OLYMPIODORUS, the name of several Greek authors, of whom the chief are: (I) An historical writer (5th century A.D.), born at Thebes in Egypt, who was sent on a mission to Attila by the emperor Honorius in 412, and later lived at the court of Theo dosius. He was the author of a history Airyot) in 2 2 books of the Western Empire from 407 to 425. The original is lost, but an abstract is given by Photius. A MS. on alchemy ascribed to him and preserved in the National Library in Paris, was printed with a translation by P. E. M. Berthelot in his Collection des alchimistes grecs (1887-88).
(2) A Neoplatonist philosopher, also of Alexandria, who flourished in the 6th century A.D., during the reign of Justinian. He seems to have carried on the Platonic tradition after the closing of the Athenian School in 529. He is important as a critic and a commentator, and preserved much that was valuable in the writings of Iamblichus, Damascius and Syrianus. He made
a close and intelligent study of the dialogues of Plato, and his notes, formulated and collected by his pupils (Ctra Om/Cis '0Xvi.7rtac2pou TOF) /2 yaXou OtXo(rockov), are extremely valuable. In one of his commentaries he makes the interesting statement that the Platonic succession had not been interrupted by the numerous confiscations it had suffered. Zeller points out that this refers to the Alexandrian, not to the Athenian, succession; but internal evidence makes it clear that he does not draw a hard line of demarcation between the two schools. The works which have been preserved are a life of Plato, an attack on Strato and Scholia on the Phaedo, Alcibiades I., Philebus and Gorgias.
See Uberweg, Grundriss der Gesch. der Philosophie, Bd. I. (1926).