Julian followed Plotinus and Iamblichus in making the supreme principle the One (ἓν) or the Good (τὸ ἀγαθὸν) which presides over the intelligible world (νοητὸς κόσμος), where rule Plato’s Ideas, now called the intelligible gods (νοητοὶ θεοί). Iamblichus had imported into the Neo‐ Platonic system the intermediary world of intellectual gods (νοεροὶ θεοί). On them Helios‐Mithras, their supreme god and centre, bestows the intelligence and creative and unifying forces that he has received from his transcendental counterpart among the intelligible gods. The third member of the triad is the world of sense‐perception governed by the sun, the visible counterpart of Helios. What distinguishes Julian’s triad(610) from other Neo‐Platonic triads is this hierarchy of three suns in the three worlds: and further, the importance that he gives to the intermediary world, the abode of Helios‐Mithras. He pays little attention to the remote intelligible world and devotes his exposition to Helios, the intellectual god, and the visible sun. Helios is the link that relates the three members of the triad. His “middleness” (μεσότης) is not only local: he is in every possible sense the mediator and unifier. μεσότης is the Aristotelian word for the “mean,” but there is no evidence that it was used with the active sense of mediation before Julian. A passage in Plutarch however seems to indicate that the “middleness” of the sun was a Persian doctrine: “The principle of good most nearly resembles light, and the principle of evil darkness, and between both is Mithras; therefore the Persians called Mithras the Mediator” (μεσίτης).(611) Naville has pointed out the resemblance between the sun as mediator and the Christian Logos, which Julian may have had in mind. Julian’s system results in a practically monotheistic worship of Helios, and here he probably parts company with Iamblichus.