IAMBLICHUS, i-am'bli-kfis (Lat., from Gk. 'Icip/32..ixec). (1) A Greek writer of the second century A.D., a Syrian by birth, and the author of the earliest Greek romance of which considerable remains have survived. It was entitled Babyloni aca, and described in thirty-five books the re markable adventures of two lovers, Rhodanes and Sinonis. The original romance has perished, but large extracts are preserved by Photius (chap. xeiv.). (See Pnonus.) There is no great merit in the style, and the plot is full of magic.
( 2) A Neo-Platonie philosopher, born at Chalcis, in Co le-Syria, about A.D. 283. He lived mostly at Alexandria. He studied under the Neo-Plato nists Anatolius and Porphyrius, and became deeply imbued with the teachings of Plotinus, which he expounded for many years to a large circle of hearers at Alexandria—but with a considerable admixture of his own peculiar views. Ile died at Alexandria, about A.D. 330. His doctrines were a mixture of Pythagorean and Platonic ideas, with much superstition and magic, and the supposed manifestation of God by ecstasies, and a com munication with the spiritual world by means of ceremonies. He was a voluMinous writer, but
most of his writings are lost. Perhaps they were destroyed by the Emperor Constantine, who or dered the burning of the works of Porphyrius. Of his work, Ilep4 Ihn3a76pou Atplcrews, in ten books, we possess four complete sections, viz.: On the Life of Pythagoras (thol Toy nuOcryopisfori ploy) edited by Nauek (Saint Petersburg, 1554) ; Exhortation to Philosophy (rIpoxpvizofol EIS ed. by Pistelli (Leipzig, 1888) ; On athematics Slar3flaarucijs 'E7riarhans), ed: by Festa (Leipzig, 1891) ; and an introduction to the Arithmetic of Nicomachus, ed. by Pistelli (Leipzig, 1894). There is also in existence a work on Mysteries (llepl Jluorqplwv .16-yos) , which is attributed to famblichus; but the at tribution has been questioned, perhaps, without reason. On lamblichus and his philosophy, con sult: Chaignet, llistoire de la psychologic des Grecs, vol. v. (Paris, 1S93) ; and Zeller, History of Greek Philosophy (New York, 1889).