Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/440

Rh 428 PLOTINUS. § 19). Essences must flow from it, without its ex- periencing any change ; it must dwell in all existences so far as they partake of the one essen- tial existence (iv. 3. § 17, vi. 9. § 1 ) ; as absolutely perfect it must be the end (not the operating cause) of all being (vi. 9. §§8, 9). The immediate productive power of the unconditioned one abso- lutely exists ; and next to it stands the spirit, which has a certain connection with duality and plurality, and is the source of all the determinations of being and knowing (v, 1. § (J, v. 6. § 1, v. 2. § l,vi. 9. § 2). This partakes both of uniformity and diversity — of unity and plurality ( v. 1 . § 4, vi. 1 ). The spirit is the basis both of being and thinking, for every act of thought, directed to the unconditioned, pro- duces a real existence, an idea ; each one of which is different from the rest by virtue of its form, but identical in respect of the matter (ii. 4. § 4, ii. 5. § 6, iii. 8. §§ 8, 10, V. 1. § 7, vi. 7. § 16). Out of the spirit is developed the idea that is contained in it (A070S, iii. 2. § 2, V. 1. §§ 3—6), that is, the soul. As being an immediate production of the spirit, the soul has a share in all existence or in ideas, being itself an idea (iii. 6. § 18). By it is pro- duced the transition from eternity to time, from rest to motion (iv. 4. § 15, ii. 9. § 1 ; comp. v. 1. § 4) ; to it belongs, in contradistinction from the spirit, the power of looking out of itself; and as the result of this a practical activity (ii. 1. § 2, iii. 5. §3, iii. 6. § 4, v. 1. §§ 6, 10, v. 2. § 1, vi.2. §22). In its power of imaging the world, it (the soul) stands midway between the intelligible and the sensuous (iv. 8. §§ 2, 3, iv. 9. § 7) ; the latter is an image of itself, as itself is an image of the spirit. The boun- dary of being, or the lowest principle of all, is iruitter ; the necessary contrast of the first, or the good (i. 8. § 1, &c.) ; and in so far it must also be negative and evil (i.8, i. 7. § 15, iii. 4. §9) ; never- theless in consequence of its susceptibility of /o/vh, it must have something positive about it (ii. 4. §§ 10—13). Nature also is a soul (iii. 8. § 3), and perception at once the ground and aim of all becoming. But in proportion as tlie percep- tion becomes more clear and distinct, the cor- responding essence belongs to a higher step in the scale of being (iii. 8. §§ 3, 7). The further development of Plotinus's three principles, and of the dim idea of matter (see espe- cially ii. 4, &c.), and the attempts he made to determine the idea of time in opposition to that of eternity (iii. 7), to explain the essential constitution of man, and his immortal blessedness (i. 4, &c.), to maintain the belief in a divine providence, and the freedom of the will, in opposition to the theory of an evil principle, and the inexorable necessity of predetermination or causal sequence (iii. 1 — 3, comp. ii. 9), together with the first weak begin- nings of a natural philosophy (ii. 5 — 8), and the foundations of an ethical science answering to the above principles, and grounded on the separation of the lower or political from the higher or intel- ligible virtue, — these points, as also his researches on the Beautiful, can only just be mentioned in passing (i. 2, 3, comp. 4, 5, and ii. 6). Beside Porphyry's recension of the books of Plo- tinus there was also another furnished by Eusto- chius, out of which a more extensive division of the books on the soul (iv. 4. § 30) has been qnoted in a Greek Scholion, and the operation of which on the present text has been traced and pointed out by i'r. Kreuzer (see his remarks to i. 9. § 1, ii. 3. § 5, PLUTARCHUS. p. 248. 12, Kreuz. iv. 2. §§1,2, iv.7. §8, p. 857, Kr.). Moreover, there is in connection with the last-mentioned passage a completion by Eusebius (Pr. Ev. XV. 22). The Enneads of Plotinus appeared first in the Latin Translation of Marsilius Ficinus (Florence, 1492), a translation which was furnished with an elaborate introduction to each part, and a full table of contents, and to which the very faulty Greek text of Petrus Perna was appended (Basel, 1580). The Greek and Latin edition of Fr. Kreuzer is much more satisfactory, which is furnished, moreover, with critical and exegetical annotations : " Plotini opera omnia," &c. Oxonii, 1 835, 3 vols. 4to. There is an English translation of Selections from the works of Plotinus by Thomas Taylor, London, 1834. [Ch. A. B.] PLO'TIUS. 1. A. Plotius, a friend of Ci- cero, was curule aedile with Cn. Plancius, b. c. 54, praetor urbanus, B.C. 51, and subsequently pro- praetor of Bithynia and Pontus, in which province he was at least as late as b. c. 48. (Cic. pro Plane. 7, 22, ad Ati. v. 15, ad Fam. xiii. 29.) 2. M. Plotius, was engaged in the civil war, B. c. 48, between Caesar and Pompey. (Caes. B.C. iii. 19.) PLOTIUS FIRMUS. [Firmus.] PLO'TIUS GALLUS. [Gallus.] PLO'TIUS GRIPHUS, a partizan of Vespa- sian, was raised to the praetorship, A. D. 70 (Tac. Hist. iii. 52, iv. 39,40.) PLO'TIUS NU'MIDA. [Numida.] PLO'TIUS TUCCA. [Tucca.] PLO'TIUS, whose full name was Marius Plotius Sacerdos, a Latin grammarian, the author of De Metris Liber., dedicated to Maximus and Simplicius. All that we know with regard to the writer is comprised in the brief notice pre- fixed by himself to his work " Marius Plotius Sacerdos composui Romae docens de metris." From the prooemium which follows we learn that this essay formed the third and concluding book of a treatise upon grammar, the subject of the first book having been De Instil iitis Artis Grammaticae, and of the second De Nominum Verhorumque Ratione nee non de Slructurarum Compositionibus. Although we have no direct means of determining the period when Plotius flourished we are led to infer from his style that he cannot be earlier than the fifth or sixth century. Endlicher published in his " Analecta Grammatica" from a MS. which once belonged to the celebrated monastery of Bobbio a tract, entitled M. Claudii Sacerdotis Artium Grammaticarum Libri duo., which he en- deavoured to prove were in reality the two books by Marius Plotius Sacerdos described above, but there is not sufficient evidence to warrant this conclusion. The " Liber de Metris " was first published by Putschius in his " Grammaticae Latinae Auctores antiqui," 4to. Hannov. 1605. p. 2623 — 2663, from a MS. or MSS. belonging to Andreas Schottus and Joannes a Wouwer. It will be. found also in the " Scriptores Latini Rei Me- tricae" of Gaisford, 8vo. Oxon. 1837. n. 242 — 302. [W. R.] PLUTARCHUS {UXoirapxos), a tyrant of Eretria in Euboea. Whether he was the imme- diate successor of Themison, and also whether he was in any way connected with him by blood, are points which we have no means of ascertaining,