bridge the gulf between a transcendent God and matter by the assumption of numerous daemons as intermediaries. Atticus (c. 175) opposed the eclecticism which had invaded the school and contested the theories of Aristotle as an aberration from Plato. He was an uncompromising supporter of Plato and regarded the theory of immortality as the basis of his whole system. Nevertheless, in this theology he approached more closely to the Stoic idea of immanence. Numenius of Apamea (c. 160) combined both neopythagoreanism and Platonism. He exhibited a far-going syncretism. Like Plutarch he supposed that an evil soul was combined with matter. From this the mortal part of the human soul is derived, which he described as the second irrational soul. Because of its guilt the soul had to descend from its bodiless life into the body, and after its departure from the body, if it does not need to undergo further incarnation, it becomes indistinguishably united with God. A gift of God is the wisdom which is the highest good, and this gift is only granted to those who devote themselves to the ultimate good to the exclusion of all other thoughts. See also Allegorical interpretations of Plato References Bibliography . Further reading Brittain, Charles. 2001. Philo of Larissa: The Last of the Academic Sceptics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Bonazzi, Mauro. 2012. Antiochus and Platonism. In The Philosophy of Antiochus. Edited by David N. Sedley, 307–333. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Catana, Leo. 2013. "The Origin of the Division between Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism." Apeiron: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 46.2: 166–200. Centrone, Bruno. 2000. "Platonism and Pythagoreanism in the Early Empire." In The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought. Edited by Christopher Rowe and Malcolm Schofield, 559–584. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press. Chiaradonna, Riccardo. 2009. "Galen and Middle Platonism." In Galen and the World of Knowledge. Edited by Christopher Gill, Tim Whitmarsh, and John Wilkins, 243–260. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press. Dillon, John. 1996. The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Rev. ed. London: Duckworth. Jones, Roger M. 1980. The Platonism of Plutarch and Selected Papers. 2d ed. New York: Garland. Kalligas, Paul. 2004. "Platonism in Athens During the First Two Centuries AD: An Overview." Rhizai 2:37–56. Mansfeld, Jaap. 1988. "Compatible Alternatives: Middle Platonist Theology and the Xenophanes Reception." In Knowledge of God in the Graeco-Roman World. Edited by Robert van den Broek, Tjitze