Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Professor John Dillon

Emeritus Fellow

I studied Classics at Oxford, and subsequently completed a Ph. D., at the University of California, Berkeley, joining the faculty there in 1969. In 1980, I took up the Regius Chair of Greek at Trinity College, and remained in that post until my retirement in 2006. I am founder and Director Emeritus of the Plato Centre.

My chief field of interest is Ancient Philosophy, and in particular the philosophy of Plato, and the tradition stemming from him, through the Old Academy, the 'Middle Platonic' and 'Neoplatonic' periods, to the Arabic, Christian and Renaissance periods, as well as the Jewish Platonism of Philo of Alexandria. My particular concerns at the moment are with Philo, Plotinus, and Dionysius the Areopagite.

With Prof. Andrew Smith, I am currently acting as General Editor of a series of translations of the tractates of Plotinus, with commentaries, for Parmenides Press, of which ten volumes have so far been published.

Selected Publications

The Roots of Platonism: The Origins and Chief Features of a Philosophical Tradition, Cambridge, 2019
Plotinus, Ennead IV 3-4,29: Problems Concerning the Soul. Translation, Introduction and Commentary (with Henry Blumenthal). Parmenides Press, 2015
Iamblichi Chalcidensis Commentariorum Fragmenta, 1973 (repr. With corrections 2010).
Iamblichus of Chalcis, The Letters (with Wolfgang Polleichner), 2009.
Salt and Olives: Morality and Custom in Ancient Greece, (Edinburgh 2004).
The Heirs of Plato: A Study of the Old Academy, (Oxford 2002).
Iamblichus. De Anima. Text, translation and commentary (with John Finamore), 2002.
The Middle Platonists, 1977 (2nd ed. 1996).
Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism, (Oxford 1993).

My articles up to 2006 have been gathered into three collected volumes: The Golden Chain (Ashgate 1990), The Great Tradition (Ashgate, 1997), and The Platonic Heritage (Ashgate, 2012).