles. 205 That is not to say, of course, that Porphyry and Plotinus were
unknown in late fourth-century Alexandria. Synesius is a witness to the
contrary. But if we should find in any particular city that philosophy
moves directly from Middle Platonism to Syrian Neoplatonism, we
should not think the change surprising on purely chronological or
historical grounds.
We need not discuss Iamblichus and his followers at length; sufficient
to notice the area of their influence, and the time-span involved. Sopater,
Iamblichus' favourite pupil, we have already mentioned; he passed time at
the courts of both Licinius and Constantine. His fall was engineered by
Constantine's strongly Christian Pretorian Prefect Ablabius: a symbolic
vent, for as the Emperor Julian knew well, Iamblichean Neoplatonism
could not come to terms with Christianity - it represented and rewrote
" the worship of the old gods in a new "theological" guise.
centres of the movement were first Syria itself, home of Iamblichus,

emperor's. Ep. 184 appears to be the latest of the letters and to be datable to 319. Some
time after that Sopater (at Licinius' court, it seems, according to Epp. 184 and 185) moved
to the court of Constantine, but after Licinius' death (Eunapius, Vitae Sop h. 462; Zosimus,
Hist. nova 2.40.3).
203
See H. D. Saffrey, "Abamon, pseudonyme de Jamblique," in Philomathes: Studies
and E~.mys in the Humanities in Memory qf Philip Mer/an, edd. R. B. Palmer and R.
Hamerton-Kelly (The Hague 1971) pp. 227-239 on the rivalry between Porphyry and
lamblichus.
204
So Dillon, lamb/ichus, pp. 9 ff.
205
h'
The odd mix is noticed by Wallis, Neoplatonism, p. 143, who apparently misses its
tstoncal significance and explains it exclusively in terms of Hierocles' dullness of wit.

182

JOHN M. RJST

then Pergamum where Iamblichus' pupil Aedesius set up his own

school. 206 and other towns in Asia Minor like Ephesus, home of
Maximus, theosophist to Julian and victim of the anti-pagan reaction
under Valens in 371. 207 Maxim us was the pupil of Hierius, 208 and/ or of
Aedesius, 209 pupils of lamblichus. It was from Pergamum that Priscus,
another close friend of the Emperor Julian, left for Greece in 351, an
event which we shall discuss further. In later days Priscus survived Julian,
as well as the charges in 37 I, and returned to Greece where he was still
alive in the last years of the fourth century. 210
The other pupil of Iamblichus to whom we should attend briefly is
Theodorus (the Great) of Asine, who later became a rivaL In some
respects teaching a more sober Plotinian system - he accepted Plotinus'
notion of the part of the soul that remains above - he is nevertheless
basically Iamblichean, and his conflict with his one-time master must be
seen as essentially an intramural dispute. 211 Iamblichus and his pupils
represent a consciously pagan Platonism, and we shall find them having
virtually no influence in Christian circles during the fourth century. (If
Basil met them in Antioch, he quickly learned to consign them to
oblivion.) Their public "future" lay with such as Sallustius, Julian's
prefect and author of the pagan catechism On Gods and the World. 212
C.

PHILOSOPHY AT ATHENS,

250-355

The emperor Marcus Aurelius established four philosophical chairs and a

chair of rhetoric at Athens. 213 It was probably the holder of the "Platonic"
chair who, in the third century, was called the "Platonic Successor."
These "Successors," in fact, were perhaps in the third century called heads

206 See the edition of Proclus' Platonic Theology by H. D. Saffrey and L. G. Westerink,
I (Paris 1968) xliv.
207 A. A. Barb, "The Survival of Magic Arts," in The Co11flict, ed. A. Momigliano,
p. 115: Ammianus Marcellinus, xxix.i.42.
208
For Hierius, see Dillon, lambliclws, p. 14; Ammonius, In Anal. Pr. 31, 16.
20g Eunapius, Vitae soph. 469.
210
Saffrey-Westerink, Platonic Theology, 1: xlii.
211 For Theodorus, see Wallis, Neoplatonlsm, p. 95.
212 See G. Murray, Five Stages Q{ Greek Religion (London 1935) pp. 100 ff. for a
version of this. Dodds, in an additional note in Murray (reimpression 1946, p. 181) finds
P1otinian influence in many sections of Salh,1stius, but wisely does not attempt
documentation. For the neglect of the Neoplatonism available in Asia Minor by HilarY of
Poitiers when in exile there see H. D. Saffrey, "S. Hilaire et Ia Philosophie," in Hilaire et
son temps (Paris 1969), esp. pp. 251,255.
21 3 Dio Cassius 72.31.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

183

f the Academy, 214 though they need not have used the original site and

~uildings which, I believe, had ceased to function as an institution after

tbe sack of Athens by Sulla in 86 BC.m Porphyry and Longinus knew of
platonic "Successors" at Athens in the mid-third century: these were
'fheodotus and the Eubulus216 who wrote on the Philebus, the Gorgias and
Aristotle's objections to the Republic. 211 (The last may have also been
00
tbe Platonic Questions which Porphyry says he sent on to Plotinus in
Rome,2 18 though possibly Porphyry here refers to other exegetical
studies.) At any rate, as Longinus says, the "Successors" wrote little:
teaching was presumably their main responsibility as official and statepaid professors. 219
'fheodotus and Eubulus probably held the title of Platonic Successor
before the devastation of Athens by the Herulians in 267. Possibly the title
and office lapsed again, at least for a while. Plutarch, at the beginning of
tbe fifth century, is the next Successor so called. But the devastation was
not tota1220 and within sixty years
perhaps less - much ground had
been recovered. Libanius was among the throngs of students to be
attracted to what was still regarded as a major intellectual centre; he was
between 336 and 340. Basil and Gregory ofNazianzus spent several
years
there in the 350s and Julian arrived in 355. What did they find?
1
Certainly that rhetoric was flourishing, but for philosophy we are not well
informed, though there was not a complete desert. Julian thought that
mething philosophical still survived in Greece in three locations:
thens, where there were foreigners as well as Athenians who professed
; Mases in the Argolid; and Sicyon. 221 Otis possible that at Mases and
\cyon he was thinking of "philosophical families" rather than of the
lie teaching of philosophy.) The identity of the foreigners teaching in

214
That earlier Platonists could (at Athens) be said to be "in the Academy" (per hap~
eta{Jhorically) is clear in the age of Plutarch (De E apud Delphos, 387 f.).
215
1. 6\ J. Lynch, Aristotle's School (Berkeley 1972) pp. 177-189 .
.H \ So Dillon, The Middle Platonists, p. 248, though Dillon notes that Eusebius (Chron.
i;238) does not speak of Atticus as head of the Academy, but simply as a Platonist.
17
/
"f'orphyry, Vita Plot. 15, 20; RECA. Suppl. 8 (1956) 853, s.v. Theodotus (19a), and
.?16\ 921 s.v. Eubulus 07<0. Athenian chair-holders made a habit of anti
nstoteljanism, e.g. Atticus.
211

Vita Plot. 15.

219
PI
For the importance of teaching see R. B. Todd, Alexander o.f Aphrodisias on Stoic
. ~~~ics (Leiden 1976) p. 7, n. 29.
20
See recently F. Millar, "P. Herennius Dexippus: The Greek World and the Third221
Invasions," JRS 59 0969) 12-29.
g . Saffrey-Westerink, Platonic Theology, pp. xl-xli, with reference to Julian's pane
Ync on the Empress Eusebia.

184

JOHN M. RJST

Athens cannot be determined with certainty, but a possible name is

available, and we seem to have information on the kind of Platonism he
taught. The man in question is Priscus, whom we have already met as a
later counsellor of Julian as emperor, and whose own master Was
Aedesius of Pergamum, pupil of Iamblichus. Priscus, in a later part of the
fourth century, lived in Athens;222 for the 350s his exact locale is
unknown. We may surmise that he had already arrived, but we can only
be sure that he was in Greece- which Julian, who had presumably met
him there in 355, begged him to leave (for Gaul) a little later. 223 Julian had
already learned of Priscus from his master Aedesius in Pergamum in
351,224 and was well aware of his philosophical persuasions. In letter 12
he asked him for a commentary of Jamblichus on the Chaldaean Oracles
'
and urged him to maintain the standing of Iamblichus against the followers of Theodorus of Asine. So we know that the revised Neoplaton.ism of
Iamblichus and Theodorus was available in the Athens of the 350s.
Through these writers, of course, one could obtain a certain knowledge of
Plotinus and Porphyry, but the emphasis in teaching would be unplotinian and unporphyrian. Such is presumably the implication of the
presence of "foreign teachers" of philosophy in Athens.
Of the preceding dark period - even of its length - we are in
ignorance. But we should emphasize that at no time in the first half of the
fourth century do we find evidence that Plotinus and Porphyry enjoyed
fame and standing in Athens. Again, as in Alexandria, we may postulate a
transition from a Middle Platonism to an Iamblichean Platonism with
strong impressions of Porphyry and Plotinus only seeping in incidentally,
and perhaps gradually. Is it to the new Iamblichean religious philosophy
that Gregory of Nazianzus refers when, speaking of his student days in
Athens, he finds the city excessively given over to idols. 225 If so, it is no
wonder that he (and other Christians?) seem to have kept away from
Platonic teachers there. For Basil Iamblichean Platonism might have
meant Antioch all over again.
Saffrey and Westerink have documented how, in the years that
followed, Iamblichean Neoplatonism came to conquer in Athens. 226 The
victory was consummated in the person of Plutarch of Athens, again
designated Platonic Successor and founder of the Athenian School. That

222

Ibid., xlii.

223

Epp. 11-13.
Eunapius, V. Soph. 474.

224
225

226

Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 43.21; Ruether, Gregory qf Nazianz us, p. 25.

Platonic Theology, pp. xlii-xlviii.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

185

nothing but Plutarchianism was available in Athens in Synesius' time is

clear from one of his letters: 227 there are only great names in Athens, and a
couple of "wise" Plutarchians who virtually have to pay people to listen to
the111228

D.

NEO-ARIANISM: AETIUS AND EUNOMIUS

Cardinal Danielou saw in the writings of Eunomius of Cyzicus, the pupil

and fellow-propagator with Aetius of an extreme version of Arianism
which may be called Anomoeanism, and which was especially influential
in the 350s - a new kind of influence of Neoplatonism on Christian
thinkers. 229 According to Danielou, Eunomius' theology exhibits three
characteristics: a mystical theory of names as god-given which derives
from the Chaldean Oracles mediated through some fourth-century source;
a Trinitarian theology based on a hierarchy leading from unity to
plurality; and a tendency, fuelled by Aristotelianism, towards rationalism
in theology. This combination of motifs, for Danielou, points to a
specifically Neoplatonic source, viz. Iamblichus or one of his school. Danil~lou is particularly interested in Eunomius' account of the name
"Ingenerate" for God: 230 it is unique, revealed and, of course, god-given,
'that is, above all human imaginings (brlvmad. Eunomius' account of
lhlvow~ in relation to divine names should be contrasted with the less
ystical," more authentically Greek and scientific view of Basil and
regory of Nyssa, who refuse to dismiss them as merely human
,tmstructs in nominalist fashion, but consider them the legitimate
''reflections of an effective mental faculty. (In this, it seems, they are
eloping a tradition going back in essentials to Clement of Alexandria
Origen, 231 above all to the latter's commentary on John.) Danielou
s parallels between Eunomius' ideas about the origin of names and
'es current in the late Greek philosophical schools: in particular he
ihks of material in Proclus' commentary on the Cratylus. These parallels
221

No. 136, AD 395.

On Synesius' criticism of "Neoplatonism corrupted by the superstitious pagan
ief in theurgy" in his Dion see H. I. Marrou, "Synesius of Cyrene and Alexandrian
Neoptatonism," in The Col({lict, ed. A. Momigliano, p. 145.
229
J. Danh!lou, "Eunome J'arien," REG 69 (1956) 412-432.
230
I use the term as a translation of &yiw7)To,; after the manner of L. R. Wickham,
"The Syntagmation of Aetius the Anomoean," JTllS I 9 (1968) 532-569.
231
Arius agrees with Origen, as well as with Basil and Gregory, here, as noted by
~ickham, "Aetius," p. 558. In general see E. C. Owen, "lmvoew, hrivo~a and Allied
ords," JTI!S 35 (1934) 368-376. Meredith, "Orthodoxy," pp. 20-21, seems to
~verestimate the originality of Basil and Gregory, though it should not be entirely denied.
nd he follows Danielou too readily in using Proclus as a source for fourth-century
exegesis of the Cratylus (19).
228

186

JOHN M. RJST

must indicate a common source, and that common source must be

Iamblichean Neoplatonism. If all this were true, we should find in the
Neo-Arianism of Aetius and Eunomius the kind of dependence on
Neoplatonism, albeit that of the Iamblicheans rather than that of Porphyry
or Plotinus, which we have largely failed to see thus far.
But Danielou's results are open to serious question. First, as Wickham
observes, Danielou 's description of the system of Eunomius as Neo.
platonic needs immediate modification: Eunomius advocates a hierarchy
of beings, but rejects "emanation" 232 (or whatever we may choose to can
Plotinus' account of the derivation of principles).
Second, Gregory of Nyssa accuses Eunomius of drawing excessively
on Plato's Cratylus 233 - a fact emphasized by Danielou, who talks about
Neoplatonic exegesis of that dialogue. But Gregory does not even know
whether Eunomius has read the Cratylus himself or heard about it from
elsewhere. And above all he does not say anything about commentaries
on the Cratylus. Dillon allows that Iamblichus may have written such a
commentary, but that is by no means certain, and I am inclined to deny
it. 234 Of course, other works of Iamblichus or of his school might have
been used, but the apparently limited concern of Neoplatonists of the
period with the Cratylus might suggest that Eunomius' interest in it comes
from elsewhere. And looking backwards, we may note that Albinus'
"realist" remarks on the Cratylus 235 - names have a "real" relationship to
their objects, though they are given conventionally- suggest that Middle
Platonic exegesis of the dialogue is also unlikely to be Eunomius' source.
Third, "mystical" theories of names, such as those in the Chaldaean
Oracles, need not derive from Iamblichus (or even Porphyry). They had
been in the air since the second century AD and are known in Christian
circles.
Fourth, where Iamblichus does talk about names, his theory differs
significantly from that of Eunomius and agrees only where agreement
need not signify Eunomius' dependence; contrary to the views of
Theodore of Asine he holds that some, but only some, (Oriental) names
lead naturally to the divine. Versions of this theory are already available
in Origen, as Danielou himself pointed out. 236
232

"Aetius," p, 558, n. l.
C. Eun. 2.404 (ed. Jaeger, 1: 344.13).
234
Dillon.lambliclws, p. 22; Proclus, In Crat., ed. Pasquali, p. 56.15.
m Didask. 6.
36
'
Iamblichus, De myst. 257-259. For Iamblichus' discussion see S. Gersh, From
lamblicflus to Eriugena (Leiden 1978) pp. 303-304. For Origen (and beyond) see Danietou.
"Eunome l'arien," p. 424,

233

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

187

Fifth, Iamblichus commented extensively on Aristotle, though he was

not the first Neoplatonist to do so, and Aetius and Eunomius are regularly
called Aristotelians by their opponents, 237 but although Danielou sees
"Aristotelian" as indicating a specific and contemporary common source
that need
_ as when Basil says that Eunomius used the Categories 238
not be the case. As Wickham points out, Eunomius accused Basil of
Aristotelianism, 239 of being a denier of Providence. Doubtless at some
stage both Eunomius and Basil had read some Aristotle, perhaps with
particular attention to the Categories; perhaps the suggestion that
Eunomius' method smacked of Aristotelian rationalism was fair
comment; but that hardly gets us very far on the question of the possible
Neoplatonism of Anomoeans.
In sum there is little in Eunomius' account of naming which ties him
closely to the Neoplatonism of Iamblichus or his followers, nor does he
teach a Neoplatonic account of the derivation of principles, nor is his
"Aristotelianism" specifically Iamblichean. For Eunomius, despite God's
name-giving activity, only one name, lngenerate, is appropriate to God
himself, and this theory is quite alien to Iamblichus. Even the probable
parallelism of ideas in both Eunomius and Iamblichus with those in the
Chaldaean Oracles need not bring the two together; and in general the
evidence presented by Danielou is too unspecific to allow us to think of
the influence of Iamblichus on Eunomius.
What then are the philosophical sources of the Anomoeans? The
Cratylus, perhaps at first hand, may well be one: apart from Eunomius,
Aetius uses the phrase ouaiw; an 01]Awrtx6v, reminding us of Cratylus
422o. 240 Wickham is not the first to detect the influence of Stoicism,
though he rightly emphasizes the Stoic form, not the content, of the
.Tn"'".,."~"' of Aetius. 241 Now, as Danielou observed, there is a passage of
Eunomius in which, during an analysis of epinoiai (which for him are
human fantasies), we find the observation that such fantasies arise
through combination (auvOeat;), increase (augwt;), diminution ~Eiwat;) or
addition (rcp6a0em;): examples of increase and diminution are pygmies and
giants. These two examples can be traced back to a Stoic source; we find

231

See Wickham, "Aetius," p. 561, for references; also Vandenbussche, "La part de Ia
dialectique," p. 49, n. 1.
238
C. Eun. 1.9; PG 29: 532AB.
239
Wickham, "Aetius," p. 561; Gregory of Nyssa, C. Eun. 2.411.1, ed. Jaeger, I: 346.
z40 Wickham, "Aetius," p. 560.
241
Ibid., p. 56 Ln. I. Note Basil's reference to Chrysippus: C. Eun. 1.5; PG 29: 516a-c;
cf. Jerome, Comm. in Naum. proph. 2.15. (PL 25: 1269c).

188

JOHN M. RIST

them cited by Diogenes Laertius, 242 but this text derives from Diocles of
Magnesia, and perhaps ultimately from Chrysippus. Neither Diogenes nor
Chrysippus is likely to have influenced Eunomius directly. We should
note that the term epinoia itself does not occur in Diogenes. It does occur
however, in a passage of Sextus Empiricus, 243 which may or may not b~
of ultimately Stoic origin, but which appears in Sextus to be taken from an
utterance of Aenesidemus about Plato and Democritus. Here, we note
epinoia does occur, as do pygmies (but not giants) and centaurs. But th~
language is slightly different from that of Eunomius. Whereas Eunomius
has wvOc:a-u;, Sextus has buauvOc:att;; where Eunomius has aug1)a~t; Sextus
has rcapaug1)a~q. Even granted, therefore, that the doctrine is perhaps
ultimately Stoic, we may suggest that by the time of Sextus it was
commonplace
and it probably got into the books of the grammarians
and was there available for Eunomius. Such books, I suspect, are the
common source both for Eunomius' interest in the Cratylus and for his
"Stoic" language about epinoiai; even Danielou is well aware that they
also listed various theories of names, including the ~mystical" one
espoused by Eunomius.
Wickham has a further proposal about the origins of the Anomoean
theory of names, quite unconnected with the Stoics, which is very
attractive: namely that it was originally developed as a hermeneutical
principle for Biblical studies244 - Aetius was a pupil of the "Lucianisf'
Athanasius of Anazarbus - and that Aetius later applied it in general
theological debate. That, of course, is a suggestion pointing in exactly the
opposite direction to that of Danielou:
Danielou's theory about Neoplatonic influence on Eunornius has to be
rejected. Before leaving the matter, however, we may comment on a
historical question which encouraged Danielou to propose it. Aetius
seems to have enjoyed the favour of Julian's brother Gallus at Antioch;
and, apart from other visits to. Julian, he was sent by Gallus, according to
Philostorgius,245 on a mission to dissuade Julian from "Hellenism" in 351.
Hence, it might be supposed, Aetius enjoyed the favour of Julian and
might be influenced by the latter sufficiently at least to read the writings of
Julian's mentors, the post-Iamblichean Neoplatonists. A possible theory
indeed, it has no concrete evidence in its favour, and it is safe to discard it.

242
243
244
245

7.53 (svF 2: 87).

Adv. Matll. 8.56 ff. (svF 2: 88, in part).
Wickham, "Aetius," p. 558, n. I.
Philostorgius, s.v. Gallus, in ocs edition (Berlin 1972). Namenregister, p. 269.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

E.

189

PORPHYRY' VICTORINUS AGAIN, AND "CANDIDUS"

part One of this study we recalled that the Neoplatonic theories

ln osed by Victorinus in his anti-Arian treatises are those of Porphyry.
pr.o~orinus' reply to Candidus, probably written in 357 to 358, brings us
~tc e to the question we have just discussed, namely possible Neoplatonic
~ ~uences (of a Iamblichean kind) on Candidus' apparent mentors Aetius
111
d Eunomius. The problem is this: if there is Neoplatonism in Candidus,
~oes that indicate Neoplatonism in his Arian mentors? Hadot was already
ware of the difficulty when he wrote his introduction to his edition of
~ictorinus; he points out that there are two significantly original features
f the Arianism of Candidus; his even greater emphasis on the
~anscendence of God, seen not only as "lngenerate" but as "lngenerating"; and his view of God as "pure existence," that is the Porphyrian
Orcapstq or ro elvat f.J-OVOV. 246 These two features in fact bring Candidus
nearer to Victorinus himself, as a fellow adherent of theses of undoubtedly Porphyrian Neoplatonism. One might suppose, in explanation,
Victorious and Candidus had studied Porphyry in their pagan days,
being converted to their particular brands of Christianity. If that
the situation, of course, it would imply that Candidus had himself
the Arianism of Aetius and Eunomius- for Hadot is certainly
in identifying the Porphyrian features of Candid us as unavailable in
Arian masters- and come up with a Neoplatonized version which he
presumably, wish to defend vigorously as his own brainchild. But
he does not do that; rather he falls back, when challenged by
on merely bringing forward two basic documents of
the letter of Arius to Eusebius of Nicomedia and the letter of
to Paulinus. Happily we have now learned the solution to all this
solution which has come to be accepted by Hadot himself- namely
"Candidus" is a fiction, a device ofVictorinus to provide himself with
opportunity for a refutation of Arianism. 247 So we have no Porphyrian
to account for, only, as we have always admitted, the
would-be orthodoxy of Victorious. And, as I have already
Victorious' own interest in Porphyry probably originates in his
fconcern with Porphyry as a commentator on Aristotle: that is, it is a
246

Victorinus, Traites tlu!ologiques, p. 26; cf. p. 23 for further disassociation of

Candidus from Aetius and Eunomius.
247
P. Nautin, "Candidus l'arien," in Melanges de Lubac, Exegese et patristique (Paris
~63) pp. 309-320. M. Meslin, review of Victorinus, Traites theologiques (ed. Hadot
enry) in RHR 164 (1963) 96-100, esp. 98-99; M. Simonetti, "Sull'ariano Candido,"
0 rpheus 10 0963) 151-157; Hadot, Porphyre et Victorinus, pp. L 40, n. 3.

190

JOHN M. RIST

unique phenomenon arising from the general intellectual concerns of

Victorinus in the days of his paganism. The last point is important:
Victorinus first read Porphyry when he himself was a pagan.
F.

CoNCLUSIONS:

325-355

Our only conclusion in this section must be negative: there was no

significant expansion in the informed contact between Christianity and
contemporary Platonism in the East during the years 325-355, and there
is no reason to modify this conclusion substantially for the West either.
The apparent exception of Victorinus, already discussed at an earlier
stage, can be explained in terms of his education in a basically pagan
milieu, at a time when he himself was pagan.

III. BASIL OF CAESAREA

A.

INTRODUCTION

The survey which I have now completed brings us up to the time when
Basil was a student in Athens. Its general aims were as follows: to suggest
that the kind of Platonism to be found in the schools which Basil attended
at that period was largely of the Middle Platonic type, and that the
importance of the philosophical work of Plotinus and Porphyry was
minimal; to add that the only possible prominent variant on Middle
Platonism to be found in these schools was the more exotic tradition
stemming from Iamblichus - a tradition which was neglected or rejected
by Christians both at the theoretical level and soon, in the person of
Julian, at the political level also. Furthermore, that Basil's immediate
Christian predecessors and "authorities" were also brought up in what
may be broadly called the Middle Platonic tradition and not in the more
up-to-date philosophy of Plotinus and Porphyry. Hence one might argue a
priori that it is very unlikely that we would find more than limited use of
Plotinus and Porphyry, let alone Iamblichus, in Basil's own writings. Of
course, it could be objected that Basil could have become deeply versed in
the Plotinian tradition after his student days. Given the nature of his
career, that again might seem unlikely. It is my intention now. however,
to consider how far this a priori view of Basil's philosophical initiation
agrees with what we find in his writings. That investigation has some
thing of the charm, excitement, suspense and unexpected denouement of a
detective story.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

191

Let us begin with a survey of the Basilian material which scholars have
often connected with Plotinus. The first modern scholar to claim
significant influence of Plotinus on Basil was Jahn, 248 whose work has
been taken up and elaborated by Paul Henry in chapter 5 of Les Etats du
texte de Plotin. 249 Henry claims that Basil makes use of Plotinus as
follows:
in EGNaz. [2] he uses Enn. 5.1 and 6.9;
in the Hexaemeton he uses Enn. 1.6 and 2.8;
in the C. Eun. he uses 2.8 and 5.1;
in HFide [15] he uses 1.6, 5.1 and 6.9;
in De Spiritu Sancto he uses 1.6, 1.7, 2.9, 5.1, 5.8, 6.7 and 6.9;
in the De spiritu he uses 5.1.
To this list Danielou added a mention of Plotinian material in the De
baptismo, 250 though he gives no precise references to support his claim.
But by the time Henry (with H. R. Schwyzer) completed the Index
Testium of their text of Plotinus, 251 the list had shrunk again to read thus:
in the De spiritu Basil uses 5.1;
in the De Spiritu Sancto he refers to the title of 5.1;
in HFide [15] he uses 5.1 and 6.9.
The main reason for these more modest claims was the appearance of
Dehnhard's monograph entitled Das Problem der Abhiingigkeit des
von Plotin. 252 Dehnhard's basic thesis is that in the youthful De
(written about 360 ?) Basil indeed quotes Ennead 5.1, but that the
'"w.....,,.. material is "controlled" by Basil's use of various texts of Origen
Eusebius, as well as of the Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus, the
of Cappadocia. Later on, argues Dehnhard, in 375, when Basil
to write the De Spiritu Sancto for Amphilochius of !conium, he
, among other sources, not on Plotinus, but on his own earlier De
, which itself, of course, depends substantially on Plotinus. In the
Spiritu Sancto, for Dehnhard, there is no direct influence of Plotinus.

::: ~ Jahn, Basilius Magnus plotinizans (Bern 1838).

Etats, pp. 159-166.
2so R .
f
(B . . ev1ew o H. Dehnhard, Das Problem der Ablu'ingigkeit des Basilius von Plotin
erlm 1964), in RSR 53(] 965) I61.
2S! 1:' A' ,
(
)
r.ullto malar I 973 , v. 3.
252
(Berlin I 964).

192

JOHN M. RIST

It is not clear how much of this would be acceptable to Henry and

Schwyzer, whose Index testium still suggests that Basil in De Sp. s. is
using Plotinus directly, though Gribomont253 and (apparently) Danielou2s4
have accepted the thesis that it is only De sp., not Plotinus, that is the
immediate Neoplatonic source to be found in De Sp. S. At any rate
Dehnhard's book has re-emphasized that the relationship between De sp:
and De Sp. S. is at the very centre of the problem of the relationship
between Basil and Plotinus. All the relevant texts deserve to be scrutinized
again, at the very least to check on the claims originally made by Henry in
the light of more recent comment. Where decisive evidence has already
been accumulated, I shall not linger; yet certain points need further
clarification.
It has always been believed that Ennead 5.1 is the Plotinian text which
Basil is most likely to have known. It is in De sp. that this treatise is used
especially, and there is no need to go over again the ground covered by
Henry and Dehnhard: De sp. makes very extensive use of Ennead 5.1.
Five questions, however, immediately arise:

1. What is the significance, if any, of the fact that De sp. only uses 5.1?
2. Is the author of De sp. Basil, and if not, who is he?
3. Is Dehnhard's thesis correct that De Sp. S. 9 depends on De sp. for its
Plotinian material?
4. Can we now assert that there is no Plotinian influence in De Sp. S.
outside chapter 9 ?
5. Does Basil in De Sp. S. use Plotinus directly at all?
If these matters can be clarified, one can turn to the possibility of other
Neoplatonic influences on Basil, thence to the wider and more general
question of Basil's use of Plato and earlier Platonists.

B.

DE SPIRITU AND ENNEAD

5.1

There is no reason to believe that the author of De sp. uses any text of
Plotinus other than Ennead. 5.1. There is, however, equally no immediate
reason to assume that he knew no other text of Plotinus than Ennead 5.1.
Now we have already observed that 5.1 is one of the two texts of Plotinus
which are used by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Praeparatio evange/ica. It
is therefore quite possible that, if the author of De sp. knows more

253
J. Gribomont, review of Dehnhard, RHE 60 (1965) 492; (also, idem, "lntransigencia e irenismo en S. Basilio," ETrin 9 [ 197 5] 240 n. 61).
254
J. Danielou, review of Dehnhard, p. 161.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

193

plotinus than Eusebius quotes, the source of De sp. is the same as that of
Eusebius, namely, in all probability, some non-Porphyrian version of the
work of Plotinus. Possibly, but not necessarily, the author of De sp.
obtained this material in the library at Caesarea. Later Christian writers
such as Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret bear witness that 5.1 was an
unusually well-known and influential text of Plotinus.

C.

THE AUTHORSHIP OF DE SPIRITU: SoME PRELIMINARY REMARKS

Following up Jahn's suggestions, Henry claimed255 to have vindicated the

Basilian authorship of De sp., and Dehnhard has little to add to this
vindication. For him too, the composition of De sp. by Basil as a young
man provides us with clear evidence that Basil himself was familiar with
at least one Plotinian text at first hand. But is it certain that Basil was the
author of De sp.? Doubt has been cast on the question again by
Gribomont; and perhaps even Gribomont has not pursued his inferences
and facts to their most likely conclusion. Before glancing at the MS
evidence and the evidence from the treatise itself- and it is only the latter
with which Dehnhard has concerned himself- we should consider the
general nature of the Plotinian material in De sp .. As has been rightly said,
De sp. is a Plotinian cento - though to say this is not necessarily to deny
the additional influence of Origen and of Gregory Thaumaturgus which
Dehnhard has suggested. (We shall return to this later.) However, the tone
of De sp. makes it clear that its author has a tremendous respect for the
Plotinus he knows. He has studied Ennead 5.1 carefully and valued it to
'the extent of virtually transcribing a fair section of it. That fact alone
seem to make Basilian authorship unlikely. After all, as we have
shown, it was hardly in Constantinople or Athens, where he
,,,.,.ut<cu, that Basil could have been introduced to fervent admirers of
'Plotinus; and he himself, despite his lengthy but mainly rhetorical
education, makes no mention of Plotinus by name in his later works.
Indeed, if Dehnhard's theory is correct, he may not even use the text of
directly again in his writings after the heady enthusiasm of his
Youth represented by De sp. But, comes back the reply, outside the early
Phi!ocalia he only mentions Origen - and that not with unmixed
enthusiasm- once, in the late De Sp. S. ;256 this particular argument from
silence is not strong. Could not the co-author of the Origenist compilation

255
256

E,g., Etats, pp. 162-169.

De Sp, S. 29.73, ed. Pruche, p. 506;

PG

32: 204A-B.

194

JOHN M. RIST

known as the Phi/ocalia be- and at about the same time- the author of
the Plotinian cento known as De spiritu?
The most we can safely conclude at this stage is that it is, to say the
least, strange that a man with the devotion to Ennead 5.1 displayed by the
author of De sp. should, if he be Basil, exhibit so little concern for Plotinus
in other, including nearly contemporary, writings. Let us turn therefore to
other kinds of evidence.
On the matter of the manuscripts the salient points have been assembled
elsewhere: 257 none of the manuscripts of Basil's C. Eun. which bear
witness only to the three authentic books provides a text of De sp., nor
does De sp. occur by itself. De sp. only appears as the last section of the
spurious fifth book C. Eun., frequently attributed to Didymus the Blind. 258
But even if this work is by Didymus, which may well be doubted, that
would seem to be little help for De sp. De sp. 's deep dependence on
Ennead 5.1 has no parallel in Didymus any more than it has in the author
of C. Eun. 4-5 or in Basil himself. There is, indeed, no particular reason to
think that the author of De sp. and the author of C. Eun. 4-5 are the same
person. Thus although in the manuscripts De sp. forms the end of C. Eun.
5, there is no internal explanation for this. It is quite reasonable to propose
that whoever first tacked C. Eun. 4-5 on to Basil's C. Eun. 1-3 brought in
De sp. at the same time. Hence the fact that books four and five of C. Eun.
are not by Basil does not carry the necessary implication that De sp. is
non-Basilian as well.
Why does Dehnhard still think that De sp. was written by Basil?
Perhaps partly because Timothy Aelurus (460-475) cites C. Eun. 4-5 as of
Basil, thus showing that the attribution was already current about 100
years after the composition of De sp. 259 Gribomont suggests that perhaps
Basil's executors found De sp. in Basil's desk along with the C. Eun. and
the spurious C. Eun. 4-5, and put the whole thing together. 260 But this,
though possible, is grasping at straws; all we have for certain is that within
a hundred years of Basil's death, knowing that Basil wrote about the Holy
Spirit and against Eunomius, someone added our books 4 and 5 against
Eunomius, as well as De sp., to the undoubtedly Basilian C. Eun. l-3.

2s7

Gribomont, review of Dehnhard, p. 488.

m For some rather disorganized comment on this see W. M. Hayes, The Greek Ms.
Tradition of (Ps.)-Basi/'s Adversus Eunomium (Leiden 1972) pp. 25-39. For hesitations
about invoking Didymus, W. A. Bienert, "AllegQria" und "Anagoge" bei Didymos dem
Blinden von Alexandria (Berlin 1972) pp. 10-12.
259 Hayes, The Greek Ms. Tradition, pp. 5-6.
260
Gribomont, review of Dehnhard, p. 482.

195

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

Dehnhard scarcely offers any argument at all for regarding De sp. as by

Basil, unless we are to extract one from his claim that Basil, when writing
De Sp. S., used De sp. as a source; or alternatively unless we are to deduce
from the claim that j)e sp. shows links with the Creed of Gregory
Thaumaturgus that its author must be Basil. Such indeed seems to be the
point of Dehnhard's discussion of chapter 29 of De Sp. S., 261 where he
draws attention to the significance Basil attaches to Origen and his
followers, and to Gregory Thaumaturgus in particular. But all that this
shows is that Basil (in company doubtless with most other "Cappadocians") respected Gregory Thaumaturgus and Origen, not that he alone
might have used Gregory to Christianize Plotinus. As a reply to Dehnhard, and in Dehnhard's terms, Gribomont's comment is well taken: 262 the
De sp., he says, is from a Cappadocian milieu; it depends on Gregory
Thaumaturgus and is connected with Basil. Dehnhard's further arguments, to which we shall return later, about parallels to De sp. in
genuinely Basilian sources, would only show that Basil used De sp., not
that he wrote it - a conclusion perhaps confirmed by the unbasilian
characteristics of style Gribomont has observed in precisely those passages
of De sp. where the author is not following Plotinus. 263 At this point we
must insist that the authorship of De sp. remains uncertain.
D.

DE SP!RITU SANCTO OUTSIDE CHAPTER

Dehnhard finds that in chapter 9 of De Sp. S. Basil develops the Plotinian

material from De sp. for his own new purposes; he does not discuss other
chapters of De Sp. S. where Basil may depend on either Plotinus or on De
sp. It is now necessary to consider whether this limitation is appropriate.
Various other "Plotinian" passages of De Sp. S. have been suggested, for
example by Henry in the Etats: 16.38, 17.41, 18.44, 18.45, 18.47, 30.77.
Pruche, in his edition of De Sp. S., accepts most of these, sometimes
slightly varying the text of the Enneads to which Basil is said to allude.
Furthermore, he adds a comparison between 22.53 and Ennead I. 7.I,
though noting more appositely that this chapter generally has a "saveur
platonicienne"- by which phrase he means to refer directly to Plato264 as
well as to Plotinus; and in fact there is no specific reference to Plotinus.
Finally, Pruche finds no particular allusion to Plotinus in chapter 30 where it is identified by Henry - referring in his note only generally to
261
262
263
264

Dehnhard, Das Problem, pp. 32-38.

Gribomont, review of Dehnhard, p. 492.
Ibid., p. 491.
Ph. 67 A; Phaedr. 250co; Rep. 6lls ff.

196

JOHN M. RIST

the reversion to paganism in general which Basil suggests is characteristic

of the Arians. Before examining chapter 9 of De Sp. S., therefore, 1
propose to discuss the other possible references to Plotinus in De Sp. S. 'in
sequence.
i. De Sp.

s.

/6.38.20-21: x.ai {lr}OE.i~ oll:.aOw flE f} TpEi~ Elvat Aiyctv apxtx.d~

unoa-caact~

This is one of the more well known supposed quotations of Plotinus by

Basil; it is cited as such, for example, by Henry in the Etats, by Henry and
Schwyzer in their edition of Plotinus, and by Pruche in his edition of De
Sp. S.. It does not occur in De sp., so could not be derived from that
source. It does, however, occur in one of the quotations from Plotinus to
be found in Eusebius, 265 a work which Basil certainly read. In itself,
therefore, it provides no proof that Basil had read Plotinus either in
Porphyry's edition or that of Eustochius. We should also note the context:
Basil is rejecting an interpretation of his words which would have him, in
effect, teaching tritheism and a doctrine that makes the "act of the Son"
incomplete. In other words, as Christians of the time were given to put it,
he says he is neither a pagan nor a Jew (for subordinationists, those who
diminished the significance of the Son, were often said to Judaize). It
should be admitted,. however, that the word apxtx.6~ does not apparently
occur in such discussions; talk is more usually, as in Athanasius, of
f1Epta{lf:vat un:oa-caact~. 266 Here certainly a division of the godhead is being
referred to - and repudiated - just as Basil repudiates it in our text.
Presumably no Christian would say, as such, that there is more than one
apxi}, or apxtx.iJ un6a-caat~. The language that Basil uses is, therefore, of
pagan origin, though he may have heard it, in polemic, from a Christian
opponent. If so, that opponent, though not necessarily Basil, may have
known its origin. At all events we are making no progress in discovering
this. If the passage reached Basil from a source other than Eusebiusand that it is Eusebian, as I shall suggest, is more likely than that it comes
from Plotinus directly - all we know is that it did not come from De sp.
ii. De Sp. S. 17.41

This section deals with the notion of un:api8{17Jat~ and, according to

Pruche, 267 Basil is probably thinking of Stoic and Neoplatonic philosophy
Praep. ev. 11.16.4.
So Athanasius, Exp . .fid. 2. The point is clearly made by Dionysius of Rome
(arguing against the Sabellians) ap. Athanasius, De deer. 26.
267
B. Pruche. Basife de Cesaree, Sur fe Saint Esprit (Paris 1968) p. 392.
265

266

'BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

197

ben be says that this notion comes from "the wisdom of the world."

~ nrY is a little more hesitant, 268 but thinks that Basil has Neoplatonism
b~eflY in mind. But there is no reason to believe that the term itself is
~eoplatonic. Basil's opponents, as the entry una.piBtJ.'YJO'tr; in PGL suggests,
e most likely to be Anomoeans of some kind or another, whose source
araY be a work of Stoicism or Aristotelianism - we have discussed
~xvoA.oyia. already - but which is certainly not Neoplatonic. In fact we
~ave to admit we do not know the precise origin of the technical language
in tbis chapter: the only thing we do seem to know is that it is neither
Platonic nor Neoplatonic. I c~n see no evidence that the other supposed
parallels marked in Henry's Etats are parallels at all.
iii. De Sp. S. 18.44-45

According to Henry 269 the polytheism rejected here is certainly the

tbeory of three hypostases as taught in Ennead 5.I. But our discussion of
tbe traditions of Middle Platonism is sufficient to remind us 270 that both
Middle Platonists and Christians influenced by them before the time of
. Plotinus were liable to talk of first, second and third gods. Certainly these
texts of De Sp. S. refer to a theory of three principles; and certainly
Plotinus held such a theory. But from that it does not follow that Basil had
Plotinus totally or primarily in mind; or even that he had him in mind
all. As in the language of chapter 17, Basil has enough Christian
to account for his denying subordinationism. We should
add that the brief De sp., which does not talk ofthree principles, is
' the source of De Sp. S. at these points.
Finally Pruche tells us 271 that the Plotinian inspiration of the formula
npor; {J.ovaoa. seems beyond doubt. Plotinus' version (of course) is
npor; tJ.6vov, 272 and, if that is what Pruche has in mind, it should be
that it is not a peculiarly Plotinian phrase273 (though by the
century it may seem so); nor in De Sp. S. does Basil avail
of Plotinus' special use of fJ.Ovor; r;por; fJ.Ovov, which refers to the
of the soul to God.

68
I
269

Etats, p. 183.
Etats, p. 183.
21
For further reminders see Dillon, The Middle Platonists. pp. 367 ff.
271
Basile, p. 408.
212
6.9.1 I. etc.
2 3
p : ~ee E. Peterson, "Herkunft und Bedeutung der MONOJ: flPOJ: MONON-Forme! bei
lotJn, Phi!ologus 88 (1933) 30-41.
.

198

JOHN M. RIST

iv. De Sp. S. 18.47

Again we have a passage about first, second and third gods; again there
is no reason to see any specific allusion to 5.1, as Henry does, attaching
himself merely to the words 1:ph:YJ oi f) 1:ij~ r/JvxfJ~ q;uat~ ... 7:pl1:1:a appearing
in 5.1.1 0.1-6. More originally, Pruche finds an allusion to Ennead 5.4. 1.4,
but this is no better. Again, to be sure, there is talk of first, second and
third; but again there is no reason to suppose Basil is thinking of this text.
Now Ennead 5.4 is not quoted by Eusebius, nor by the author of De sp.;
were Basil in De Sp. S. 18 thinking of 5.4 he would have to know Plotinus
first hand. But we are far from being able to demonstrate that he is going
beyond what was a Middle Platonic as well as a Neoplatonic
commonplace. 274

v. De Sp. S. 30.77
This passage tells us that those who confuse the persons (Sabellians) are
judaizing, those who oppose the natures (Arians) are paganizing: a
standard charge, as our discussion of 16.38 has already suggested. Pruche
wisely declines to follow Henry at this point; thus he sees no reference to
Plotinus in particular.
This brings us to the end of our discussion of texts of De Sp. S. outside
chapter 9, where Basil has sometimes been said to be using Plotinus. Our
conclusion must be that in these sections Basil does not use Plotinus via
De sp., nor does he obviously allude to any text of the Enneads either
directly or through the quotations in Eusebius. Our only hesitation is with
the title 1:pd~ a,pxtxal unoa1:aac:~ - and this, as we have seen, affords no
clear evidence for direct contact with Plotinus' text. More likely than that
Basil thought of Plotinus specifically, when he used the title, and nothing
more, of Ennead 5.1 in De Sp. S. 16 is that the phrase apxtxai unoanl.ac:t~,
perhaps coined originally by Plotinus, signified by Basil's time a wellknown and objectionable set of attitudes. It remains possible, of course,
that this is incorrect, and that Basil drew the title, and nothing more, from
~lotinus directly, or more probably from Plotinus in Eusebius'
Praeparatio evangelica.
I revert to De sp. If Basil wrote De sp., he knew more about Ennead 5.1
than he could find in Eusebius, and probably he knew the title of the
treatise directly as well as from Eusebius. Hence the likelihood of his
274
Perhaps we should note that Pruche (Basile, p. 413) finds Basil alluding with the
phrase 86y!-la fi~ /-lOvapxia~ to Dionysius of Rome (in Athanasius, De deer. 26), a possible
source we have already considered (note 266) for talk of three hypostases.

199

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

using 5.1 directly anywhere in De Sp. S. increases, though we still have

the anomaly that only the title looks like a specific reference in De Sp. S.
(apart from chapter 9) to Ennead 5.1. But in any case we have already
observed that the authorship of De sp. is still an open question. And if
Basil did not write De sp., we cannot even claim that he knew from
Plotinus what the title of Ennead 5.1 was. If Basil is innocent of De sp., his
knowledge of the title of 5.1 in De Sp. S. 16 is derived from Eusebius or
from some other now unidentifiable source.
E.

DE SPIR/TU AND DE SPIR/TU SANCTO

We must now turn to chapter 9 of De Sp. S., written, according to an

important proposal of Dorries, somehwat later than chapters 1 to 8 and
10-27,275 which latter reflect the debate at Sebaste in 373 between Basil
and Eustathius. Chapter 9, therefore, is possibly open to other theological
influences. Even the scholar who doubts Dorries' thesis would have. to
admit that it would gain plausibility if we could show Basil behaving
relatively differently in chapter 9 on the one hand and in chapters 1 to 8
and 10 to 27 on the other. Let us consider a number of texts:

i. De Sp.

s.

9.22.25,{{: rcpot; 0 TCIXVTCt ETCE(rcparc-cat -ca aytaC1f,tOU rcpoaOeO!JEVa,

ou mxv-ca erpie-cat ...

Henry compares Ennead 1.7.22-23; 276 he is cautiously followed by

who finds the influence of Plotinus undeniable throughout

9 but does not specify. But oi5 miv-ca erptemt, used elsewhere by
in unplotinian contexts, is a well-known echo of the opening of
's Nicomachean Ethics, 271 and the notion of "conversion" to God
hristian commonplace. 278 But, runs the objection, conversion to God
accompanied by the Aristotelian echo is a conjunction found in
1. 7. Does not the coincidence mean something? As further
on the matter we should observe that in De Sp. S. 5. 7 Basil uses
words elt; au-cov ercea-cparcmt -ca auttrcav-ca, and continues with some

276

217

H. Dorries, De Spirltu Sancto (Gottingen 1956). DOrries' thesis is doubted by B.

"Autour du traite sur le Saint-Esprit de Saint Basile de Cesaree," RSR 52 0964)
216-223. It is hospitably received, however, by J. Gribomont, ''Esoterisme et
, dans le Traite du Saint-Esprit de saint Basile," Oecumenica 2 (1967) 40-41.
Etats, p, 178.
10 94A. So Dehnhard, Das Problem, p. 71; but Dehnhard wrongly suggests the
of Eusebius' On Psalms: see Gribomont, review of Dehnhard, p. 490.
Cf. Clement, Strom. 7.7; and generally P. Aubin, Le probteme de fa "conversion"
1963).
<I

200

JOHN M. RIST

similar remarks about the desire of the soul (aoxenp n68rp, apprrrrj; (n:opYfi,
etc.) which remind us, though not clearly enough to suggest immediate
derivation, of Ennead 1.6.7.13 ff., a section where Plotinus uses the verb
opcyopm of our desire for the good. So one could say that in De Sp. S. 9
Basil echoes his own hrear:pa.nr:at and not unreasonably associates it with a
well-known Aristotelian tag. Indeed Plotinus' phrase npot; who emar:pifpGV
m:lvr:a could itself, by Basil's time, have become well-known; thus the use
of it would not entail direct use of Plotinus even though the phrase is
plotinian. At this point we must suspend judgment: Dehnhard certainly
seems to neglect the possible importance of the coincidence of famous
phrases; we should not, however, overestimate its importance at this stage.
ii. De Sp. S. 9.22.25: &Ma 'wfJ; XOP1JYOV. ou n:poa8i;xatt; augaVOfJ-EVOV ...
Following Henry, 279 Pruche sees two clear parallels with the Enneads:280 'wfJ; xopwov echoes Ennead 6.9.9.49, while npoa{}f;xatt; a.ugavof-lt:vov depends on 6. 7. 41 .16-17. This is an important claim, if true. for it
may ensure Basil's direct use of two treatises of Plotinus other than 5.1.
But it is not to be believed lightly. For, if correct, it would imply that Basil
is consciously making the kind of use of Plotinian texts which. in view of
what everyone would have to say is his limited interest in Plotinus. would
need clear demonstration. Basil may have heard these phrases in general
discussions without knowing that they had any particular connection with
Plotinus; and if that is the explanation, it hardly encourages us to talk of
Plotinus' influence on Basil. Dehnhard proposes a possible solution:
xop'f}yov is to be compared with a section of De sp. ('wiJV napixu, r:pono; <ijq;
xopwia;)2 81 where Dehnhard finds the author of De sp. dependent on
other materiaL in this case. he thinks. the Creed Q{ Gregory Thaumaturgus. as well as on Ennead 5.1. 282 The word aytaa{-loiJ in De Sp. S. 9.22.26-.
27 might seem to confirm this; it is absent in all the Plotinian texts. but
present in Gregory Thaumaturgus and De Sp. S. 9, while De sp. has muq;
ayiouq; ayiouq; en:oirpe. So much, if so, for a direct quotation of Ennead 6. 9.
but a final word must await comment on Gregory Thaumaturgus. and
Dehnhard's case is weakened by the too general "parallels" he sees in the
following section. As for the phrase ou n:poa{}f;xatt; augaVOfJ-EVOV, it certainly
reminds us of Ennead 6. 7. but cannot be said to be derived from it in any
significant sense.

'w*

279

280
281
282

Etats, p. 179.
Pruche, Basile, p. 325.
Dehnhard, Das Problem, p. 52.
lbid . p. 8.

BASIL'S "NEOPLA TONISM"

201

iii. De Sp. S. 9.22.39-40: ol rhroA.m.IEG rd {lE'Z'EXOV'Z'a oaov aura rr:i:rpUXEV

Henry, 283 followed again by Pruche, thinks of Ennead 2.9.3.1-3, but the
similarities are again very general and limited in scope. A similar idea
occurs, but to argue derivation is to assume that only Basil and Plotinus
ever wrote or thought about the ideas in question. Again on the theme of
direct influence, we must conclude "unproven," and indeed "implausible." The same - more so - applies to Henry's further comparison of
Ennead 5.1.6.37.
iv. De Sp. S. 9.23.1-23
The opening of this chapter, with its language of olxEiwatt; and rUA.oseems to provide stronger evidence of direct linkage between Basil
and Plotinus. Henry and Pruche confidently cite Ennead 5.1.10.24-26 (a
passage not quoted by Eusebius or De sp.), and the parallel is more
substantial and sustained. It cannot be said to be conclusive, but direct use
by Basil of Ennead 5.1 at this point in chapter 9 is more credible than the
other parallels we have considered. The same cannot be said, however, of
Henry's claim that in lines 9 ff. Basil moves to the use of Ennead
1.6.9.11 ff. Pruche again follows Henry here, though Henry admits that
the vocabulary now is "less plotinian," but he seems unwise to do so. It is
interesting to note that while certain Plotinian commonplaces occur both
in Plotinus and in Basil, the peculiarly Plotinian (and Numenian) archaism
'ayA.at'a (Ennead 1.6.9.14) does not appear in Basil- who interestingly
iUses Oflfla where Plotinus has orpBaA{lot;,; a little point, but significant
against direct borrowing. Henry's case is again weakened when he has to
'cite other Plotinian texts (2.9.2.16-18; 5.8.1 0.26-27) to account for De Sp.
S. 9.23.18-19 (&.rr:oariA(JEG ... iAAa{lrpBEi:aat); again we are supposed to posit
Basil as cento-maker, a much more implausible notion in 375 than in 360.
But Dehnhard's284 attempt to explain this latter material as an expansion of
an earlier version in De sp. is also very much less than convincing. Basil's
use of philosophical commonplaces is probably adequate to deal with the
whole section .
-rpt6<rJt;,

. v. De Sp. S. 9.23.24-25: iJ

EV BErjJ Ota{lOVi],
rarov rwv opExrwv, BEov yEvi:aBat.

iJ

rr:pot; BEOV O{lOtWrJll(,, 'Z'O axp6-

Much ofthis language, and all of the content, is to be found in Christian

Writers before Basil, 285 as well, of course, as in Platonists of various sorts.
283

Etats, p. 179.
Dehnhard, Das Problem, p. 53.
See C. F. H. Johnston, The Book of St. Basil the Great on the Holy Spirit (Oxford
1892) p. 54, n. 4; he offers many references.
284
285

202

JOHN M. RIST

But Henry wants to draw particular attention to Oeov yevtaOat. 286 This
must, he believes, be directly Plotinian: the source is the Oeov yev6fJvov of
6.9.9.59. It must be granted to Henry that the phrase is very striking, anct
that no exactly worded parallel has thus far been adduced. But we should
note that it is the two words alone for which a good case might be made
for direct derivation from Ennead 6.9; the rest could come from any
Platonic or Christian Platonic source, verbal or written. And it is
legitimate to wonder whether reference to the text of Plotinus is required
to account for so striking a phrase. We must allow that Basil may have
quoted Ennead 6.9 here, though so striking a phrase could have been
familiar to the learned or fairly learned while its origins were unknown to
the person using it. So we have to conclude not that Henry is right, anct
that we have an unambiguous use by Basil of Ennead 6.9, but that there is
a possible use of Plotinus in this passage. It is interesting that in the Index
testium of Henry-Schwyzer, volume 3, this reference no longer appears.
vi. Conclusion

What then are our conclusions about De Sp. S.? That it is possible, but
far from necessary or even likely, that Basil used Ennead 1.7 in
9.22.20 ff.; that it is even less likely that he used 2.9 and 5.1 in lines 39-40;
that it is more likely that he used 5.1 in section 23; that it is possible that
Oeov yevi:aOat in section 23 derives directly from Ennead 6. 9. And of Dehnhard's case that De Sp. S. 9 uses not Plotinus directly, but De sp. as a
source, only one dubious passage (9.23.25 ff.) remains. At least this much
of a positive nature may be concluded: that whereas in the remaining
chapters of De Sp. S. it is almost certain that there is no direct use of
Plotinus, or use of Plotinus via De sp., in chapter 9 the matter is in doubt.
Clearly this tells in favour of Dorries' thesis of a later composition of
chapter 9 - after the remaining chapters of De Sp. S. We may now
consider possible Plotinian influence on other texts of Basil outside De sp.
and De Sp. S.
F.

0rHER TEXTS OF BASIL

i. HFide {/5)2 87

In the Etats Henry288 suggested that the opening sections of HF;de [15]
(OeoiJ fJ.Ef1VfJ(10at ... ala0i}ae7:at) 289 are influenced by Ennead 5.1.1.1-33. But
286

Etats, p. 182. For 8wnoiTff1!t; see Nygren, Agape and Eros, p. 428.

287 PG 31: 464 ff.

288 Etats,p. 175.
289

464o-c.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

203

the thought-context is entirely different; an example: when Plotinus cites

-.oJ.p.a as an origin of evil for souls, Basil says it is 7:oAfJrJpov to try to speak
in detail in theology. In general Plotinus is talking of souls forgetting their
fatherland, Basil of the difficulties of theologizing and the necessity of
silence. Happily the Henry-Schwyzer Index has dropped the suggestion
that at this point Plotinus is the source of BasiL
After his supposed use of 5.1.1 Basil, according to the Etats, moves to
Ennead 5.1.2.14-17 (and back to 1.6.7.37-39, 1.6.8.1-3, and finally
6.9.9.1-2); this takes him from au oe, d /louAt:t to yevvrJ8t:i Yt6;, 290 after
which he moves to a section in which he restates his position against
various Arian or semi-Arian formulae. In the Henry-Schwyzer Index
some of these claims are dropped, but Basil is still said to be dependent on
5.1.2.14-18 and 6.9.9.1-2. For the sake of completeness we will comment
on the whole passage.
As far as 5.1. 2.14 ff. goes, despite the authority of the Henry-Schwyzer
Index, it is interesting to note that Basil does not use the terms ~ouxia or
rpuxo; here, despite the appearance of ijauxov in 5.1 and in De sp., and his
own use of i}IJUxia in EGNaz. [2], a passage which we shall consider
shortly. Secondly while De sp. takes over the phrase rct:ptxeiwvov aw{Ja
(presumably from 5.1.2), Basil in HFide [15] has only the much less
impressive 1:0 aw{Ja aeau1:ov. Thirdly although HFide [15] has a sequence
yijv, OrfA.aaoav, &epa, oupavov, the striking ijouxo; {Jiv yij, ijouxo; oi OaJ.aoaa
of Ennead 5.1 is absent The De sp. version, which uses ijiJUxov, but merely
lists oupavo;, yij, 86J.aaaa, seems to fall between the two. At this point we
can only conclude that if there is a Plotinian source at all for this part of
HFide [15], De sp. is more likely than 5.1.2. 291 As for 1.6.7.37 ff. the only
"worthy" parallel is "earth," "air," "water"; and that is simply not
enough. For 1.6.8 we have only xaJ.ito; atJiJxavov, which goes back to
Plato's Symposium; 292 there is no reason to posit Plotinus as an intermediairy.
Which brings us to the possible use of 6.9.9.1-2, claimed by Henry in
the Etats 293 and again in the Henry-Schwyzer Index as the source of the
opening of chapter 2. This passage is particularly informative in that we
can observe within a short space the technique of parallel passages, its
uses and abuses. The essence of the argument appears to be that Plotinus

290

465A I 2, 465cl3, respectively.

291

So Dehnhard, Das Problem, pp. 60-6 I.

292

2)8E2.
Etats, p. I 76.

293

204

JOHN M. RIST

writes, sequentially, as follows: rrrm]v 'wf}t;, rrrrrilv voiJ, &.pxilv ovTo~. &.yaOou
ahlav, pi,av cPUXfJt;. Basil in the parallel passage, has the following: rpuaoo]
aya8on}t;, rraVTWV apxij, aiTia TOU elvat TO[~ OUatV, pi'a TWV 'WVTWV, 1!'rrfi!7:ijr;;

'wi'Jt;. Surely no further comment is needed on what Henry called an

"Indice net d'une reminiscence precise des Enneades." Dehnhard prefers

to invoke the influence of Gregory Thaumaturgus. 294
So far we appear to have drawn a blank with the H Fide [ 15], at least in
so far as a hunt for specific Neoplatonic sources rather than vague
for
terminological parallels with Platonism is concerned. Our last hope
95
HFide [15]2 must rest with the set of passages Henry lists from
Ennead 5.1.4, to which Dehnhard adds other sections ofEnnead 5.1.4
and 5.1.3. 296 For these latter passages Dehnhard prefers to see the
influence of De sp.; but the comparison in three columns which he sets up
between Plotinus, De sp. and HFide [15], while certainly showing once
again the very close connection between Plotinus and De sp., also reveals
how much vaguer are the "references" in H Fide [15] to either of its
possible sources. Dehnhard certainly has shown that Ennead 5.1.3-4
could be the ultimate source for HFide [15], but the language of HFide [15]
is substantially different from the other two in parts, while in other parts
remaining close. For example both Plotinus and De sp. have 'lj auvoiJaa
8cpfl-OTrJt;. where HFide [15] shows auvouaGWfl-EVOt; and later axwpta-rov Trj;
rrupi TO 8tppaivEGV; Plotinus again has OUJC E1!'GXT'YJTOV, all' EV alwvt 1!'1XVTa and
De sp. ouoi:v ixov .. . ill' aloiwr; mivTa ixov, while HFide [ 15] has the
variant ouoi:v rniXTI}TOV avTrj; ouoi: vaupov emyc:vopc:vov. Definite conclusions
from all this as to the relationship of HFide [15] either to De sp. or to
Ennead 5.1 are hard to draw. Of course. we know that at some stage Basil
did read (some say write) De sp., and also that this part of Plotinus was not
available to him in Eusebius. We might deduce from the later evidence
that Cyril of Alexandria knows En/lead 5.1 (and, to judge from his silence
about the rest, 5.1 alone - but not merely from Eusebius) that this
treatise circulated separately. at least from Porphyry's edition. a
phenomenon we have previously considered in the light of its use by
Eusebius. If that is so, then its use by Basil in H Fide [ 15] would become
slightly more likely. But not very likely: the vagueness of the allusions in
HFide [15] is far from suggesting that when writing his homily Basil took
a fresh look at his text of Plotinus. Perhaps slightly more plausible is a
modification of Dehnhard's position: ({but only if Basil is influenced by
294

m
296

Dehnhard, Das Problem, p. 58, n. 33.

31: 468c ff.
Dehnhard, Das Problem. p. 57.

PG

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

205

anY "plotinian" material in HFide [15], 297 it is more likely that De sp. is the
intermediary than that Basil quotes Plotinus directly.
The parallels offered by Henry for Ennead 5.1.6 and HFide [15] are too
vague to need further discussion. 298 We have to settle for no direct and
onlY slight indirect "Neoplatonic" material in the HFide [15] as a whole.
ii. Epistula Gregorio sodali (EGNaz. [2})29 9

Chapter 2 of Basil's letter to Gregory of Nazianzus contains much

praise of i}auxia. That - and a few more commonplaces - induced
Henry to think of Ennead 5.1.2.11-14, 5.1.12.12-20, 6.9.7.14 ff., 300 and
Theiler to invoke Porphyry, De abstinentia 109.9. 301 Of course i}auxia and
its virtues are extolled by Plotinus302 and Porphyry, and it is hardly
surprising that Basil, doubtless finding well-known ideas to his taste,
speaks similarly in an early letter.
iii. In Hexaemeron 2. 7 and 6. 9: the Hexaemeron and Contra Eunomium
In his edition of Basil's Hexaemeron for the series Sources chretiennes
Giet has said most of what needs to be said about Basil's sources in this
work. 303 Although Giet, following Gronau, 304 exaggerates the influence of
Posidonius- which is at best 'unproven - his account is mostly sensible
and well-based on provable references. He has in fact developed in his
edition the earlier studies of Courtonne, 305 and for Hex. 7 and 8 those of J.
Levie. 306 In particular Giet has followed Levie in arguing that for much of
Hex. 7 and 8 Basil's principal source is some kind ofepitome of Aristotle.
This epitome does not reproduce Aristotle particularly faithfully; in it
.traces of Aelian, Oppian, Theophrastus and others may be detected. All of
makes it rather surprising that Giet seems to betray no uneasiness
,,with the alleged use of the text of Plotinus by Basil argued for by Henry in

297

PG 3): 468c ff.

Etats, pp. 177-178.
299
Courtonne, I: 6-8; PG 32: 224-228.
300
Etats, pp. 171-172; cf. 5.5.8.3.
301
W. Theiler, review of Etats, BZ 41 0941) 172.
302
See V. Cilento, "Mito e poesia neUe Enneadi di Plotino," in Les sources de Plotin
(Geneva 1960) pp. 307-309. For Basil's general interest in iwuxia see Dehnhard, Das
Problem, p. 48; also T. Spidlik, La sophiologie des. Basile (Rome 1961) pp. 88-91.
303
S. Giet. Basile de Cesan!e, Homelies sur I'Hexaenu!ron (Paris 1968) pp. 47-69.
304
K. Gronau, Posidonios, eine Quelle .fiir Basi/ius' Hexahemeron (Braunschweig
1912).
305
Y. Courtonne, S. Basile et I'Hel/enisme (Paris 1934).
306
J. Levie, "Les sources de Ia 7e et Ia 8< homelies de saint Basile sur J'Hexaemeron,"
Musee beige 0920) 113-149.
298

206

JOHN M. RIST

the Etats. And Basil's sources are said to be not only the plausible S.l, and
the less plausible 1.6, but, according to Henry, the downright unlikely 2.8.
Such indeed is the weight of tradition and blind respect for authority.
Ennead 2.8, as Bn!hier already realized when writing his Notice in the
Bude edition of Plotinus, is a school treatise: 307 it is concerned with the
question of why distant objects appear smaller. In it Plotinus discusses five
school views and gives his preference to one of them, that of Aristotle. Itis
likely that Plotinus himself is using a manual at this point, and if Plotinus,
why not Basil who, as we have already noted, is not averse to the use of
manuals. To defeat this reading of the situation very strong evidence
would be required, which Henry has not provided. First he cites the
(Porphyrian) title ofPlotinus' tract, the weakest evidence of all; and far
from even verbally identical with what is found in Basil's Hex. 6.9. He
then compares Basil's nt&ov ... noM with Plotinus' opwv .. no.Ua~. And
that is all from Ennead 2.8.1. Chapter 2 provides merely noA.u ... To opoc;
and f.ni TOiJ oupavoiJ, plus ol/;t~ ... EXTEGVOfl.Evrj, as though phrases of this SOrt
were not virtually unavoidable in discussion of so technical a topic.
Henry believes that Hex. 6.9 is very closely related to C. Eun. 3.6,
where two of the supposed echoes of Plotinus recur: opwv TE nafip.eytOwv
and later oupavoiJ! 308 c. Eun. also contains the phrase TO neptXEifl.EVOV awt.ta,
and for this Henry recalls Ennead S.I, as he did when he found the phrase
in De sp. We may note first that TO neptxdfl.evov awfi.a does not occur in the
Hexaemeron, only in C. Eun. 3.6 309 - which substantially, if not totally,
weakens the case for Plotinian influence on Hex. 6.9. As for C. Eun. 3.6,
Ennead 5.1 or De sp. might be the origin, as Dehnhard has argued. But for
the words To neptxdfi.evov awfl.a in isolation, or rather accompanied only by
opwv TE TCa{J.fl.EyeOwv and oupavoiJ (not from S.l or De sp.), only a scholar
would have avoided the obvious conclusion: they are a banality going
back to Aristotle. 310
We turn now to Henry's "parallel" between Hex. 2.7 and Ennead
1.6. 311 The situation is rather similar. Again there are a few, indeed
slightly more, verbal parallels between Plotinus and Basil. But, according
to Henry, it is not these which persuade him of Basil's use of Plotinus; it is
"I' allure de tout le passage et 1' ordre dans lequelles idees sont exposees."

307

Theiler (JJZ 41 [1941] 171) inevitably thinks of Porphyry, though he notices the
possibility of pre-Plotinian sources for Basil.
los For all this see Etats, p. 174.
309
See also Dehnhard, Das Problem, p. 62.
310
GA 764s30.
311
Etats, pp. 172-173.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

207

The first of these claims is subjective, and the second has no weight if it
looks as though we are dealing with traditional school doctrine. And that
is exactly what we have in this case. In Ennead 1.6.1 Plotinus refers to a
standard and especially Stoic view that the beauty of an object is to be
explained in terms of the symmetry of its parts. 312 Basil refers to the same
standard .view in his discussion, but he is particularly concerned with the
question of the beauty of light, of gold and the evening star (Plotinus has
gold, lightning and stars in general); and Basil's discussion is largely in
terms of the pleasurable impact of light during the process of vision, a
question with which Plotinus does not concern himself. It is only the
banal parts of the texts, those dealing with a communis opinio that Basil
and Plotinus have in common. Sucp. a communis opinio is Pt'lrfectly
adequate to explain the similarities of vocabulary. Courtonne observes
that both Basil and Plotinus are concerned about the beauty of "simples,"
that is, substances supposedly composed of similar parts, which, it is said,
are not accounted for in the Stoic theory. 313 But while Basil is thinking of
light and gold, of material objects, the whole point of Plotinus' treatment
is to move to the beauty of immaterial "simples." Furthermore, it should
be noted that whereas Plotinus, for philosophical reasons, rejects the
"symmetry" theory of beauty in toto, it is possible that Basil, confusedly,
ion1y rejects it for some (viz. "simple") bodies.
So much for Basil's use of Plotinus (as claimed by Henry and others) in
'theHexaemeron; and for that matter in Contra Eunomium as well. For I
i'can find no further evidence of his influence in either work.
G.

BASIL AND PLOTINus: PROVISIONAL REsuLTs

all the Basilian or putatively Basilian texts that we have considered, the
IniJlUeJnce of Plotinus, whether direct or indirect, can be detected with
sertainty only in De sp. and in De Sp. S. 9. De sp. certainly uses Ennead
.SJ while De Sp. S. 9 uses 5.1 independently of De sp. Furthermore, the
~emote possibility of Basil's use of 6.9, and even 1.7 and 2.9, cannot be
denied for De Sp. S. 9; perhaps further enquiry may bring one of these
,Possibilities a little nearer to probability. Of other Basilian texts it is just
Possible that Basil used De sp. in HFide [I 5]; it is rather less likely that he
used 5.1. Nor should we forget that Basil (though he apparently neglected

312
313

Cf. Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 4.13.31

Courtonne, S. Basile, p. 132.

(svF

3: 279).

208

JOHN M. RIST

this source) could have known Plotinus through the passages of Enneads
4. 7 and 5.1 to be found in Eusebius. What then does all this tell us about
Basil's utilization of Plotinus '? First of all that De Sp. S. 9 shows that he
uses Ennead 5.1 directly - and that it is possible on the evidence so far
that this is the only Plotinian treatise he so uses. He makes no use of the
texts of 4. 7 he could have found in Eusebius. Now I have already
suggested, as a result of a consideration of the use of 5.1 by Eusebius
Cyril of Alexandria and Theodoret, that this treatise probably circulated
separately. That factor might also supply the clue to why Basil probably
knew very little Plotinus. If he read 5.1 in Porphyry's edition, or even in
that of Eustochius, he would presumably have read much more Plotinus
along with it. But Porphyry's account in his L(le of Plotinus makes it quite
clear that some of the treatises, especially the earlier ones- 5.1 is number
I 0 - were in circulation long before any complete edition of Plotinus
was published. For the sake of clarity I should mention that 6.9
immediately precedes 5.1: number 9 in Porphyry's collection; thus if Basil
knew 6.9 our general thesis would hardly be affected. 1.7 and 2.9 are
chronologically 54 and 33, so that if I was convinced that Basil knew
these two treatises, I should have further minor difficulties on my hands.
But I am not so convinced.
But the question of 6.9 affords us a good way to return to the still
unresolved problem of De sp. and of its author, for related to this question
is the matter of Basil's attitude to Plotinus in general. I have already
observed that Dehnhard finds the phrase 'w% xoprrrav in De Sp. S. 9.22.25
to be dependent not on Ennead 6.9.9.48, but on the Creed of Gregory
Thaumaturgus in De sp. Here we should also advert to our discussion of
the phrase Oeov yeveaOat in De Sp. S. 9.23, which, some say, derives
directly from Ennead 6.9.9.59. We held this claim to be still unproven,
though it is more plausible than the claim for 'wfj; xopr}yov, since this time
De sp. cannot be the source.
At this point. a definitive conclusion about the status of De sp. can be
delayed no longer. I have noted Gribomonfs doubts that it was actually
written by Basil and, in some measure, approved them. Let me pursue the
matter further in the light of the now complete analysis of "Plotinian"
material in Basil. Dehnhard's view of De sp. is that it is a document
composed by Basil on the basis of Ennead 5.1, the Creed of Gregory
Thaumaturgus, Origen and other sources. This interpretation of the
content of De sp. is largely accepted by Gribomont, but has recently been
challenged by Abramowski in an article in which she argues that the socalled "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus," so far from being a source for
Basil (or the author of De sp.), is rather to be regarded as itself in some

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

209

dependent on Basil. 314 If this were to prove correct, it might seem that
waY rima facie likelihood of Basil's being the author of De sp. would
~be pase: the De sp. would appear to be his blend of material later known
10
cr:e "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus" with Plotinus. For it is certain
as ~ the first ascription of the Creed that we know to Gregory
~:aumaturgus (together with the first publication of its full text) is made
b Gregory of Nyssa315 a.frer Basil's death. However, if Basil wrote De sp.,
ye have to credit him at some stage of his career with a degree of respect
;r Plotinus (at least for Ennead 5.1) which we might otherwise never
bave suspected.
Let us now inspect at least the major points of Abramowski's argument
tbat the "Creed" (if that is the proper rendering) of Gregory Thaumaturgus is dependent on Basil:
l. The first extant complete version of the "Creed" that we have is to be
found in Gregory of Nyssa, who is also the first to mention the
ascription of this material to Gregory Thaumaturgus. The date of
Gregory's L{fe qf Gregory in which this appears is uncertain, but it is
between 381 and 395.

Gregory of Nazianzus appears to quote from the "last section" of the

"Creed" in 380 or 381, 316 but not as the work of Gregory Thaumaturgus, but of "one of the inspired men" (8wq;6pwv) of not long ago.
(Caspari, 317 implausibly, thought that this BE6q;opo~ must be Gregory
Thaumaturgus, referred to rhetorically.)
Basil himself makes no use of the "Creed," though he had ample
opportunity to do so, especially in his dispute with Atarbius of
Neocaesarea. 318 On ENeoc. pm. [210] there is mention of Gregory's
statement of faith [x8Em~ niauwd but Basil denies that it contains an
imprecise reference to the relation of the Father and the Son: the real
source of this is a dialogue with a pagan named Gelianus, which Basil
admits often contains expressions [e.g., xriatta, noi1Jtta1 which give
comfort to heretics.)
From point 3, we may assume that no "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus" known to Basil could have contained much material which he could
314

L. Abramowski. "Das Bekenntnis des Gregor Thaumaturgus," ZKG 87 0976) 145-

166.
315
316

Ibid., 145. For the text see Vita Greg. Thaum.,

Or. 31.28; Or. 40.42.

PG

46: 912o-913A.

317
C. P. Caspari, Alte und neue Que/len zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der
Giaubensrege/ (Christiania 1879) p. 27; contra Abramowski, "Das Bekenntnis," p. 150.
318
ENeoc. [204); ENeoc. cl. [207); ENeoc. pm. [210).

210

JOHN M. RIST

use in his own controversies. Behind which lies the more basic fact that at
the time of Gregory Thaumaturgus the question of the nature of the Holy
Spirit is not prominent. The great emphasis put on it in Gregory of
Nyssa's version of the "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus" is in itself
suspect; we may detect a late fourth rather than a late third-century hand
as the quotation by Gregory of Nazianzus might also naturally lead us~
suppose.
According to Dehnhard, Basil used the authentic "Creed of Gregory
Thaumaturgus" when composing De sp. Yet the evidence for such use is
thin indeed: it is little more than that the phrases CwiJ Cwvrwv alria, n7Jyi}
ayta, ayu'rrt]~ aytaa{J.oiJ XOP1JYO~ and nveiJ{J.a aytov, EX Oc:oiJ ri}v unapw iixov
xai &' uloiJ nsrp1JVo~ from the "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus"- in the
version, moreover, of Gregory of Nyssa- resemble certain phrases in De
sp. But since there is certainly much material in De sp. which derives
neither from Plotinus nor from Gregory Thaumaturgus, these few phrases
invite the alternative explanation: namely that they derive not from the
authentic "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus," but from the ideas, not
necessarily the pen, of Basil himself. What then is the truth about the
"Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus"? Basically Abramowski is right: there
was such a "Creed" (iixOsat~); Basil refers to it in ENeoc. pm. [210]. He
apparently knows its content, though he makes no use of it- presumably
because it was related to third century problems and thus no help in his
Trinitarian dealings with Atarbius or anyone else in the fourth century.
The document which Gregory of Nyssa produced and which Dehnhard
claims as a source for Basil, is a reworking of the original "Creed" by
someone close to Basil; and as Abramowski points out, its material on the
Spirit seems to depend on the work of Basil himself.
Where then does this leave us with De sp.? The work is to be seen as a
cento composed ofPlotinus, Ennead 5.1, and various other texts of largely
Origenist provenance. It need not even come from a Cappadocian milieu,
though it probably does; what we know is that it appears at a time and
from a milieu where Plotinus, Origen and some Origenists were valued,
and where there was a serious concern with the theology of the Holy
Spirit, a concern which clothed itself in language later judged appropriate
to Gregory Thaumaturgus. As to date, it is just possibly used by Basil in
HFide [15], written after 370; and it is also just possibly a sourc.e of parts of
De Sp. S. 9.22 and 23, which were written no earlier than 375.
An important question remains: if Basil met De sp. only late in his life,
why should he take much interest in it, especially if many of the purely
theological ideas to be found there were his own? The time has come to
evaluate the basic thesis ofDehnhard: that Basil used De sp. in De Sp. S. 9.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

211

our own investigations have shown that any such use that he might have
:tnade is far less than Dehnhard supposed. Of the uses of De sp. by Basil
proposed by Dehnhard we are left, as we have seen, with a slight
possibility in one passage of HFide [15], and with De Sp. S. 9, 22 and 23.
Before closing this section of the discussion, therefore, we should return
to the problem of De sp. or Ennead 6.9.9 (and in particular the phrases
'~ xoprrrov [1.48] and 0Eov yEVOf1EVov [1.59D as possible sources for these
chapters of De Sp. S. 9. 0Eov YEVOf1EVov, we were earlier inclined to suggest,
is perhaps a commonplace, and the use by Basil in De Sp. S. 9.23.25 of
0Eov yEvf:aOat need not persuade us of direct Plotinian influence. But if it
were to look probable that Basil's twi'J; xoprrrov is directly Plotinian (from
6.9.9.48) we should have to reconsider.
Dehnhard, of course, invokes De sp. 15: ~wi}v rr:apiXEt, 1:p6rr:o; 7:ij;
xopTJyim;, 319 phrases which he thought were dependent on aytaaf.WU
xopTJy6;, etc., from the "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus"; and we
allowed that the appearance of aywa11oiJ (present in "Gregory Thaumaturgus" and reflected by m); aylou; ayiou; irr:olrpE in De sp.) might confirm
this. But Gregory Thaumaturgus can now be left aside, and our question
reformulated thus: does the presence of aytaaf1oiJ in De Sp. S. 9 make it
certain that De Sp. S. 9's ~wij; xoprrrov derives not from the Enneads
(xoprrro; tiJ..rJOtvij; ~wij;, 6.9.9.49-50), but from De sp., although De sp. has
the less close 1:porr:o; 1:ij; xoprrrla;? It certainly does not; indeed we know
that in De Sp. S. 9 Basil used Ennead 5.1 directly, and it is possible that he
used 6.9.9 as well. The possibility is slightly increased by his use in the
same chapter of the phrase 0Eov yEviaOat, though we have tried to dismiss
this as commonplace. Furthermore, if De sp. is not a source of De Sp. S. 9,
evidence for its use by Basil has all but evaporated (only a slight possibility
remains for HFide [15]), and with it Dehnhard's thesis.
I conclude that before 37 5 Basil had come across parts of Enneads 5.1
and 4.7 in Eusebius, but he took no interest in them; by 375 or later,
when he wrote De Sp. S. 9, he knew Ennead 5.1 directly, and possibly
also 6.9. I have already noted that 5.1 is number 10 and 6.9 number 9 in
Porphyry's chronological list. I do not, of course, conclude that Basil used
Porphyry's complete edition of the Enneads. The fascinating problem
remains, to which I shall return: can we account for Basil's interest in at
least a little Plotinus in 375, but not before? To this question may be
added a second: is Basil's belated interest in Plotinus in any way related to
the appearance of De sp.?

319

Dehnhard, Das Problem, p. 52.

JOHN M. RIST

212

H.

PoRPHYRY AND lAMBLICHUS IN BASIL

In view of the very limited use by Basil of Plotinus, as our earlier

investigations of the fourth century would have led us to predict, we
should not expect to find very much influence of Porphyry or Iamblichus
either. But although Iamblichus' influence on fourth century Christianity
is generally recognized as minimal, 320 the same, unfortunately, cannot be
said of Porphyry. We have already noted how Theiler, 321 revising Henry's
attempt to find Ennead 2.8 (on how objects seen from a distance appear
small) in Hex. 6.9, preferred to find a school-tradition mediated through
Porphyry rather than go back directly to a pre-Plotinian source. Theiler,
in his discussion, cites Calcidius, chapter 272, as a parallel for Basil, and I
have already discussed the tendency, now unhappily immortalized by
Waszink and his pupils, to think that Calcidius must reflect Middle
Platonic (and other) doctrine through Porphyry rather than by direct use
ofpre-Plotinian sources. But as for Calcidius, so for Basil, the introduction
of Porphyry is an unnecessary complication: Occam's razor should be
applied.
I have also commented adequately on Theiler's invocation of Porphyry
to explain the use of ijauxta in Basil; and similarly scant credence can be
given to what appears to be one more attempt ofTheiler's to find rules for
derivation of doctrine. The parallel between a phrase of Basil's in EGNaz.
[2] 2.55 (&xoij.; TOV TOVOV rij.; </.Juxii.; ruuouarJ<;; and rij.; </.Juxi].; E'XAUEG TOV TOVOV
in Simplicius' commentary on Epictetus' Encheiridion reveals Theiler's
method. The parallel points "fastautomatisch" to Porphyry, he says, since
Iamblichus has to be ruled out. Of course, it does no such thing. The
doctrine is Stoic and found in Simplicius' commentary on a Stoic text.
Basil also uses Stoic material, few would deny it. Furthermore in general
Theiler's attempts to see Porphyry's De abstinent/a and Sententiae in Basil
are vague and quite imprecise. The same can be said of Porphyry's De
regressu, and here another feature of Theiler's technique - and not only
in dealing with Basil- can be identified. If, he wants to say, a doctrine
looks a little nearer to Porphyry's De regressu (as reconstructed) than to
Plotinus, it comes from Porphyry. Porphyry or Plotinus? The obsession
runs on. At most one might deduce that Porphyry's De regressu
influenced the intellectual milieu in these regards more than the Enneads,

320
See H. Dorrie, "Gregors Theologie auf dem Hintergrunde der neuplatonischen
Metaphysik," in Gregor von Nyssa und die Philosophie, edd. H. Dorrie eta!. (Leiden 1976)
p. 29.
321 BZ 41 (1941) 171.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

213

and was thus indirectly more responsible for Basil's (and others') use of
Neoplatonic ideas about the return of the souL But often j:he ideas are not
even purely Neoplatonic, but generally of the Platonic tradition, as Justin
Martyr already knew; and it should be added that because Porphyry
perhaps over-emphasized the notion of the return of the soul (in De regressu) in a possibly unplotinian fashion, that fact of that emphasis is insufficient to establish Porphyry as a source whenever such material is
found in other writers.
Basil's second letter is, in my view, an excellent example of how
"platonically," even "neoplatonically," a Christian can talk, without
giving the scholar any reason to believe that he is necessarily following
anY Neoplatonic source, or possibly any particular source at all. There is
nothing of the "platonic" or "ascetic" tradition found there which a
careful reading of Origen could not have provided, particularly to a man
who presumably read a number of the works of Plato himself when he
was a student. Certainly there are "platonic" ideas here; certainly there are
"Stoic" ideas here: that is, ideas with which contemporary Platonists or
Stoics (if any) might concur. But to invoke Porphyry, or even Plotinus, for
that matter, is to mistake the spirit of the age. Put Epictetus, Origen and
Numenius together (exempli gratia) and you have no need here of
Plotinus or Porphyry.
It might seem a pointless exercise to go through the unsatisfactory
attempts of Theiler to read Porphyry into Basil; one wishes that it
were. But it is necessary because the assumption "if not Plotinus, then
Porphyry," can reappear in strange guises. In particular one should
beware of an attempt to see in Porphyry's exaggerated version of Plotinus'
personal asceticism a mode of neo-Platonism more attractive and
therefore more influential on Basil. Here, for example, is E. F. Osborn
discussing a passage of Porphyry: 322 "Plato chose an unhealthy part of
Athens as the place for his Academy. The philosopher meditating on
death despises luxury and lives free from want on a slender diet. 'For he
who in this way mortifies the body will obtain all possible good through
self-sufficiency and be made like the divine. The worship of the supreme
God can employ neither material sacrifice nor verbal utterance
only
silent contemplation is appropriate. This is the kind of Platonism which
Basil knows and understands." 323
322

De abst. 1.36, 1.54, 2.33.

E. F. Osborn. Ethical Patterns in Early Christian Thought (1976) p. 99. Osborn
seems to be influenced by the dated comments of E. Amand de Mendieta, L 'ascese
monastique de S. Basile, Essai historique (Maredsous 1949) pp. 70 74, 344, 351 ff.
Amand, it should be noticed, does not claim to have shown that Basil did use De
323

214

JOHN M. RIST

Certainly Basil knew and understood it, but he did not need Porphyry
to tell him about it. Much of it had been in Platonism since the Phaedo
and the mixture of Platonic and Pythagorean asceticism (as in Numenius)
easily pre-dates Plotinus. What seems to have misled Osborn
and he is
quoted only exempli gratia
is the belief that Porphyry's version of these
Platonic themes is not only different from Plotinus', but that it could not
predate him. Such a belief largely derives from the overemphasis on the
titles and context of Porphyry's De regressu ani mae and De abstinentia as
indicating a novel and unplotinian morality. Doubtless Porphyry
emphasized bodily asceticism more than Plotinus (though he may not
have practised it more); in this he reverted to earlier strains of Platonism
and Pythagoreanism: it is thus misleading for Osborn to say that Basil's
Platonism is more dependent on Porphyry than on Plotinus. It could in
these matters be dependent on neither. Perhaps the passage on the
unhealthy locale of the Academy tipped the scales in Porphyry's favour.
Basil quotes it in Ad adolescentes 9. 81. But Basil had been to Athens and
the theme is commonplace; it also occurs in Aelian's Varia Historia 9.10,
a source, among others, for Basil's Hexaemeron.
Such legendary material may be particularly liable to mislead. Also in
Ad adolescentes is to be found a story about a companion of Pythagoras
named Cleinias. The story itself is also extant in Iamblichus' Life qf
Pythagoras. 324 Hence, says a modern editor, 325 it is possible that Basil
knew Iamblichus' work. But the name Cleinias is not given by Iamblichus, and a common source for Iamblichus and Basil is the more likely
explanation, for even if Basil could have read lamblichus, he would have
had to read the same material elsewhere to find the name.
We have suggested both in this section and at an earlier stage of our
discussion that the influence of Porphyry on Basil is likely to have been

abstinelltia, but he believes that to be the case. Amand is also followed by P. Courcelle,
"Gregoire de Nysse, lecteur de Porphyre," REG 80 (1967) 406.
324 On Iamblichus' sources in general see E. Rohde, "Die Quellen des Iamblichus in
seiner Biographie des Pythagoras," RhM 27 0872) 23-61; also A. J. Festugiere, "Sur une
nouvelle edition de 'De Vita Pythagorica' de Jamblique," REG 50 (1937) 470-494.
Festugiere observes (p. 471) that the direct sources of Iamblichus are the Neopythagoreans
Apollonius. Nicomachus, Moderatus.
325 N. G. Wilson, St. Basil on the Value of Greek Literature (London 1975) p. 59 on
7.47-53. Wilson seems to follow R. Reitzenstein C.Der Athanasius Werk iiber das Leben
des Antonius [Heidelberg 1914]) in thinking that Athanasius too knew the Life of
Pythagoras when he wrote the life of St. Antony. One must admit that this is possible, but
Iamblichus' sources might seem more plausible than Iamblichus himself.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

215

minimal; for a variety of reasons that of Iamblichus is almost certain to

have been non-existent. Let us finally return to more basic issues.

J.

PLOTINUS THE PHILOSOPHER AND BASIL THE BISHOP

In 375, as we have seen, Basil knows Ennead 5.1 and possibly 6.9. In
addition, we assume that he knew some of 5.1 long before 375- though
he did not use it - by reason of his acquaintance with Eusebius' Praeparatlo evangelica, which quotes 5.1 and 4.7 extensively. 4.7 is also an
early work of Plotinus (number 2), so it adds nothing surprising to our
view of the circulation of Plotinian treatises separately. We notice that it is
the early treatises of Plotinus which first appear in the Christian Fathers.
We have already observed Cyril of Alexandria's use of 5.1 and of 5.1
alone. Have we any external evidence as to why Basil might have become
interested in Neoplatonic material not in his student days, but towards the
end of his life? To this, two further witnesses might be called: Gregory of
Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, and although this is not the place to
touch extensively on the influence of Neoplatonism in these authors, a
few observations may further our immediate aim to understand the
development of Basil.
In fact we do not need to say much of Gregory of Nazianzus. Although
he has a certain knowledge of Greek philosophy, especially of Plato, his
general attitude is often critical or hostile. And his knowledge is largely
Jimited to the earlier teachers, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle (an artificial
thinker with poor notions about Providence), the Stoics and Cynics, and
the Epicureans; all of these he suggests are worthy of attack and
.refutation. 326 But he offers no similar comment on contemporary or more
contemporary teachers. His knowledge of Plotinus appears to be
slight, and of no real help to us at present. Henry and Schwyzer claim that
one of his poems he echoes Ennead 5.2.1, 327 a claim which I am
.u~'u.'"'" to deny or at least think doubtful. More plausible, however, is
their suggestion that in his Third Theological Oration he refers to lines 8
~nd 9 of the same chapter. 328 Here Gregory actually says that he is citing
one of the Greek philosophers who spoke of an urci:pxuaw of goodness and
of goodness overflowing like a mixing bowl. And Plotinus does write of
the One, olav urcsppUYJ xai TO um:prc'kijps(.; avroiJ 1CGTCOiYJ'X.Eli aMo. Not too close,
one might suppose; but Gregory says that this occurs in a writing "On the
326
321
328

Or. 27.9 (Thea!. 1), PO 36: l9c.

See their editio maior, ad lac.; Gregory ofNazianzus, Poem. dog. 29.12, PO 37: 508.
Or. 29.2, PO 36: 76c.

216

JOHN M. RIST

First Cause and the Second." This is not Porphyry's name of the treatise
5.2, but we note that Gregory's title is rather nearer the version found in
the Arabic, 329 where the essay is called "The First Cause and the Things
that originate from it. " 330 So it may be argued that Gregory does quote
Ennead 5.2 here, but not in Porphyry's edition. And that makes his use of
Plotinus in the Poem slightly more likely. But in the end all this helps us
but little with Basil. The third Theological Oration was delivered after
Basil's death while Gregory was at Constantinople, at the Church of the
Anastasis; and the poem was almost certainly composed after he had
retired from the Capital in 381. Neither composition tells us anything
which might clarify Basil's position in 375. The most natural interpretation of Gregory of Nazianzus' use of Ennead 5.2, not in Porphyry's
edition, is that he came across it, prol::>ably alone or with only a few other
Plotinian essays, when he was in Constantinople. We note that 5.2 is
number 11 in Porphyry's chronological list. Basil, as we have seen, knows
5.1 (number 10) and perhaps 6.9 (number 9).
Let us turn to our second witness, Gregory of Nyssa. In fact we have to
treat of only one text, since the De virginitate is probably the only major
work of Gregory's to have been composed before Basil's death in 379.
Dehnhard suggested that Basil was directly influenced by his younger
brother, 331 an idea which has not been welcomed, 332 since it is generally
held- perhaps unjustly- that Basil failed to recognize young Gregory's
talents. In favour of Dehnhard's proposal it might be argued that Basil's
view of Gregory was at least sufficiently high to secure his promotion to
the dignity of bishop. Basil had hopes- in which he was disappointedthat Gregory would be an effective ally in the ecclesiastical struggles in
which he, Basil, was engaged. It was also, apparently, at Basil's suggestion
that Gregory set about .writing the De virginitate - which implies that
Basil's opinion of his theological qualities was considerable.
Nonetheless, I have no wish to endorse Dehnhard's thesis, that the De
virginitate is a source for Basil's De Spiritu Sancto. We are more aware
than was Dehnhard of the chronological problems surrounding the date
of the De virginitate itself. As Gribomont has observed, 333 the
329

Tlzeo/. Arist. 10.10.

I quote from the translation of G. Lewis in Henry-Schwyzer's editio maior. I should
like to thank Professor Michael E. Marmura for checking the Arabic.
331 Dehnhard, Das Problem, pp. 77-84.
m See Gribomont, review of Dehnhard, p. 490; and Danielou, review of Dehnbard,
pp. 158-160.
m J. Gribomont, "Le panegyrique de Ia virginite, ceuvre de jeunesse de Gregoire de
Nysse," RAM 43 (1967) 250.
330

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

217

ventional view that dates De virginitate to about 371 depends

conlusively on Gregory's reference to Basil as bishop, 334 entailing- as is
excerted - that he himself did not yet possess a see. But the inference
assks substance: if Gribomont's translation is correct, as I believe it to be,
~;sil. when himself a bishop, refers to his uncle as "our most venerable
ncle and bishop. " 335 The De virginitate could have been written at any
~me between 371 and 378; and it could indeed - pace Dehnhard - be a
beneficiary rather than a source of the De Spiritu Sancto.
But even though I do not wish to argue that the De virginitate is a
source of De Sp. S., some consideration of the Plotinian influence in the
De virginitate may still be informative. It could be the case, either that it
was Gregory who interested Basil in Neoplatonic material or, more
cautiously, that the composition of the De virginitate is evidence for a
renewed interest in Plotinus during the 370s. To put ourselves in a
position to explore these avenues, let us briefly review the state of
":Scholarship on the Plotinian content in the De virgin ita te. In this matter, as
'in so many others in the course of our present enquiry, it is necessary to
be specific. Vague parallels in the moral-ascetical area are hardly
'adequate; they may merely point to the spirit of the age. More helpful are
precise and repeated verbal echoes, especially if they fall in groups;
for our purposes the Index prepared by Aubineau for his splendid
provides an adequate guide. At first sight Aubineau's list of
t .. ,.~.,..,"'"' to Plotinus looks impressive; yet in most of them, apart from
to Enneads 1.6 and 6.9, Plotinus is listed among others as offering
ideas: in other words, in these passages we are not dealing with
""'""'"'"J Plotinian or even Neoplatonic material. Apart from references
type, Aubineau only provides Enneads 1.2.3.12 and 6.3.4.3 as
""''''n''" direct sources for specifically Plotinian material. The first of these
unlikely, the second more plausible, but not necessary. So with the
;QUIJimis exception of 6.3 (a late treatise of Plotinus) we are left with
TnaArv's use, to which Danielou, 336 as well as Aubineau, has pointed, of
1.6 and 6.9, numbers 1 and 9 on Porphyry's chronological list.
e noted that Basil may have used 6.9 in De Sp. S.; some, as also noted,
have detected the influence of 1.6 in the Hexaemeron, though I have

334
335

De virg., ed. Aubineau, p. 250.

So Gribomont, "Le panegyrique," p. 250; Basil, EGNys. [58], PG 32: 408a; Courtonne, I: 145.6-7.
336
For J. Danielou, see his communication, "Gregoire de Nysse et Plotin" (resume), in
Actes du ve congr. de /'Ass. Dude (Paris 1954) pp. 259-262, and his review of Dehnhard,
Pp. 158-160. See also D. Bahis, Metousia Theou (Rome 1966) p. 63.

218

JOHN M. RIST

argued that this is implausible, thus proving a devil's advocate against my

own present proposal. Nevertheless, if Basil used 5.1 and 6.9 in De Sp. S.
9, and Gregory of Nyssa used 6.9 and 1.6 in chapters 10 to 12 of the De
virginitate, a work composed at roughly the same time, it would not be
reckless to suggest that the common use of these early treatises of Plotinus
by Basil and Gregory is hardly coincidental. The likelihood that Basil
introduced Gregory to Plotinus seems less in view of the reported
character, activities and interests of the two brothers. Is it too much to
suppose that it is because of Gregory's interest in Plotinus that Basil too
grew interested in him at this period? 337 .If that is admitted to be at the
least plausible, does it offer any help towards identifying the author of the
ultra-plotinian text De sp.? De sp., as we have noted, is often supposed to
be an early work of Basil's. I have denied its Basilian authorship. That
Basil penned a work of this kind during his episcopate is peculiarly
unlikely; still that is no reason why the work could not have been
composed in the 370s. The final step confronts us of crediting Gregory of
Nyssa with the authorship of De sp. 338 - and why should we balk at it?
Gregory at this time was interested in Plotinus and shows it in De Nrginitate. Furthermore De sp. uses material on the Holy Spirit probably
dependent on Basil and later drawn up by Gregory as the "Creed of
Gregory Thaumaturgus"; the coincidence has weight. For the date of
composition, any time after 370 but before 375 will do, for if Gregory
wrote De sp. it probably precedes De virginitate. And if Gregory's De sp.
came to the attention of Basil, it could be that Basil's satisfaction both
impelled him to urge Gregory to write De virginitate and encouraged him
to make limited use of Plotinus in chapter 9 of his own De Sp. S. Let me
add in conclusion that even if Gregory's authorship of De sp. be rejected,
the likelihood of his having interested Basil in Plotinus remains.

m The question arises whether Gregory used Porphyry's edition. In view of his
limited knowledge of Plotinus in De virginitate, I should incline to deny it. Possible
evidence for his use of it is offered by Courcelle, who argues, in "Gregoire de Nysse,
lecteur de Porphyre," pp. 404-405, that in chapter 23 of De virginitate, Gregory uses the
response of Apollo to the question of Amelius about Plotinus quoted by Porphyry in the
Vita Plotini (ch. 22). The argument is less than compelling: Courcelle's "parallels" are all of
commonplace material in such contexts; and in any case the reply of Apollo was
presumably known to others besides Porphyry.
338 Henry <.Etats, p. 168) thought that the phrase /'O'IJ7:EUouawv yuvatxwv in De sp. (ed.
Dehnhard, p. 8, 1.23) for Plotinus' wv yeyo'f}7:Euxowv (Enn. 5.1.2.13) indicates the
monastic preoccupations of the young Basil (ca. 360). It might equally well indicate the
comparatively youthful fervour of the anti-matrimonial Gregory of the De virginitafe.

BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"

J.

219

EPILOGUE

In discussing Basil of Caesarea I have looked for precise parallels with

Neoplatonic texts. My enquiry indicates that for most of his life Basil was
uninfluenced by Neoplatonic material; and this is the conclusion predicted
by my earlier survey of the fourth century. I would not wish to muddy
the waters again by devoting time to the vaguely Platonic commonplaces
which Basil (or Athanasius, or Gregory of Nazianzus) shares with
Plotinus (or Plutarch or, for the ingenious, Posidonius). Nor do I wish to
propose gen~ral parallels for Basil in the manner espoused by the
Cambridge History qf Later Greek and Early Mediaeval Philosophy, where
we read of Gregory of Nazianzus that he "adumbrates the synthesis of the
Christian revelation with the triadic structure of the Neoplatonic universe
which the ps.-Dionysius was later to expound: the triple rhythm of mone,
proodos, epistrophe." 339 As a result of such a summary- in no way borne
out by the text of Gregory of Nazianzus himself - Sheldon-Williams
thought himself justified in coming to a conclusion which implicates Basil
as well as Gregory, that "Gregory's assimilation of Christianity to
Platonism is thus much more profound and has wider implications than
Basil's." I hope at least to have indicated that an analysis of Basil's relation
to Plato and Platonism needs to proceed along quite other lines.
In his homily to the young on the merits (and limitations) of Greek
literature, written, it is often and probably wrongly assumed, during his
tenure as bishop of Caesarea, Basil offers whatis essentially a rhetorician's
or literateur's view of the Hellenic past, a view which reflects much ofthe
experiences of his own student years and of his abortive career as a
professor of rhetoric. It is important to recall yet again that although Basil
alludes to the lives and ideas of philosophers, they are philosophers safely
distant from his own age and usually, I submit, to be valued as stylists, or
at most moralists, rather than as thinkers. Neither Middle Platonic nor
Neoplatonic philosophers are offered as models, or used philosophically,
though Plutarch in particular is used extensively as a source. It is hard
when reading the address to avoid the impression that a literary education
is emphasized rather as the background or decoration of a cultured man
than as a basis for a Christian understanding. Later on, in EEust. [223], 340

339
L P. Sheldon-Williams, in The Cambridge History, ed. A. H. Armstrong, p. 446;
compare alsop. 442.
340
EEust. [223] 2, PG 32: 824A; cf. Spidlik, Sophiologie, p. 146. I am, in fact, inclined to
date the Ad adolescentes to the period of Basil's teaching in Caesarea, after his return from
Athens.

220

JOHN M. RIST

Basil himself laments the time he wasted on profane studies, and if we

view these studies in the light of the treatise, such a stance is very
intelligible. They are devoid of contemporary or nearly contemporary
issues, even to a remarkable extent in ethics, let alone in metaphysics.
Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa too, as we have observed
are ambivalent about pagan "culture," 341 and they both share Basil'~
disinclination to allude directly to current purely philosophical debate. In
view of this it is perhaps the more surprising to find Basil stirred in the last
years of his life by readings in Plotinus. However, surprise should not lead
us to underestimate the evidence of the text of De Sp. S. 9~ Despite his
neglect of Plotinus in his youth, despite his love of the monastic way with
its strongly anti-intellectualist emphases, despite his years as a bishop,
wielding authority rather than reading books- almost, we might say,
despite himself
Basil was still able - I have suggested under the
influence of a younger brother of very different temperament - to profit
from one or two of the writings of the greatest of the latter-day Platonists
and to put them to the service of the new policy. If the address to the
young is datable to Basil's immediately post-student days, we must
conclude that shortly afterwards Basil gave up the practice of rhetoric, but
later, was "converted"- to however limited a degree- to some more
contemporary philosophy. But we should end with a caveat: Basil is a true
supporter of the Council of Nicaea and all that that implies. There is not a
trace of the influence ofNeoplatonic speculation in that area ofTrinitarian
theology from which the Council had excluded Platonism forever. And it
must be admitted that though, in the area of moral/ ascetical thought
where Platonism was still allowed to flourish, Basil may have become
interested, however mildly, in Plotinus towards the end of his life, his
utterances might have been very similar in content whether or not he ever
read any "original" Plotinus at all. They need not entail more than a
synthesizing of earlier versions of Platonism and Stoicism.

341

For Gregory of Nazianzus' traditional-sounding praise of Platonism see especially

Or. 31.5; but this must be juxtaposed with texts which emphasize faith (Or. 28.28, etc.).

See recently Ruether, Grego:y q{Nazianzus, pp. 167-174.