THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

Ammonius Saccas (c. 210 C.E.) of Egypt (Alexandria).
All of these philosophers are contemporaneous with the rise of Gnostic
thought, and all exhibit pronounced dualistic tendencies in their speculations with the
exception of Ammonius Saccas whom we must conjecture to have been an important
late figure. This issue will be raised in its turn.
Those few discussions which seriously raise the issue of the influence of
Platonic thought upon Gnosticism, and which go beyond the positing of a general
influence, centre upon the figure of Numenius in the 2nd. c. C.E.. It is necessary to
situate the rise of Middle Platonism proper in this era, for at its very inception the
Academy was forced to flee Athens after the city was sacked by Mithradates in 88
B.C.E. With the rise of Alexandria detailed in Chapter 4 it comes as no great surprise
to see that there followed a general drift towards Alexandria from 76 B.C.E. onwards,
although it is argued by some that the physical institution collapsed and was not
revived until the fourth century C.E.. 13
This view is surely erroneous given the
evidence we have for philosophical activity in Egypt in this period: the rise of
philosophical Eclecticism occurred there, as did the revival of Pyrrhonist Skepticism
in Alexandria by Aenesidemus (c. 50-40); Thrasyllus of Alexandria, a philosopher
with dualist tendencies, became the court philosopher of Tiberius in Rome (c. 14-37
C.E.), and Theomnestus of Naucratis in Egypt became a head of the school of
Antiochus around 44 B.C.E. in Athens. All this suggests a potent philosophical
presence in Egypt. Antiochus, from Ascalon, Palestine, was earlier in his life a
Skeptic philosopher who later became a Stoic in Rome; his pupils, Ariston and Dion,
were also active in Alexandria.
At the close of this period, the Ptolemaic synthesis with Egyptian culture is at
its highest, and the Greek state is about to fall to Roman rule. It is surely a critical
factor that Stoicism was a far more acceptable philosophy to Roman sensibilities; as
Dillon puts it
To be at all acceptable to the Roman aristocracy, after all, Stoicism had to find a
place for loyalty to the nation state and for the duty of public service. 14
It is for these general reasons that the Egyptian Stoic priest Chaeremon was invited to
Rome to become the teacher of Nero in the following century. 15
In contradistinction
to this, “the notoriously outspoken and irreverent populace of Alexandria” 16
were
noted for their hostility to Rome which continued until well into the second century,
well beyond Septimius Severus’ grant of a Council to the city in 199-200 if
Caracalla’s ruthless massacre of Alexandrians in 215 is any indication. It is against
the pronounced anarchic tenor of the times that the inter-action of Gnostic and Middle
13
See Dillon’s sources on this view, The Middle Platonists, 60. His own view is that, “the
centre of Platonic philosophy seems now to move to Alexandria,” (61).
14
The Middle Platonists, 78.
15
For this he must have been viewed as a theocratic quisling by some of his fellow priests in
Egypt, especially in the south.
16
Lewis, Life in Egypt under Roman Rule, 197.