 Richard Sorabji (1990b, 12; see also 2005; 2016b, xiii–xiv; 2016c, 46–47) suggested that Ammonius might have agreed not to allow the school to be a center of pagan and theurgic ritual, which he would also de-emphasize in his teaching, or simply not to make trouble with Christians, as the practice of theurgy or any attempt to convert Christian students to it would do. On Sorabji’s thesis, instead of agreeing with Iamblichus’ insistence on theurgy as indispensable to reaching spiritual union with God, a doctrine largely taken over by Proclus (on Proclus’ theurgy and its three types, see Sheppard 1982), Ammonius sided with Porphyry’s refusal to accept the efficacy of theurgy in purifying the intellect and hence leading us to God. This interpretation puts Ammonius in an altogether better light than does Damascius’, which is approved by Athanassiadi. For Sorabji his financial gain was the continuation of his municipal salary, so that he could keep his school open, rather than a craven payment for services rendered to the Christian authorities; he did not betray his friends; he did not betray philosophy, since he merely preferred the noncommittal attitude of Porphyry in the matter of divine names and theurgy to that of Iamblichus and Proclus; on the contrary, he saved philosophy in Alexandria.