Proclus or Proklos ( el, Πρόκλος) was a teacher of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

and a native of

Naucratis Naucratis or Naukratis (Ancient Greek: , "Naval Command"; Egyptian: , , , Coptic: ) was a city and trading-post in ancient Egypt, located on the Canopic (western-most) branch of the Nile river, south-east of the Mediterranean sea and the city o ...

in Hellenistic Egypt. He lived in the 2nd century AD. He was a man of distinction in his native city, but because of the civil commotions there he went to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

while still young. There he became a pupil of

Adrianus Adrianus of Tyre (Ancient Greek: , c. 113 – 193 AD), also written as Hadrian and Hadrianos, was a sophist of ancient Athens who flourished under the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Adrianus was the pupil of Herodes Atticus, and obt ...

, and afterwards taught rhetoric himself. He had

Philostratus Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...

as one of his pupils. It was his practice to allow anyone who paid down 100

drachma The drachma ( el, δραχμή , ; pl. ''drachmae'' or ''drachmas'') was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history: # An ancient Greek currency unit issued by many Greek city states during a period of ten centuries, fro ...

s at once admission to all his lectures. He also had a library which he allowed his pupils to use. In the style of his discourses he imitated

Hippias Hippias of Elis (; el, Ἱππίας ὁ Ἠλεῖος; late 5th century BC) was a Greek sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, ...

and

Gorgias Gorgias (; grc-gre, Γοργίας; 483–375 BC) was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxogr ...

. He was remarkable for the tenacity of his memory, which he retained even in extreme old age. He possessed several houses in and near Athens, and imported considerable quantities of merchandise from Egypt, which he resold to local vendors. After the death of his wife and son he took a concubine. He entirely surrendered the control of his household to her, and was considerably discredited as a consequence of her mismanagement of it. (Philostratus, ''Vita Procli'' 602 etc., ed. Olearius.)

References

{{Reflist 2nd-century Greek people Rhetoricians Naucratians