Amelius was a Neoplatonic philosopher and writer of the second half of the third century; he was a pupil of
Numenius and secretary of
Plotinus. “Amelius” was not his original name; he seems to have chosen it to express his contempt for worldly things, as the word “amelius” means “negligent” in Greek. He read and wrote voraciously, memorized practically all the teachings of Numenius, and, according to
Porphyry, wrote over 100 volumes of sayings and commentaries. Plotinus considered Amelius one of his sharpest disciples.