Syrianus

Syrianus led the Platonic Academy at Athens in the early fifth century, succeeding Plutarch of Athens, and was the teacher whom Proclus revered above all others; the two were eventually buried in the same tomb. He developed the systematic, hierarchical reading of Plato inherited from Iamblichus and transmitted it, with the curriculum of dialogues, to the brilliant pupil who would become his successor.

His surviving commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics defends the reality of the Forms and of mathematical objects against Aristotle's criticisms, treating Aristotle as indispensable preparation but firmly subordinate to Plato. Like his school he held that the deepest truths are found also in the Pythagorean, Orphic, and Chaldean traditions, and that all of them, rightly read, agree.

Much of his own writing is lost, but through his shaping of Proclus — who often presents himself as merely drawing out what Syrianus taught — he stands behind the grand architecture of late Neoplatonism.