Numenius of Apamea (fl. mid-second century . .), Greek Platonist philosopher of neo- Pythagorean tendencies. Very little is known of his life apart from his residence in Apamea, Syria, but his philosophical importance is considerable. His system of three levels of spiritual reality – a primal god (the Good, the Father), who is almost supra-intellectual; a secondary, creator god (the demiurge of Plato’s Timaeus); and a world soul – largely anticipates that of Plotinus in the next century, though he was more strongly dualist than Plotinus in his attitude to the physical world and matter. He was much interested in the wisdom of the East, and in comparative religion. His most important work, fragments of which are preserved by Eusebius, is a dialogue On the Good, but he also wrote a polemic work On the Divergence of the Academics from Plato, which shows him to be a lively controversialist. J.M.D.