The sources available for our knowledge of Iamblichus's life are highly unsatisfactory, consisting as they do largely of a rather hagiographical and ill-informed Life by the sophist Eunapius, who was a pupil of Chrysanthius, who had been in turn a pupil of Iamblichus's pupil Aedesius, but enough evidence can be gathered to give a general view of his life-span and activities.

Life and Works

The evidence points to a date of birth around 245 CE, in the town of Chalcis-ad-Belum (modern Qinnesrin) in Northern Syria. Iamblichus's family was prominent in the area, and the retention of an old Aramaic name (yamliku) in the family points to some relationship with the dynasts of Emesa in the previous centuries, one of whose names this was. This noble ancestry does seem to somewhat color Iamblichus's attitude to tradition—he likes to appeal on occasion for authority...