IAMTLICHUS, the proper name of several persons in classical antiquity, as-1. A king of Emesa, who, in the civil war, took the part of Antony.-2. A Syrian freedman, who flourished at the end of the reign of Trajan and beginning of that of M. Aurelius (11749 A.D.), He was instructed by a Babylonian in the language, manners, and literature of Babylon. and wrote the Babylonlea, or laves -of Rhodanes and Sinonis, in 16 or 30 books, iVbieli preserved by Photius,'e. iteiv., and Leo Allatius. It is the oldest of the novels of antiquity which has reached the present day; but is not of any great merit either as to style or plot.-3. A philosopher who flourished under Con stantine about 310 A.D., born of an illustrious and wealthy family at Chalcis, in Cale Syria, pupil of Anatolius and Porphyry, and of the Neo-Platonic school of Plotinus, whose doctrines he extended. Little is known of his life; but he was followed by a numerous school, who listened with enthusiasm and respect, and who thought that he was inspired, had intercourse with the gods, and cculd divine and perform miracles. This gave him immense credit. His doctrines were a syncretic mixture of Pythagorean and Platonic ideas, mixed with superstition and magic, and the supposed manifestation of Cod by ecstasies, and it communication with the spiritual world by ceremonies. One of his great works: On the Choice of Pythagoras (Peri AireSCOS Pplcaproti) consisted of 10 books, of which there remains the 1st, A Life of Pythagoras, filled with prodigies, and evidently written against Christianity. 2d, An Exhortation to Philosophy (Protreptikui Logui cis Philosoph tan), an ill-arranged introduction to Plato. 3d, On the Common Knowledge of Mathematics (Peri Raines ilitthematikes Epi.stema), full of fragments of
Pythagoras, Philolaus, and Archytas. 4th, On the Arithmetical Introduction of Nice machus. The 5th and 6th books are lost. The 7th, The 'Theology of Arithmetic (la fliteoltvonmena tea Arithanetike8); the 8th, The History of Music; the 9th, Geometry; the 10th, On the Study of Heavenly Bodies. He also wiote a work on the Soul. couuneu taries ou Plato and Aristotle, another on the complete Chaldean philosophy, another on Beginnings, and one on Sacred images, in which he affirmed that the gods resided in their statues. His celebrated work on the Mysteries (Peri Illukteriem) is, however, dis puted; it is supposed by Meiners not to be written by Iamblichus; but is asserted by Tenuemann to be the work of this author. It is drawn up as the answer of Abaunnon, a priest, to a letter addressed to his pupil, Anebo, by Porphyry. It contains many Egyptian doctrines, and esoterical explanations derived from the Hermetic books, the writings of Bitys and others, mixed with Pythagorean and Nco-Platonic ideas. The style of Iamblichus is not careful, and is inferior to Porphyry. Iamblichus is supposed to have died at Alexandria, 333 A.D.—Several other writers of this name are known, as a younger philosopher of the Neo-Platonic school, born at Apamea, and supposed to be a nephew of the preceding, praised by Libanius to Julian the apostate; another, son of Hhfierius, mentioned by the same author, and a physician at Constan tinople.
Eudocia, Violetum, p. 244; Eunapius, T ft. Philosoph., p. 20; Hebensbreit, De lam bitch° (Leip. 1744); Brucker, Mist. Unit. Phil., ii. p. 260; Iamblichus, a Gale, fo (Ox. 1678).