Gerard O’Daly is Emeritus Professor of Latin at University College London and former Dean of its Faculty of Arts and Humanities. His research has concentrated on philosophy and literature in late antiquity, and his books include Plotinus’ Philosophy of the Self (1973), Augustine’s Philosophy of Mind (1987), The Poetry of Boethius (1991), Augustine’s City of God: A Reader’s Guide (2004), and Days Linked by Song: Prudentius’ Cathemerinon (2012). Several of his articles are collected in Platonism Pagan and Christian: Studies in Plotinus and Augustine (2001).

"In G. O’Daly’s carefully wrought new translation and commentary the reader finds a useful guide that helps him to unravel Plotinus’ occasionally cryptic line of argumentation and to penetrate into some of the most fascinating aspects of his philosophising." — Paul Kalligas, Director of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi" O'Daly's new translation and his characteristically detailed and scholarly analysis of Plotinus's arguments, as well as their Aristotelian and Platonic context, will be an essential resource for any scholar or philosopher wishing to understand Plotinus's conception of ourselves as undying intelligences yoked, in this life, to the living thing which is our ordinary self. It is a notable edition to a valuable series." — Stephen R. L. Clark, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Liverpool