Damascius was a Neoplatonic philosopher active in the late 5th and early 6th centuries CE. He was born in Damascus and studied in Alexandria before becoming the head of the prestigious Platonic school in Athens around 515 CE. His leadership coincided with a period of increasing pressure from the Christian Byzantine state. In 529 CE, Emperor Justinian issued an edict that prohibited pagan teaching, leading to the school's closure. Damascius, along with several other philosophers, then sought refuge at the court of the Persian King Khosrow I in 531/532 CE. A peace treaty soon allowed their safe return, and Damascius is believed to have spent his final years in Syria.

His major surviving work is Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles, a dense philosophical treatise that critically examines the core ideas of earlier Neoplatonists like Proclus. Other partially surviving works include commentaries on Plato's Parmenides and Phaedo. He also wrote the Life of Isidore, a biographical account of his teacher that survives in fragments; modern scholars value it as a historical source for the lives of pagan philosophers in a Christianizing empire.

Damascius is historically significant as the last head of the Platonic Academy in Athens. His writings represent the final, sophisticated development of pagan Neoplatonic thought in the ancient world. According to scholars, his critical and questioning approach provides crucial insight into the internal debates of the Athenian school. His exile to Persia and return symbolize the end of institutionalized pagan philosophy in the Greco-Roman world.