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( Middle Platonism)
Middle Platonism was the development of certain philosophical doctrines associated with Plato from approximately 130 B.C. (the birth of Antiochus of Ascalon) up to and including late 2nd century A.D. Numenius of Apamea. Plotinus is thought to have inaugurated the next Platonic school of Neoplatonism. However certain aspects of Middle Platonism was influenced by Zoroaster. Oxford dictionary of philosophy (page 405) "Zarathushtra's philosophy entered to influence western tradition through Judaism, and therefore on Middle Platonism." After Plato's death in 348 B.C., the leadership of his Academy passed over his greatest pupil, Aristotle, to Plato's nephew, Speusippus. Speusippus was succeeded by Xenocrates, Polemon, Crantor, and Crates of Athens. Following Crates, in 268 B.C., was Arcesilaus of Pitane who founded the New Academy, under the influence of Pyrrhonian scepticism. Arcelisaus modeled his philosophy after the Socrates of Plato's early dialogues, "suspending judgment" (epokhê peri pantôn ep??? pe?? p??t??). Like Socrates, the leaders of the New Academy wrote nothing and instead of dogmatically stating their opinions, led their interlocutors to use their reason. The brand of scepticism expounded by the New Academy is a matter of some controversy, but it seems to have been mainly in reaction to the strong dogmatising of the Stoics. During the second and first centuries B.C., works on Pythagorean philosophy emerged, and became intertwined with Platonic theories and Aristotelian cosmology. These works were penned under the names of Ocellus Lucanus, Archytas, and Timaeus Locrus. This trend in Platonism countered the sceptical turn of the official Platonic Academy.
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