Iamblichus was a Syrian Neoplatonist philosopher of Arab origin. He determined the direction that would later be taken by Neoplatonic philosophy. He was also the biographer of Pythagoras a Greek mystic, philosopher and mathematician.

Aside from Iamblichus' own philosophical contribution, his Protrepticus is of importance for the study of the Sophists, owing to its preservation of approximately ten pages of an otherwise unknown Sophist known as the Anonymus Iamblichi.