Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/80

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The life of Proclus was written by his disciple and successor Marinus; and from this document we gain some insight into the mode of life of a pious Neoplatonist. The Athens of that day seems to have retained at least the external aspect of the classical capital as it has been described by the early topographers. The principal monuments of polytheism were still erect, and Proclus had the satisfaction of occupying a house between the temples of Aesculapius and Dionysus, from which he could behold the Parthenon. The sect was strongly inclined to vegetarianism; and abstinence from animal food, though not strictly enforced, was advised in deference to the possibility of metempsychosis.^[1] They worshipped the heavenly bodies and practised daily a set form of adoration to salute the sun and moon at their rising, meridian, and setting. Every month a ceremonial bath in the sea was considered to be essential as a tribute of respect to the divinity of that element, Poseidon. Although celibacy was not enjoined, it was approved by the example of the great lights of the sect, who never married, but they were not on that account precluded from illicit sexual indulgence to a moderate extent.^[2] The life of Proclus was

[Footnote: detachment from all lower grades. In the other systems the world had

a beginning and end in time, but the eternity of the cosmos was a necessary dogma of Neoplatonism.]

↑ See Porphyry's elaborate treatise, De Abstinentia ab Esu Carnium. He tries to prove the quasi-humanity of animals; they have a language of their own, which some men have understood, etc.
↑ Proclus, like Plotinus, acted the part of a father to all the young people of his acquaintance. Porphyry, somewhat late in life, married a widow named Marcella, stating that he only did so in order to fulfil the paternal office towards her children. Yet fornication was not a Neoplatonic sin, and even Proclus resorted to it restrainedly. A letter of Porphyry to Marcella, a condensed manual of ethics, is extant, and has recently appeared in an English dress.

[1] See Porphyry's elaborate treatise, De Abstinentia ab Esu Carnium. He tries to prove the quasi-humanity of animals; they have a language of their own, which some men have understood, etc.

[2] Proclus, like Plotinus, acted the part of a father to all the young people of his acquaintance. Porphyry, somewhat late in life, married a widow named Marcella, stating that he only did so in order to fulfil the paternal office towards her children. Yet fornication was not a Neoplatonic sin, and even Proclus resorted to it restrainedly. A letter of Porphyry to Marcella, a condensed manual of ethics, is extant, and has recently appeared in an English dress.

[1]

[2]