Ammonius son of Hermias

Ammonius, son of Hermias and Aedesia — not to be confused with Ammonius Saccas, the teacher of Plotinus — studied under Proclus at Athens and then returned to head the school at Alexandria, where he became the most influential teacher of his generation.

He concentrated above all on expounding Aristotle, and his lectures, taken down by his students, formed the basis of a whole library of commentaries, especially on the logical works. He reached an accommodation with the city's Christian authorities that allowed the school to continue its teaching in a changed world.

His pupils were a remarkable company — Damascius, Simplicius, Olympiodorus, the Christian John Philoponus, and others — who carried the Neoplatonic commentary tradition to the very end of antiquity and across into the worlds that followed. Through them Ammonius is one of the chain's great transmitters.