IAMBLICHUS, (c. 250–c. 330). The chief Neoplatonist of the Syrian school. Little is known of his life. He was a native of Chalcis in Coele-Syria; he may have studied under Porphyry or perhaps only studied his works; he later taught in Syria, surrounded by many disciples. He held a very elaborate theory of mediation between the spiritual and physical worlds, radically modifying the doctrine of Plotinus by duplicating the Plotinian One (ἕν) and distinguishing between its transcendental and creative aspects. This distinction lies at the basis of the negative (or apophatic) and affirmative theologies which have differentiated Eastern and Western theology..

Iamblichus incorporated in his system many Greek and Oriental pagan mythologies, whose deities he amalgamated with his orders of hypostases. He also carried a stage further the development of the number-symbolism cherished by the later Neoplatonists. His most substantial works were his commentaries on Plato and Aristotle, which we know only from quotations and allusions in later writers. He also wrote a commentary (now lost) on the Chaldean Oracles, which influenced Proclus; a comprehensive exposition of the Pythagorean philosophy, entitled Συναγωγὴ τῶν Πυθαγορείων Δογμάτων (of this the only parts to survive are a treatise ‘On the Pythagorean Life’ (Περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγορικοῦ Βίου), an ‘Exhortation to Philosophy’ (Λόγος προτρεπτικὸς εἰς Φιλοσοφίαν), and various treatises of a speculative kind on mathematics); and, as “Abammon” (answering Porphry’s Letter to Anebo), the ‘Liber de Mysteriis’. There are apparently no direct references to Christianity in his writings, but it was from Iamblichus and his school that Julian the Apostate learnt the Neoplatonism which he used as a weapon against Christianity.

Edns. of the treatise ‘On the Pythagorean Life’ by L. Deubner (Teub., 1937, rev. by U. Klein, 1975), of three mathematical treatises by N. Festa, H. Pistelli and V. de Falco (ibid., 1891, 1894, and 1922 respectively; all rev. by U. Klein, 1975), and of the ‘Exhortation to Philosophy’ by É. des Places, SJ, with Fr. tr. (Collection des Universités de France, 1989). ‘Liber de Mysteriis’, ed. id., with Fr. tr. and introd. (ibid., 1966; 2nd edn., 1989). B. D. Larsen, Jamblique de Chalcis (Aarhus diss., 2 vols., 1972), incl. edn. of testimonia and fragmenta exegetica. Frags. of the comm. on Plato’s Dialogues ed., with Eng. tr., by J. M. Dillon (Philosophia Antiqua, 23; Leiden, 1973). Eng. trs. of ‘Vita Pythagorica’ by [E.] G. Clark (Translated Texts for Historians, 8; Liverpool, 1989); of ‘De Mysteriis’ by id. and others (Leiden, 2004). B. Nasemann, Theurgie und Philosophie in Jamblichs de Mysteriis (Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 11; Stuttgart, 1991). H. J. Blumenthal and E. G. Clark (eds.), The Divine Iamblichus: Philosopher and Man of Gods (Bristol, 1993). E. C. Clarke, Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis: A manifesto of the miraculous (Aldershot [2001]). G. Staab, Pythagoras in der Spätantike: Studien zu De Vita Pythagorica des Iamblichos von Chalkis (Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 165; Leipzig, 2002), esp. pp. 144–237. A. C. Lloyd in A. H. Armstrong (ed.), The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 294–301, with refs. G. Mau and W. Kroll in PW 17 (1914), cols. 645–51..

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