Aaron Johnson - Porphyry's Letter to Anebo among the Christians: Augustine vs. Eusebius

The primary witnesses to Porphyry’s fragmentary Letter to Anebo are Eusebius (Praep.ev. 5 and 14), Iamblichus (de Myst.), and Augustine (Civ.Dei 10.11).  The modern editor, A. R. Sodano, claimed that Eusebius was untrustworthy as a witness to the proper ordering of the fragments (Lettera ad Anebo (Naples: L’Arte tipographica, 1958), XLVI-XLVII).  The paper proposed here seeks to investigate the issue.  It will conclude that Eusebius is, indeed, a reliable source; for, Iamblichus admits to re-organizing Porphyry’s material in his own response in the de Myst., and there is good reason to believe that Augustine was a following Iamblichus (or more likely an intermediary source).