Author Guide · Neoplatonist Philosophy
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Plotinus did not start writing until he was about fifty, and when he did, he never read over what he had written: his eyesight was poor, his handwriting careless, and he worked out each argument in his head before setting it down in one go. That is how his pupil Porphyry describes him in the Life of Plotinus, which opens: “Plotinus, the philosopher our contemporary, seemed ashamed of being in the body.” Born in Egypt around 204, he studied in Alexandria for eleven years with Ammonius Saccas, and taught in Rome from his forties until shortly before his death in 270. He left 54 treatises. Around 301 Porphyry published them, arranged in six groups of nine, the Enneads, and that is the only book Plotinus ever produced. It shaped Augustine, reached the Islamic world as “The Theology of Aristotle”, and is the founding text of what is now called Neoplatonism. For an English reader the real question is which translation to pick. This guide covers his 8 key works and translations, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key works and translations · 301–2018 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Plotinus wrote one work: 54 treatises that his pupil Porphyry edited and published around 301 as the Enneads, six books of nine treatises each. In English the main translations are Stephen MacKenna’s (1917–1930), A. H. Armstrong’s Loeb edition with the Greek (1966–1988) and the Cambridge translation edited by Lloyd P. Gerson (2018). Start with the abridged Penguin edition of MacKenna, introduced by John Dillon (1991). Below are the key translations in order, what each Ennead covers, and a reading path through them.
Where to Start with Plotinus
If you want a manageable first taste
→ The Enneads (1991) — MacKenna’s translation, abridged, with John Dillon’s introduction.
If you want the complete Enneads in modern English
→ The Enneads (2018) — one volume, six translators.
If you want the Greek alongside the English
→ Porphyry on Plotinus; Ennead I (1966) — seven Loeb volumes, starting with Porphyry’s Life.
If you want the classic literary translation
→ The Enneads (1917).
8 Plotinus Works and Translations, in Order
The Enneads
The 54 treatises Plotinus wrote in Rome between about 253, the first year of the emperor Gallienus, and a few months before his death in 270. His pupil Porphyry arranged them into six groups of nine, splitting and joining texts to make the numbers work, and ordered them by subject, from ethics through the cosmos and the soul to the One, rather than in the order they were written. He published them around 301 with his own Life of Plotinus as an introduction, which also lists the treatises in the order of writing. Scholars today cite the Greek text in the critical edition of Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolf Schwyzer.
The Enneads
The complete Enneads in English, published by the Medici Society in London between 1917 and 1930, in an elevated, literary English. It includes MacKenna’s translation of Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus, which opens: “Plotinus, the philosopher our contemporary, seemed ashamed of being in the body.” The text is freely available online.
Plotinos: Complete Works
A complete English translation in four volumes, published in 1918 by the Comparative Literature Press, while MacKenna’s was still appearing in instalments.
The Enneads
The second edition of MacKenna’s complete translation, edited and revised by B. S. Page. The full MacKenna text found online, including the treatise on beauty quoted on this page, is credited to MacKenna and Page together.
Porphyry on Plotinus; Ennead I
The first of A. H. Armstrong’s seven volumes for the Loeb Classical Library, published between 1966 and 1988, with the Greek text facing the English. This volume contains Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus and the first Ennead, including the treatise on beauty; the set ends with two volumes on the sixth Ennead, both from 1988. Armstrong’s close, literal version was for decades the standard scholarly translation in English.
The Enneads
MacKenna’s translation abridged to a single Penguin Classics paperback by the classicist John Dillon, who added an introduction and notes. It lets a reader follow the main ideas without working through all 54 treatises.
Collected Writings of Plotinus
A collected edition, published by the Prometheus Trust in 1994, of the Plotinus translations made by the English Platonist Thomas Taylor, who worked before MacKenna and Guthrie. Together they cover about half of the Enneads, in Taylor’s older English.
The Enneads
A complete new translation in one volume of 931 pages, published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and edited by Lloyd P. Gerson, with translations by George Boys-Stones, John M. Dillon, Gerson, R. A. H. King, Andrew Smith and James Wilberding. It is based on the Henry–Schwyzer Greek text and prints no Greek. Reviewing it in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, the reviewer found it less literal, more consistent and more readable than Armstrong’s Loeb.
In What Order to Read Plotinus
Plotinus left no reading order of his own. The order most editions follow is Porphyry’s: six Enneads that start with human and ethical questions in the first, move through the physical world in the second and third, the soul in the fourth and intellect in the fifth, and end with the One in the sixth. Porphyry meant this as a course of study, from the easier treatises to the hardest. His Life also lists the 54 treatises in the order Plotinus wrote them, from the treatise on beauty (I.6) to the last, I.7.
For a first reading, start with Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus, which every major translation prints, then the treatise on beauty, I.6, the earliest he wrote and the most often quoted. From there, the treatises on the soul in Ennead IV and on the three principles in Ennead V lead into the sixth Ennead, the hardest. A selection such as the Penguin abridgement is the easiest way to begin; a complete translation is for the second pass.
A reading path
1. Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus
2. Ennead I.6, “On Beauty”, the first treatise he wrote
3. Ennead IV, on the soul, and Ennead V, on intellect and the One
4. The complete Enneads in Gerson (2018) or Armstrong’s Loeb, ending with Ennead VI
The Six Enneads, and Other Translations
Beyond the 8 key works and translations: 8 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
What each Ennead covers
6
6 books · I–VI
- IFirst Enneadhuman and ethical topics; includes I.6, on beauty, the first treatise he wrote, and I.7, the last
- IISecond Enneadthe physical world and the cosmos
- IIIThird Enneadthe cosmos and its order, including providence
- IVFourth Enneadthe soul
- VFifth Enneadknowledge, intellect and intelligible reality
- VISixth Enneadbeing, and the One that is above it
Greek text
2
2 books · 1951–1973–1964–1982
- 1951–1973Plotini Opera, editio maiorthe critical Greek edition in three volumes, Brussels and Paris
- 1964–1982Plotini Opera, editio minorthree volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press; the text behind the Cambridge translation
The years · 204–2018
Quick facts about Plotinus
- Known for
- Founding Neoplatonism, the reading of Plato built around a single first principle, the One, from which everything else flows and to which the soul can return.
- 204
- Born in Egypt, c. 204/205
- 301
- Porphyry publishes the Enneads
- 1917
- MacKenna’s English translation begins
- 2018
- Gerson’s Cambridge translation
- Born
- c. 204/205, in Egypt; Porphyry says he never told anyone his birthplace or parents
- Died
- 270, on a friend’s estate in Campania, Italy, aged 66
- Teacher
- Ammonius Saccas in Alexandria, for eleven years
- Taught
- In Rome, from his forties, in the reign of Philip the Arab, until his last illness
- Work
- 54 treatises, written from about 253 to 270
- Edited by
- His pupil Porphyry, who joined him in Rome in 263 and published the Enneads around 301
- School of thought
- Neoplatonism; he presented his ideas as an explanation of Plato
The red mark is around 301, when Porphyry published the 54 treatises as the Enneads, with his Life of Plotinus as the introduction.
How Plotinus Wrote: Lecture Notes for a Hard Climb
The treatises were written in Rome, where he taught a circle of pupils, Porphyry among them. Porphyry describes how he wrote: he thought an argument through to the end in his head and then put it down in one continuous run, never re-reading because his eyesight was poor, with careless spelling and handwriting. The Greek is compressed and often difficult, which is one reason the translations differ so much.
His starting point is Plato, whom he treated as the authority to be explained, not corrected; for the dialogues he drew on most, see the guide to Plato’s books. From Plato he built a system of three levels: the One, beyond being and beyond description; Intellect, where the Forms are; and Soul, which shapes the physical world. Everything flows from the One, and the human soul can turn inward and climb back towards it; Porphyry placed the treatises on the One last, as the hardest.
Alongside the argument he uses images. The best known is in the treatise on beauty, I.6, which tells the reader to withdraw into the self and, if what is there is not yet beautiful, to work on it as a sculptor works on a statue, cutting away what is excessive and straightening what is crooked. Through Augustine, through the Arabic “Theology of Aristotle” read by al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Avicenna, and through the Cambridge Platonists of the seventeenth century, these ideas reached Christian, Islamic and modern thought, often without his name attached.
Frequently asked questions about Plotinus’s books
How many books has Plotinus written?
One: the Enneads, 54 treatises written between about 253 and 270 and published by his pupil Porphyry around 301 in six groups of nine. This page lists that work and seven key English translations.
What are Plotinus’s books in order?
There is only the Enneads (c. 301). The English translations on this page run: Stephen MacKenna (1917–1930), Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie (1918), MacKenna revised by B. S. Page (1956), A. H. Armstrong’s Loeb (1966–1988), the Penguin abridgement introduced by John Dillon (1991), Thomas Taylor’s collected translations (1994) and the Cambridge translation edited by Lloyd P. Gerson (2018). Within the Enneads, Porphyry’s Life gives the order in which the treatises were written: I.6, on beauty, came first and I.7 last.
Where should I start with Plotinus?
With the abridged Penguin edition of MacKenna’s translation, introduced by John Dillon (1991). Read Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus first, then the treatise on beauty (I.6), and then the treatises on the soul and the One.
What is Plotinus’s most famous book?
The Enneads is his only book. Within it the most read treatise is I.6, “On Beauty”, the first one he wrote.
Who was Porphyry, and what did he do to the Enneads?
Porphyry was Plotinus’s pupil, who joined him in Rome in 263 at the age of thirty, when 21 treatises had already been written. He edited the writings: he split and combined treatises to reach 54, a number he liked as six times nine, grouped them by subject rather than date, starting with the least difficult, and published them around 301 with a biography of Plotinus as the introduction. Britannica calls that biography unique for its reliability, and most of what is known about Plotinus’s life comes from it.
Which translation of Plotinus is best?
For the complete work in modern English, the Cambridge translation edited by Lloyd P. Gerson (2018), in one volume. For the Greek alongside the English, A. H. Armstrong’s seven-volume Loeb (1966–1988), long the scholarly standard. Stephen MacKenna’s (1917–1930) is the most literary and is free online; the Penguin abridgement of it is the easiest start.
Why is it called the Enneads?
From the Greek word for nine. Porphyry arranged the 54 treatises into six groups of nine treatises, each group an “ennead”, and collected them in three volumes: Enneads I to III in the first, IV and V in the second, and VI in the third.
How did Plotinus influence Christianity and Islam?
Augustine came to Platonism largely through Plotinus and his followers, and through Augustine his ideas entered Western theology. Passages from Enneads IV to VI were translated into Arabic and circulated as “The Theology of Aristotle”, read by al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Avicenna; a Latin version of it appeared in Europe in 1519.
What were Plotinus’s last words?
According to Porphyry, who had the account from the physician Eustochius, Plotinus said as he died that he was trying to raise the divine in himself to the divine in the all. MacKenna translates it as “I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All.” He was 66 and died in Campania in 270.
What was Platonopolis?
A plan Plotinus put to the emperor Gallienus: to rebuild a ruined town in Campania as a “City of Philosophers” governed by Plato’s Laws. Porphyry says opposition at court stopped it, and the city was never built.
Footnotes
- Plotinus — Wikipedia
- Enneads — Wikipedia
- Porphyry, On the Life of Plotinus, translated by Stephen MacKenna — Sacred Texts
- Porphyry — Encyclopædia Britannica
- Plotinus: The Enneads, ed. Lloyd P. Gerson — Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
- Plotinus, Enneads I.6, translated by MacKenna and Page — Elpenor
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Withdraw into yourself and look.”
— Plotinus, Enneads I.6.9, in the translation of Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page
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