On the Life of Plotinus

The preface Porphyry set at the head of his edition — part biography, part defence, and the source of nearly every anecdote we have: the refused portrait, the eleven years with Ammonius, the plan for a city of philosophers that Rome very nearly granted, the last words at Minturnae.

A tradition's self-portrait, written by the man who also chose what of it would survive. Worth reading beside the Enneads precisely because it shapes how they are read.