Porfyrios o Tyrios

Named possibly because his birthplace was a center for the production of the royal purple dye, Porphyry was originally named Malchus. Born in 232, Porphyry was eighteen years old when the persecution under Emperor Decius broke out. Twelve years later, his aversion to Christianity had become firmly established. Porphyry had listened to Origen's teachings, studied the Hebrew scriptures, particularly the prophets and the Christian gospels, and considered them lacking in literary quality and philosophical depth. Around 262, he joined a school in Rome led by the famous Neoplatonic teacher Plotinus. He remained there until about 270. Both in Sicily, where he went after Plotinus's death, and in Rome, where he later returned, Porphyry expressed a strong antipathy towards popular religion and regarded Christianity as the most pernicious form of the disease that had afflicted the empire. In a letter (Porphyry's Letter to Anebo), he highlighted the shortcomings of religions. He then attacked Christian teachings by writing a fifteen-volume work, later known as Against the Christians. By the time of Galerius's edict (311), the work was very popular; from the outset, it became a target of the now imperial church, which in 448 condemned all existing copies to be burned.