NUMENIUS OF APAMEA. - Philosopher of the 2nd century A.D., born in Apamea (Syria), author of important works (*On the Divergence of the Academics from Plato*; *On the Secret Doctrines in Plato*; *On the Good*, etc.), of which only fragments remain.
N. drew inspiration from Plato and Pythagoras and is to be regarded as an immediate precursor of Neoplatonism (v.).
He bases his ontology on the Platonic concept that true existence does not belong to mutable matter, but rather to what is eternal and unchanging. He distinguishes a supreme God, devoid of activity (βασιλεύς ἀρχός), and a second God, inferior to the first, namely the δημόσυρης δέος, creator of the world; and he then considers the world itself as a third God: whence one may find in him a prelude to the Neoplatonic Trinity. In eternal and uncreated matter lies the principle of evil; in man there exist two opposing ψυχαί, one rational and one irrational (affinity with Persian dualism). Besides Plato and Pythagoras, N. in fact drew upon Eastern doctrines, extending this syncretism even to Jewish religion, considering, for example, Plato as an Atticizing Moses.