Proclus, one of the last great thinkers of Neoplatonic philosophy and of ancient Greek philosophical thought in general, was born in Constantinople on February 8, 412 AD. A scion of a wealthy family from Lycia, he studied at the best educational centers of his time, including Alexandria, Constantinople, and Athens.
There, he came into contact with the Athenian Neoplatonic Academy, which captivated him completely, and he became its director after the death of his teacher, Syrianus. He died in Athens on April 17, 485 AD, and was buried near Lycabettus.
Living in an age of syncretistic chaos, he would synthesize the entire preceding Neoplatonic philosophical tradition into a single and complex system, influenced by Pythagorean, Aristotelian, and Stoic elements; in his system, he would converge the one god, the intelligible and the intellectual substances, magic, and various demonic beings, and with this form, he would pass it on to the scholastic Middle Ages.
His work is a fundamental source for every researcher of Neoplatonic philosophy, as well as for Plato himself, whose original and extremely interesting interpretations he often proposes.
