AMMONIUS SACCAS. a Greek philosopher. founder of the Neoplatonic school, is said to have been in his early days a porter in His parents were Christian, hut he himself is said to have abandon at his early religion, in which he had been instructed by Clemens Alexandrinus. and to have devoted himself to the study of heathen philosophy under Athenagoras; although both Eusebius and St. Jerome deny that_ he ever formally apostatized from the Christian faith. His great endeavor was to harmonize. through it comprehensive eclecticism, the various philosophical theories which prevailed in the Roman world, especially those of Aristotle and Plato. lie also labored to amalgamate with these the doctrine s of the Magi and Brahmans; but instead of boldly announcing the result as his own, lie claimed for his system the highest antiquity. His most distin guished pupils were Longinus. llerennius, Origen, and Plotinus, the last of whom, by far the most subtle and profound of the Neoplatonists, always expressed the highest respect for his master. A. died at Alexandria. 241 A.D. Ile left no writings behind him.
A. is the name of several learned men in the later periods of Greek history; such as A., the master of Plutarch, who lived during the reign of the emperor Adrian, and. like A. Saccns, taught a species of eclecticism in A., the Christian philosopher of the 3d c., why, wrote a Harmony of the Gospels; A.. son of Hermeas, a peripatetic phi losopher of the c., and disciple of Proclus; A. the famous surgeon of Alexandria, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus; and A., the grammarian, who was the first high-priest in an Egyptian temple, sacred to the god Apis, and afterwards (389 A.D.) became teacher at Constantinople, where he had the church historian Socrates for his pupil.