He was a pupil of Proclus in Athens, and taught at Alexandria for most of his life, writing commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers.

Proclus introduces Euclid only briefly in his fifth-century Commentary on the Elements, as the author of Elements, that he was mentioned by Archimedes, and that when King Ptolemy asked if there was a shorter path to learning geometry than Euclid's Elements, " Euclid replied there is no royal road to geometry.

The only reference that historians rely on of Euclid having written the Elements was from Proclus, who briefly in his Commentary on the Elements ascribes Euclid as its author.

Proclus ( 410-485 ), author of Commentary on the First Book of Euclid, was one of the last important players in Hellenistic geometry.

Proclus Lycaeus (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485 AD ), called the Successor ( Greek, Próklos ho Diádokhos ), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers ( see Damascius ).

Proclus died aged ~ 73, and was buried near Mount Lycabettus in a tomb.

Proclus was however a close reader of Plato, and quite often makes very astute points about his Platonic sources.

Proclus himself was a devotee of many of the religions in Athens, considering that the power of the gods could be present in these various approaches.

It had great authority because of its supposed Aristotelian origin, and it was only when Proclus ' Elements were translated into Latin that Thomas Aquinas realised its true origin.

Before the contemporary period, the most significant scholar of Proclus in the English speaking world was Thomas Taylor, who produced English translations of most of his works, with commentaries.

The study was eidetic, approaching the philosophical objectives sought by considering it from each aspect of the quadrivium within the general structure demonstrated by Proclus, namely arithmetic and music on the one hand, and geometry and cosmology on the other.

He was called Menelaus of Alexandria by both Pappus of Alexandria and Proclus, and a conversation of his with Lucius, held in Rome, is recorded by Plutarch.

Averroes rejected Avicenna's Neoplatonism which was partly based on the works of neo-Platonic philosophers, Plotinus and Proclus, that were mistakenly attributed to Aristotle.

( Ref Opus cit Butler ) A certain Proclus ( or Proculus ), who had confessed the faith before the prosecutors and underwent torments in defence of it, subsequently was seduced into heresy by Asclepiodotus and Theodotus the banker, both disciples of Theodotus the Tanner, whom Victor, Zephyrinus's predecessor in the Chair of Peter, had excommunicated for reviving the heresy of Ebion that affirmed that Christ was only a mere man, though a prophet.

Some very early Greek sources in the Epic Cycle affirmed that Artemis rescued Iphigenia from the human sacrifice her father was about to perform, for instance in the lost epic Cypria, which survives in a summary by Proclus: " Artemis, however, snatched her away and transported her to the Tauroi, making her immortal, and put a stag in place of the girl upon the altar.

Probably also the property of the Platonist school, which in the time of Proclus was valued at more than 1000 gold pieces, was confiscated ; at least, Justinian deprived the physicians and teachers of the liberal arts of the provision-money which had been assigned to them by previous emperors, and confiscated funds which the citizens had provided for spectacles and other civic purposes.

As a student of Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus was one of many Christian theologians who preserved and interpreted the earlier Neo-Platonic philosophy, including the thought of such figures as Plotinus and Proclus.

He also translated for the use of Prince Arthur an astronomical treatise of Proclus, De sphaera, which was printed at Venice by Aldus in 1499.

It may be only an accidental coincidence that about the end of the 2nd century " Archon " was one of the names given by the Platonist Harpocration to the " Second God " of Numenius ( Proclus in Tim.

" Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Critolaus and Proclus held that the world was eternal.

If we had no other information, we should only know that he was later than Ptolemy ( died c. 168 AD ), whom he quotes, and earlier than Proclus ( born c. 411 AD ), who quotes him.

* February 8 – Proclus, Greek Neoplatonist philosopher ( d. 485 )

* April 17 – Proclus, Greek Neoplatonist philosopher ( b. 412 )

Proclus ( 412 – 485 AD ) wrote that the adyton of the temple of Neith in Sais ( of which nothing now remains ) carried the following inscription:

The first recorded use of the Greek word translated trapezoid ( τραπέζοειδη, trapézoeide, " table-like ") was by Marinus Proclus ( 412 to 485 AD ) in his Commentary on the first book of Euclid's Elements.

* Proclus ( 411-485 AD )

His work, a commentary on Plato's Timaeus, is lost, but Proclus, a Neoplatonist of the fifth century AD, reports on it.

Successful recreations have been performed by Anthemius of Tralles ( 6th century AD ), Proclus ( 6th century ) ( who by this means purportedly destroyed the fleet of Vitellus besieging Constantinople ), Ibn Sahl in his On Burning Mirrors and Lenses ( 10th century ), Alhazen in his Book of Optics ( 1021 ), Roger Bacon ( 13th century ), Giambattista della Porta and his friends ( 16th century ), Athanasius Kircher and Gaspar Schott ( 17th century ), the Comte du Buffon in 1740 in Paris, Ioannis Sakas in the 1970s in Greece, and others.

In naval warfare, the fleet of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I ( r. 491 – 518 ) is recorded by the chronicler John Malalas as having utilized a sulphur-based mixture to defeat the revolt of Vitalian in AD 515, following the advice of a philosopher from Athens called Proclus.

These poems are lost, but an idea of the first two can be obtained from the Chrestomathy ascribed ( probably wrongly ) to Proclus the Neo-Platonist of the 5th century AD.

Iin the 5th century AD, the Greek Neoplatonist philosopher Proclus mentions that both theories were being discussed.

* Proclus ( c. 440 AD ) on Plato's Parmenides and Timaeus and Euclid's Elements

430 AD ) was an Athenian philosopher and mystic whose life is known from an account in Marinus ' Life of Proclus.

We are almost entirely dependent on a summary of the Cyclic epics contained in the Chrestomathy attributed to an unknown " Proclus " ( possibly to be identified with the 2nd-century AD grammarian Eutychius Proclus ).

The 1st-century AD Roman fabulist Hyginus differs from Proclus in adding a few details.

It is elsewhere related that Isidore had a wife called Domna, who died five days after the birth of their son whom they named Proclus.

* Proclus, patriarch of Constantinople ( approximate date )

Alan Cameron, however, argues that it should be interpreted as referring to Plato, and that when Proclus writes that " we must bear in mind concerning this whole feat of the Athenians, that it is neither a mere myth nor unadorned history, although some take it as history and others as myth ", he is treating " Crantor's view as mere personal opinion, nothing more ; in fact he first quotes and then dismisses it as representing one of the two unacceptable extremes ".

Another passage from Proclus ' commentary on the Timaeus gives a description of the geography of Atlantis: That an island of such nature and size once existed is evident from what is said by certain authors who investigated the things around the outer sea.

" His disciple Proclus stated ' The One is God '.

Since Proclus died in 485, and since the first clear citation of Dionysius ' works is by Severus of Antioch between 518 and 528, then we can place Dionysius ' authorship between 485 and 518-28.

Proclus ' system, like that of the other Neoplatonists, is a combination of Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic elements.

The particular characteristic of Proclus ' system is his insertion of a level of individual ones, called henads between the One itself and the divine Intellect, which is the second principle.

This threefold motion is used by Proclus to structure all levels of his system below the One and above material reality, so that all things except those mentioned remain, proceed, and return.

In this elaboration of Intellect as a whole, Proclus is attempting to give a hierarchical ordering to the various metaphysical elements and principles that other philosophers have discussed, by containing them within a single triadic logic of unfolding.

According to Proclus, philosophy is the activity which can liberate the soul from a subjection to bodily passions, remind it of its origin in Soul, Intellect, and the One, and prepare it not only to ascend to the higher levels while still in this life, but to avoid falling immediately back into a new body after death.

Because the soul's attention, while inhabiting a body, is turned so far away from its origin in the intelligible world, Proclus thinks that we need to make use of bodily reminders of our spiritual origin.

For Proclus, philosophy is important because it is one of the primary ways to rescue the soul from a fascination with the body and restore it to its station.

He is an original Christian writer, and in his works can be found a great number of Proclus ' metaphysical principles.

Another important source for the influence of Proclus on the Middle Ages is Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy, which has a number of Proclus principles and motifs.

The central poem of Book III is a summary of Proclus ' Commentary on the Timaeus, and Book V contains the important principle of Proclus that things are known not according to their own nature, but according to the character of the knowing subject.

His work inspired the New England Transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, who declared in 1843 that, in reading Proclus, " I am filled with hilarity & spring, my heart dances, my sight is quickened, I behold shining relations between all beings, and am impelled to write and almost to sing.