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Priscus (Philosopher)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, of the school of Iamblichus and Aedesius. He died about the year 398 at the age of ninety. The emperor Julian frequently invited him to court on the strength of his reputation in connexion with theurgy. Eunapius says that he was a man of dignified and austere habit. Unlike Maximus, he used his influence over Julian with great moderation. He died during the Gothic invasion of Greece (A.D. 396-98). He is important partly as maintaining the best traditions of philosophy during a period when Neoplatonism as a whole was a parasite of imperial power, and partly as being a connecting link between Iamblichus and Plutarch of Athens.

See Zeller's Hist. of Greek Phil.