n is proved."

Another pupil of Ammonius was Cassius Longinus, born in 213 at
Emessa (Homs) in Asia Minor. Later he taught Platonism for
thirty years at Athens; then in the two-sixties went east to the
court of Zenobia at Palmyra,--whose brilliant empire, though it
fell before the Illyrian Aurelian, was a sign in its time that
the Crest-Wave had come back to West Asia. Longinus became her
chief counselor; it was by his advice that she resisted
Aurelian;--who pardoned the Arab queen, and, after she had
paraded Rome in his triumph, became very good friends with her;
but condemned her counselor to death. But Longinus I think had
failed to follow in the paths laid down for him by his Teacher:
we find him in disagreement with that Teacher's successor.

Who was Plotinus, born of Roman parents at Lycopolis in Egypt.
It is from his writings we get the best account of Ammonius'
doctrine. He was with the latter until 243; then joined Gordian
III's expedition against Persia, with a view to studying Persian
and Indian philosophies at their source. But Gordian was
assassinated; and Plotinus, after a stay at Antioch, made his
way to Rome and opened a school there. This was in the so-called
Age of the Thirty Tyrants, when the central government was at its
weakest. Gallienus was emperor in Rome, and every province
had an emperorlet of its own;--it was before the Illyrian
peasant-soldiers had set affairs on their feet again. A
lazy erratic creature, this Gallienus; says Gibbon: "In
every art that he attempted his lively genius enable him
to succeed; and, as his genius was destitute of judgement,
he attempted every art, except the important ones of war
and government. He was master of several curious but useless
sciences, a ready orator, an elegant poet, a skilful gardener,
an excellent cook, and a most contemptible prince." Yet he
had a curious higher side to his nature, wherewith he might
have done much for humanity,--if he had ever bothered to
bring it to the fore. He, and his wife, were deeply interested
in the teachings of Plotinus. Such a man may sometimes be
'run,' and made the instrument of great accomplishment: a
morass through which here and there are solid footholds;
if you can find them, you may reach firm ground, but you
must walk infinitely carefully. It is the old tale of the
Prince with the dual nature, and the Initiate who tries to use
him for the saving of the world,--and fails.

Plotinus knew what