Herculian

Herculian (Herculianus) was a friend and fellow student of Synesius of Cyrene, the two having studied together at Alexandria in the late 4th century under the Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician Hypatia. Synesius addressed at least seven letters to him (the corpus here counts ten), and they are among the most personal and philosophically charged in the collection: they recall the bond formed in Hypatia's circle, debate how far the secrets of philosophy should be shared with the uninitiated, and reflect on friendship, learning, and the spiritual ascent of the soul. Beyond these letters Herculian is otherwise little documented, but his correspondence makes him a vivid witness to the intellectual world of Alexandrian Neoplatonism around 395-405 AD; he is presumed to have been based in or near Alexandria, where the two had studied.