SOURCE: Boyd, M. J. “The Chronology in Porphyry's Vita Plotini.” Classical Philology 32, no. 3 (July 1937): 241-57.

In the following essay, Boyd explains that there is some question about the accuracy of the statements made by Porphyry regarding the chronology of events in his Life of Plotinus, and he theorizes that the author used a particular system of reckoning to arrive at his dates.

The ultimate source of all our knowledge of the chronological details of the life of Plotinus is the Vita Plotini of Porphyry.¹ Yet, until Professor Oppermann produced his Die Chronologie in Porphyrios' “Vita Plotini,”² no one seems to have attempted to discover the exact meaning of the statements which Porphyry makes in this connection, although very frequent use has been made of these statements.³ The problem was first seriously raised by Dessau when he suggested to Heinemann⁴ that the regnal years by which Porphyry reckons were...