Lactantius

Lactantius was a North African teacher of rhetoric whom the emperor Diocletian appointed to teach Latin at Nicomedia, the eastern capital. After becoming a Christian he lost his post in the Great Persecution (303) and wrote the Divine Institutes, a full defence of the Christian faith for educated pagans, in a Latin so polished that he was later called the Christian Cicero. Late in life he taught Constantine's son Crispus.

Dates

ca. 250 – ca. 325 (approximate)

See or city

Nicomedia

Region

Bithynia (Asia Minor); earlier North Africa, later Gaul

Also known as

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius; Firmianus Lactantius; Lactantius Firmianus

Notes

Jerome (Lives of Illustrious Men 80) says that he was a pupil of Arnobius in Africa, that Diocletian summoned him to teach Latin rhetoric at Nicomedia, and that in extreme old age he became tutor to Crispus, Constantine's son, in Gaul. The dates of his birth and death are not known.

Works

• On the Workmanship of GodDe opificio Dei · ca. 303–305 · translation in progress
• On the Anger of GodDe ira Dei · ca. 313–314 · translation in progress
• On the Deaths of the PersecutorsDe mortibus persecutorum · ca. 314–315 · translation in progress
• Epitome of the Divine InstitutesEpitome divinarum institutionum · ca. 314–320 · translation in progress