NUMENIO 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 Neo-Platonism (v.).
He based his ontology on the Platonic concept that true existence belongs not to mutable matter, but rather to that which is eternal and immutable. He distinguished a supreme God, devoid of activity (βασιλεός ἀργός), and a second God, inferior to the first, namely the δημιουργός θεός, creator of the world; he then regarded the world itself as a third God: hence in him one may discern a prelude to the Neo-Platonic trinity. In eternal and uncreated matter lies the principle of evil; in man there exist two conflicting ψυχαί, one rational and the other irrational (an affinity with Persian dualism). Besides Plato and Pythagoras, N. was in fact inspired by Eastern doctrines, and he extended this syncretism also to the Jewish religion, regarding, for example, Plato as an “Atticizing Moses.”