Simplicius

c. 480–560 CE

Simplicius of Cilicia, pupil of Ammonius at Alexandria and of Damascius at Athens, was among the last philosophers of the Platonic school; when Justinian closed it in 529 he went with Damascius to the Persian court. His great commentaries on Aristotle — the Categories, the Physics, On the Heavens — preserve much of what is known of the Presocratics. His commentary on the Enchiridion of Epictetus reads the Stoic handbook as a first training in the Platonic life.