ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a brief account of Neoplatonism and the Neoplatonic writings. It presents the essentials of Neopla-tonic anthropology, focusing on aspects that are relevant to the topic of childhood. Plotinus's Enneads, which constitute the richest source on human nature, is the primary object of study in part three. The chapter then discusses the essentials of Neoplatonic anthropology, focusing on aspects that are relevant to the topic of childhood. Plotinus's Enneads, which constitute the richest source on human nature, is also a primary object of study. Finally, the chapter considers two Neoplatonic biographies, that of Plotinus by Porphyry and that of Proclus by Marinus. It also evaluates what people can glean from the texts about actual attitudes toward children. The bulk of Neoplatonic writings are of such a kind that information on children or childhood was unlikely to find its way into them. Porphyry's accounts of Plotinus's prolonged suckling stage and of his guardianship concern childhood, and are indeed remarkable.
