Proclus

Proclus Lycaeus was born in AD 412 in Constantinople to a wealthy family from Lycia. He studied rhetoric in Alexandria, then philosophy under Syrianus at the Neoplatonic Academy in Athens, eventually succeeding his teacher as head of the school — a position he held for almost fifty years until his death in 485. He was the last great systematic philosopher of antiquity.

His output was vast: commentaries on Plato's Timaeus, Republic, Parmenides, Cratylus, and Alcibiades; the Elements of Theology, a geometric-style exposition of Neoplatonic metaphysics in 211 propositions; hymns to the gods; and works on astronomy, physics, and literary criticism. His Chrestomathia, surviving only in summary, contained a systematic account of Greek literature and is our primary source for knowledge of the Epic Cycle — the lost poems that supplemented Homer.

Proclus was a devout pagan in an increasingly Christian empire. His philosophical system — a detailed elaboration of Plotinus's emanation metaphysics — passed into Islamic philosophy through Arabic translations and into medieval Christianity through the pseudo-Dionysian writings, which are largely Proclus in Christian dress.