Iamblichus (c. 250-c. 330), the neoplatonic philosopher, was born in Chalcis, Coele-Syria. While a student of Porphyry in Rome, he came under the influence of the Greek Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus. When Porphyry died, Iamblichus succeeded him as the head of the neoplatonic school. In Syria he established his own school, which attempted to fuse the ideas of Plato, those of the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, and Hermetism and the magical literature into a single coherent system. Iamblichus succeeded in transforming the purely intellectual Neoplatonism of Plotinus into an even more spiritual form of Greco-Roman religious philosophy that include myths, rites, and magical formulas.
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