Plotinus

Plotinus was born about AD 204 in Egypt. In Alexandria he studied for eleven years with the enigmatic philosopher Ammonius Saccas, and later joined the emperor Gordian III's eastern campaign in order to learn the philosophy of Persia and India. At forty he settled in Rome and opened a school, respected by emperor and senators alike. He was the founder of Neoplatonism; his pupil Porphyry arranged the fifty-four treatises of his later years into six groups of nine, the Enneads. His thought deeply shaped Augustine, medieval mysticism and Renaissance philosophy.