Alcinous c. 100 AD – c. 175 AD

Alcinous was a Greek philosopher of the second century AD and the author of the Handbook of Platonism, the principal surviving systematic introduction to Middle Platonist doctrine. The work presents Platonic philosophy as a unified body of teaching, organized into logic, physics, and ethics, and incorporates Aristotelian, Stoic, and Pythagorean elements within a recognizably Platonic framework. His God is the supreme intellect that thinks the Forms and orders matter, while the human telos is assimilation to God so far as is possible. The Handbook shaped the late ancient and early Byzantine reception of Plato and was rediscovered with great interest in the Renaissance.