DOMNINUS or DOMNUS:

By: Kaufmann Kohler, Samuel Krauss

Jewish philosopher; lived between 400 and 480. He was a native of Laodicea, or Larissa, in Syria; the pupil of Syrian, whom he perhaps succeeded as teacher of the Neoplatonic school at Athens. He was a contemporary of the philosopher Proclus, whose pupil Marinus often mentions Domninus. His own pupil Gesius, who supplanted him in his old age, is identical with the Jasius whom Arabian writers mention. The sources speak of him as a Jew, and Suidas relates that when Domninus was afflicted at Athens with "blood-spitting," he did not hesitate to eatpork, while his companion Plutarchus, a pagan, who also was ill, refrained from that remedy. Suidas therefore does not consider Domninus as a true philosopher; he is credited with being a fine mathematician, but superficial in other branches of philosophy. A follower of Plato, and therefore attacked by Proclus, he defended himself in a work entitled Καθαρτικὴ τῶν Δογμάτων Πλάτωνος ("A Purge of Plato's Theories").

Not one of his works is extant. Like other Neoplatonists, Domninus practised theurgy. He died at an advanced age, probably at Athens.

K. S. Kr.