The Syriac treatise published in the present volume is in many respects a unique text. Though
it has been preserved anonymously there remains little doubt that it belongs to Porphyry of
Tyre. Accordingly it enlarges our knowledge of the views of the most famous disciple of
Plotinus. The text is an important witness to Platonist discussions on First Principles and on
Plato's concept of Prime Matter in the Timaeus. It contains extensive quotations from Atticus
Severus and Boethus. This text thus provides us with new textual witnesses to these
philosophers whose legacy remains very poorly attested and little known. Additionally the
treatise is a rare example of a Platonist work preserved in the Syriac language. The Syriac
reception of Plato and Platonic teachings has left rather sparse textual traces and the
question of what precisely Syriac Christians knew about Plato and his philosophy remains a
debated issue. The treatise provides evidence for the close acquaintance of Syriac scholars
with Platonic cosmology and with philosophical commentaries on Plato's Timaeus.
