PORPHYRY. - Philosopher, probably in A.D. 232-33 at Tyre (Vita Plotini, VII) or perhaps in Batanea, an obscure region of Syria or Palestine, as may be inferred from the contemptuous epithet applied to him by some Christian writers (St John Chrysostom, Homil., VI, 3 on 1 Cor.; St Jerome, Praef. in ep. ad Gal.: «Batanetes and that wicked Porphyry»). He was probably in Rome at the beginning of the 4th century.
A critical spirit, yet prone to every form of superstitious credulity, he travelled to broaden his knowledge, visiting Syria, Palestine and perhaps Alexandria. He met Origen (q.v.) probably at Caesarea in Palestine and was for some time his pupil. To what extent his relations with the great master extended and whether he was or was not a Christian cannot be stated with certainty. In Athens P. had as friend and teacher the celebrated Longinus. But it was his stay in Rome, at the school of Plotinus (q.v.), that decided his vocation and his life: Plotinus initiated him into metaphysical speculation and had him as a favourite pupil and almost a collaborator for six years. Deterred from a purpose of suicide, perhaps caused by excessive intellectual strain, he went, on Plotinus’ advice, to Lilybaeum in Sicily, where he remained until the death of his master (Vita Plotini, 11). He returned a second time to Rome and took charge of the school. To him we owe the edition of the 54 books left by Plotinus, collected in 6 Enneads or groups of 9 books each. To this he prefixed a Life of Plotinus, a precious document for the history of early Neoplatonism (q.v.).
Though strongly inclined to philosophical and religious meditation, P. is not an original thinker, but a clear, learned and often subtle investigator in almost every field of knowledge (St Augustine calls him doctissimus). He begins the series of Neoplatonic commentators on Aristotle, and his name has remained famous above all for the Isagoge (or Introduction to Aristotle’s Categories), which, translated into Latin by Boethius (q.v.), had great authority in the medieval schools and gave rise to controversies on the problem of universals (q.v.).
In that critical period when the old pagan world was being increasingly challenged by the new religion, P. was a bitter opponent of the Christians, against whom he wrote a polemical work in 15 books (Κατὰ Χριστιανῶν). This work was refuted by Methodius of Olympus, Eusebius of Caesarea (q.v.) and Apollinaris of Laodicea (q.v.). About ten years after the Edict of Milan (q.v.) it was first proscribed by the emperor Constantine, and in 448 Valentinian III and Theodosius II ordered its destruction anew. Even the Christian refutations survive only in scanty fragments.