"The Essential Plotinus is a lifesaver. For many years my students in Greek and Roman Religion have depended on it to understand the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The translation is crisp and clear, and the excerpts are just right for an introduction to Plotinus' many-layered view of the world and humankind's place in it." -- F E Romer, University of Arizona.

• Introduction; Beauty; The Intelligence, The Ideas, and Being; The Descent of the Soul; The Good or the One; The Three Primal Hypostases; The Post Primals; Virtue; Dialectic; The Soul; Contemplation; Appendices.