ABSTRACT
When Porphyry told his readers about these versions of his name, it was not because he wanted to make a point about cultural identity in late third century. He wanted them to know that it was he who had, years before, been the leading light in seminar of Plotinus, and was therefore the best interpreter of his philosophy. The seminar of Plotinus raises, and helps to answer, questions about Roman citizenship and Greek culture in relation to languages, traditions and religions which were neither Roman nor Greek. Porphyry did not deny his ancestral name, and although he allowed it to be displaced by a Greek nickname, the nickname at least invoked his native city. He may have had property, or family, in Tyre throughout his life. The easterners could probably have managed some Latin. Even before they came to work in Rome, they might have learned Latin for political reasons, especially if there were long-established Roman colonies in their homelands.
