a celebrated commentator on Aristotle and Epicetus, and one of the last representatives of the Neo-platonic school, was born in Cilicia, probably between A.D. 500 and A.D. 510, and flourished during the reign of the Emperor Justinian. He was a disciple of Ammonius and of Damascius, the last president of the Alexandrian school. An edict was issued by Justinian in A.D. 528, that the heathen philosophy should no longer be taught in Athens, when Simplicius, along with six other philosophers, resolved to seek protection from Chosroes, the famous King of Persia. On reaching that distant court, they found matters not quite so hopeful as they had been led to anticipate. They resolved to return again to Greece, but not before Chosroes, who had just concluded a treaty with Justinian in A.D. 533, had inserted a clause in the contract, stipulating the safe return of the seven philosophers, and the liberty of practising the rites of their ancient faith on their regaining their destination. On reaching Athens, Simplicius and the rest of his brethren went into voluntary retirement, where they probably spent the remainder of their days in the quiet study of their favourite science.

Simplicius has left us four of the best commentaries on Aristotle extant, viz., on the Categories; on the Soul; Concerning Heaven; and on Physics; besides an interpretation of the Enchiridion of Epictetus. In these commentaries he has left to posterity rich notices of his contemporaries, and of the writers or thinkers who preceded him. A student of ancient philosophy must frequently have recourse to Simplicius, as to the only authority for fragments of the Eleatics, the Mathematicians, and other sects of the ancient schools of philosophy in Greece. Besides giving many extracts from the lost books of the Stagirite, he likewise gives numerous ancient readings now no longer in possession of scholars. Among the lost writings of Simplicius are an abridgment of the Physics of Theophrastus, and a work upon the Syllogism. There have been various editions of his works on the books of Aristotle, both Greek and Latin. They will be found contained in the Scholia Aristotelica, by Ch. A. Brandis, Berlin, 1836. The best edition of his comment on the Enchiridion of Epictetus is that of Schweighauser, Greek and Latin, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1800. This work has been translated into German by Schulthess, Zurich, 1778; into French by Dacier, Paris, 1715; and into English by Dr George Stanhope, London, 1704.