Iamblichus: On the Pythagorean Life

Iamblichus, whose life spanned the late third and fourth centuries, was a celebrated Platonist philosopher. The Emperor Julian planned to use his work as the philosophical basis for a revival of pagan religion to meet the Christian challenge. This book is a study of Pythagoras. It is not an historical biography, but an account of Pythagoras and his philosophy which aims to serve as an example of the philosophic life which was conceived as a means of raising human souls to the divine.