 What are the different strategies Simplicius uses to harmonise Plato and Aristotle or to integrate the Presocratics and even earlier traditions (Chaldeans, Orphics) into the Platonic tradition? In Platonic Theology I 4, Proclus discusses at length an exegetical device that seems to be comparable to the doctrine of the “four senses of scripture” (quattuor sensus sacrae scripturae), well known from biblical exegesis. According to Proclus, different hermeneutical methods may be applied to different texts, depending on the mode of their composition. From the perspective of the Neoplatonists, different authors or even schools of thought had different ways of expressing themselves; this applied mainly to traditions that were active or alleged to be active before Socrates and Plato: the Chaldeans, the Orphics, Homer (and Hesiod), the Presocratics (esp. Parmenides and Pythagoras, including the Pseudo-Pythagorean tradition)—but also to Plato and Aristotle. Texts could be written “in riddles”, “as myths”, “in symbols”, or “in images”, and they could be “inspired” or “dialectical”. At times, this entailed that these texts needed to be translated or decoded in order to serve in philosophical debates. It goes without saying that such presuppositions also granted a certain kind of exegetical freedom to the interpreters. Plato himself, Proclus explains, betrays at least four modes of expressing himself in different dialogues, while Aristotle was often considered to intentionally write in an obscure way for members of his school. Moreover, while Plato, according to Simplicius, “rejects the ordinary use of words in the name of precision”, Aristotle “makes use of the ordinary use” (Simplicius, In Cael. 69.11–15).