Ancient Vegans Porphyry
As a continuation of our series on ancient vegans, we'll attempt here to take into consideration Porphyry's essay On Abstinence from Animal Food, written in the third century CE, and translated into English by Thomas Taylor in 1823. A full pdf of the essay is provided here.
Porphyry (234-305 CE), the student of Plotinus, and elder contemporary of Iamblichus, plays a central role in the Neoplatonism of the early centuries CE. He is perhaps best known for his compilation of his teacher's works, which are today known as the Enneads , but he was also a voluminous writer in his own right. Among his writings is the famous Life of Pythagoras , from which we gain many insights into the way of life prescribed by that great philosopher, which we touched on in our article on Apollonius of Tyana. It was this way of life that influenced Porphyry and other Neoplatonists in their adoption of a diet including no animal foods. Porphyry's strong position on animal rights and veganism is demonstrated aptly in the following quote: