Gaius the Platonist

Gaius the Platonist was a Middle Platonist philosopher who was active in the early to middle 2nd century AD. [1][2]

Very little is known about him or his philosophical opinions,[3] None of Gaius's work survives, and we have no direct evidence that he ever wrote anything, however, the summaries of his teachings by his students influenced later developments of Neoplatonism.[4] He was the teacher of Albinus, who was the teacher of Galen and is known to have published a lost nine-volume summary of Gaius' lectures on Plato,[5] which were used by the Neoplatonist philosopher Priscian of Lydia.[6] Porphyry also mentions that his works were read in the school of Plotinus.[7][8]

It has also been speculated that the On Plato and His Doctrine written by Apuleius may have been taken from the lectures of Gaius, but this assertion is now seen as dubious.[9] The Middle Platonic anonymous commentary on the Theaetetus of Plato, which is partially extant, may also have come from his school.[10]

References
  1. Dillon, John M. (1996). The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  2. Gerald Sandy, (1997), The Greek World of Apuleius, page 27. BRILL
  3. Arthur Hilary Armstrong (ed.), 1970, The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, page 15
  4. Dillon, John M. (1996). The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  5. Gerald Sandy, (1997), The Greek World of Apuleius, page 215. BRILL
  6. Dillon, John M. (1996). The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  7. Porphyry, Life of Plotinus, 14
  8. Dillon, John M. (1996). The Middle Platonists, 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8316-5. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  9. John M. Dillon, (1993), Alcinous: The Handbook of Platonism, page xi. Oxford University Press
  10. Giovanni Reale, (1990), A History of Ancient Philosophy: The Schools of the Imperial Age, page 212. SUNY Press
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