Editing Ammonius Hermiae (section)

==Life==
{{Neoplatonism}}
Ammonius' father [[Hermias (philosopher)|Hermias]] died when he was a child, and his mother Aedesia raised him and his brother Heliodorus in Alexandria. When they reached adulthood, Aedesia accompanied her sons to [[Athens]] where they studied under [[Proclus]]. Eventually, they returned to Alexandria where Ammonius, as head of the Neoplatonist school in the city, lectured on [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] for the rest of his life. According to Damascius, during the persecution of the [[paganism|pagans]] at Alexandria in the late 480s, Ammonius made concessions to the [[Christianity|Christian]] authorities so that he could continue his lectures.<ref>Damascius, ''Philosophos Historia'', 118B, Athanassiadi</ref> Damascius, who scolds Ammonius for the agreement that he made, does not say what the concessions were, but they may have involved limitations on the doctrines he could teach or promote. He was still teaching in 515; [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]] heard him lecture on Plato's ''Gorgias'' in that year.<ref>Olympiodorus, ''in Gorgias'', 199, 8–10</ref> He was also an accomplished astronomer; he lectured on [[Ptolemy]] and is known to have written a treatise on the [[astrolabe]].