JAMBLICUS, the name of two celebrated Platonic philosophers, one of whom was a native of Chalcis, and the other of Apamea in Syria. The first, whom Julian compares to Plato, was the disciple of Anatolius and Porphyry, and died under the reign of the Emperor Constantine. The second also enjoyed great reputation. Julian wrote several letters to him; and it is said he was poisoned under the reign of Valens. It is not known to which of the two we ought to attribute the works which have reached us in Greek under the name of Jamblicus. These are, 1. Protrepticus, seu adhortatio ad philosophiam, Leipzig, 1813, in 8vo; 2. De Vita Pythagoræ, Amsterdam, 1707, in 4to, Greek and Latin, with the corrections and notes of Ludolf Kuster; 3. In Nicomachi Geraseni Arithmetice Introductionem et De Fato liber, nunc primum editus Græce, in Latinum Sermonem conversus, notis illustratus a Sam. Tennulio, Arnheim, 1688, in 4to; 4. De Mysteriis Ægyptiorum, Venet. Aldus, 1497, in folio, a work filled with theurgic and extravagant notions. Hebenstreit has published a learned dissertation De Jamblichii philosophi Syri doctrina, Christiana religioni quam imitari studet, noxia, Leipzig, 1764, in 4to. The system of the Neo-Platonists was built on the doctrine of emanation, according to which all beings are destined, after undergoing several degrees of purification, to return to the Deity, whence they emanated. By this system, the sage may, even in this life, attain to the intuition of the divinity, the most sublime end or aim of philosophy. This school admitted the existence
of a class of demons, or spirits of an inferior order, mediators between God and man. To enter into communication with them required great purity of manners, and a holiness which disengaged man from every thing terrestrial. Fallen souls inhabit bodies which serve as their prison; and if, during their lives, they have not laboured to divest themselves of their vices, they are, after death, sent back to other bodies still more vile, until they be entirely purified; a doctrine which approximates closely to metempsychosis. The Neo-Platonists also admitted a species of trinity; the soul, according to them, emanated from the intelligence, or second divine essence (νοῦς), which again emanates from the infinite and perfect being. In order to oppose the progress of Christianity, which began to ruin all established religions, it was believed necessary to envelop in obscurity this doctrine of emanations; and hence they affected to regard as the authors of this system Zoroaster in Persia, Orpheus in Thrace, and Hermes in Egypt. (Schoell, Hist. Abrég. de la Littér. Grecque, tom. i. p. 203.)