PROCLUS or PROCULUS (A.D. the chief repre sentative of the later Neoplatonists, was born at Constantinople, but brought up at Xanthus in Lycia. Having studied grammar under Orion and philosophy under Olympiodorus the Peripatetic, at Alexandria, he proceeded to Athens. There he attended the lectures of the Neoplatonists Plutarch and Syrianus, and about 450 succeeded the latter in the chair of philosophy (hence his surname Diadochus, which, however, is referred by others to his being the "successor" of Plato). As an ardent upholder of the old pagan religion Proclus incurred the hatred of the Christians, and was obliged to take refuge in Asia Minor. After a year's absence he returned to Athens, where he remained until his death. His epitaph, written by himself, is to be found in Anthologia palatina, vii. 451.
His great literary activity was chiefly devoted to the elucidation of the writings of Plato. There are still extant commentaries on the First Alcibiades, Parmenides, Republic, Timaeus and Cratylus. His views are more fully expounded in the llepi ris Kara IIXarcova ClEoXo-yi.as (In Platonis theologiam). The ITocxetwats 0EoXo-ytnii (Institutio theologica) contains a compendious account of the principles of Neoplatonism and the modifications introduced in it by Proclus himself. The pseudo-Aristotelian De causis is an Arabic extract from this work, ascribed to Alfarabius (d. 95o), circulated in the west by means of a Latin translation (ed. 0. Bardenhewer, Freiburg, 1882). Other philosophical works by Proclus are Irotx€Lcoats 4vaLK7) rl Ilept (Institutio physica sive De mote, a compendium of the last five books of Aristotle's lIepi ckauciis De physica auscultatione), and De providentia et fato, Decem dubitationes circa providentiam, De malorum sub sistentia, known only by the Latin translation of William of Moer beke (archbishop of Corinth, 1277-1281), who also translated the /rocxetcools OeoXoyLKs, into Latin. In addition to the epitaph already mentioned, Proclus was the author of hymns, seven of which have been preserved (to Helios, Aphrodite, the Muses, the Gods, the Lycian Aphrodite, Hecate and Janus, and Athena), and of an epigram in the Greek Anthology (Antho/. pa/. iii. 3, 166 in Didot edition). His astronomical and mathematical writings in clude TWV inroOiaewP (Hypotyposis as tronomicarum positionum, ed. C. Manitius, Leipzig, 1909) ; Ilept ackaipas (De sphaera);11apacPpacrts fis HroXei.taLov rerpa(30- Xow, a paraphrase of the difficult passages in Ptolemy's astrological work Tetrabiblus ; Eis rd 7rpwrov T COY EincXeloov crocxeicov, a com mentary on the first book of Euclid's Elements; a short treatise on the effect of eclipses (De effectibus eclipsium, only in a Latin translation).
The Xgriarol.ta0La by a Proclus, who is identified by Suldas with the Neoplatonist, is probably the work of a gram marian of the 2nd or 3rd century, though Wilamowitz-Mollen dorff (Philolog. Untersuch. vii. ; supported by 0. Immisch in Festschrift Th. Gomperz, pp. 237-274) agrees with Suldas. Ac cording to SuIdas, he was also the author of 'Ertx€Lpi,uara cri Kara Xpurrtavilw (Animadversions duodeviginti in christianos). This work, identified by W. Christ with the Institutio theologica, was answered by Joannes Philoponus (7th century) in his De aetern itate mundi. Some of his commentary on the Chaldaean oracles (Aiyyta XaMaiKA) has been discovered in modern times.
is no complete edition of the works of Proc lus. The selection of V. Cousin (Paris, 1864) contains the treatises De providentia et fato, Decem dubitationes and De malorum subsisten tia, the commentaries on the Alcibiades and Parmenides. The Institutio theologica has been edited by G. F. Creuzer in the Didot edition of Plotinus (Paris, 1855) ; the In Platonis theologiam has not been reprinted since 1618, when it was published by Acmilius Portus with Latin translation. Recent editions of individual works are: In the Teubner series, Leipzig, Commentary on Euclid (edit. G. Friedlein, 1878) ; Republic (edit. G. Kroll, 1899-1901) ; Timaeus (edit. E. Diehl, 3 vols., 1903-06) ; Cratylus (edit. G. Pasquali, 1908) ; Hypotyposis (edit. C. Manitius, with German trans., 1909) ; Institutio Physica (edit. A. Ritzenfeld, with German trans., 1912) ; also Scholia to Hesiod (edit. E. Vollbehr, 1844) ; Characteres epistolici (edit. A. Westermann, 1856) ; Hymns (edit. E. Abel, 1883) ; also A. Ludwich (1895) .Alryta XaMaimi (edit. A. Jahn, 1891) ; Commentaries on the Par menides (edit. A. E. Chaignet, French trans. and notes, also trans. of Marinus' Life, 1900-03). Thomas Taylor, the "Platonist," trans lated the Commentaries on Euclid, with the Life by Marinus and the Elements of Theology (2 vols., 1788-89) ; the Theology of Plato (5856) ; Timaeus (182o) Fragments of the Lost Works of Proclus (1825), and the three Latin treatises (1833).
G. Bernhardy, 1853) ; Marinus, Vita Procli (edit. with Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, by C. G. Cobet, Paris, 185o) ; H. F. Muller, Dionysios, Proklos, Plotinos (1918) in Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Philosophic des Mittelalters (edit. C. Baeumker, Miin ster ; vol. xx., 1922) and NEOPLATONISM.
Extracts from the XprteroAaeia are preserved in Photius (Cod. 239), almost the only source of information regarding the epic cycle; on the question of authorship, see Christ, sec. 637 and Sandys, p. 379; also D. B. Monro's appendix to his ed. of Homer's Odyssey, xu.-xxiv. (5905).