Fragmenta

L. Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius: Fragments of Lost Books and Ancient Testimonies Concerning Him. L. Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius: Fragments of Lost Books. From the Letters to Probus. I. Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, Book II, Preface (Vall. VII): "What in the first book of my Commentary on the Galatians, when I was discussing the characteristics of the nations, I had left untouched, now in the second book it seems I must render, namely who the Galatians are, or whither and whence they crossed over... We shall set down the words which our own Lactantius, in the third volume of his work To Probus, opined concerning this people. 'The Gauls,' he says, 'were in antiquity called Galatae from the whiteness of their bodies, and the Sibyl so names them. This is what the poet wished to signify when he said: "Then milk-white necks are entwined with gold," when he could have said "fair." Hence, of course, the province Galatia, into which the Gauls, once arriving, mingled with the Greeks. Whence that region was first called Gallograecia, afterwards Galatia. Nor is it surprising that he said this of the Galatians and recorded that western peoples, having passed over such great intervening spaces of lands, settled in the region of the East, since it is established that swarms from the East and from Greece, on the contrary, reached the farthest West.'

II. Rufinus, Commentary on the Meters of Terence, Grammatici Latini VI 564.7–565 K.: Firmianus, in his work To Probus on the meters of comedies, speaks thus: “As for what you have asked about the meters of comedies, I know that very many think that the plays of Terence especially have no meter of Greek comedy, that is, of Menander, Philemon, Diphilus, and the rest, which consist of trimeter verses. For our writers of old comedy preferred to follow Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristophanes in modulating their plays. Therefore they comprised the prologues and the actions of the first scenes in trimeters, then they subjoined the longest, that is, tetrameters, which are called ‘quadrati.’ In what follows they thereafter varied: for they placed now trimeters, now with the addition of a quarter or a half, that is, with either a half-foot added, or a whole iambic foot, or a foot and a half. These they varied through the middle acts, and again at the end of the plays they placed quadrati, such as we have described in the second scene. But although these same quadrati ought to consist of sixteen syllables, yet they often become twenty or more syllables. Hence they are thought to lack meter and to be contained by no rule.” — Cicero, Scaurus, Firmianus, and others say that there is measure in the plays of Terence and Plautus and the other comic and tragic poets, etc.

From the Letters to Demetrianus. III. Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, Book II, Chapter IV (VII D): ... many, through inexperience of the Scriptures, assert that the Holy Spirit is often called the Father, often the Son—which Firmianus also does in the eighth book of his letters to Demetrianus. IV. Jerome, Epistle LXXXIV (I E): And the apostle commands: reading all things, retaining what is good. Lactantius in his books, and especially in the letters to Demetrianus, altogether denies the substance of the Holy Spirit and, with Jewish error, says that He is either referred to the Father or the Son, and that the sanctification of each person is demonstrated under His name. Who can forbid me to read his books of the *Institutes*, with which he wrote most powerfully against the pagans, because the above opinion is detestable? Fragments of Uncertain Provenance. V. Fragment of a codex of ecclesiastical excerpts, Ambrosian (formerly Bobbio) F. Sup. (8th–9th century), fol. 264, in the margin inscribed *Lactantius on the Motions of the Mind*: Hope, fear, love, hatred, joy, sadness, lust, desire, anger, pity, zeal, admiration—these motions of the mind or affections exist from the beginning in man, implanted by God, and are usefully and healthfully instilled in human nature, so that through their orderly and rational governance man might, by acting manfully, exercise the good virtues, through which he would justly merit receiving eternal life from God.

For these motions of the mind, when confined within their own proper limits—that is, placed in the good part—produce good virtues in the present and prepare eternal rewards in the future; but when they overflow beyond their boundaries—that is, declining into the evil part—vices and iniquities arise and give birth to eternal punishments. VI. Victorinus, On Meters and the Hexameter, GL. VI 209,11 K.: In our own memory, Lactantius speaks of the pentameter and tetrameter meters. VII. The fuller Codex Floriacensis of 'Servius' on Vergil, Aeneid VII 543 (II p. 166, Thilo): "and through the vaults of the sky" (sc. Allecto) ... Firmianus the commentator also says (the codex reads -tur) that one should read not 'convexa' but 'convecta', so that it is "she herself carried along": which is found with difficulty in the manuscripts. (VIII spurious.) Anonymous, Preface to the Sibylline Oracles, Oracula Sibyllina ed. Rzach p. 6, 64—7, 90: ... [Greek text omitted as untranslatable in the given form]

Testimonies of the Ancients concerning Lactantius (except for the passages which are mentioned in the apparatus) 1. Jerome, *On Illustrious Men* 80: Firmianus, who is also called Lactantius, a disciple of Arnobius, was summoned under the emperor Diocletian together with Flavius the grammarian, of whose *On Medicines* there exist books composed in verse, taught rhetoric at Nicomedia, and, due to a scarcity of students—on account, evidently, of the city being Greek—turned to writing. We have his *Symposium*, which he wrote as a young man in Africa, and a *Travelogue* from Africa to Nicomedia written in hexameter verses, and another book which is entitled *The Grammarian*, and a very fine *On the Anger of God*, and *Divine Institutes* against the pagans in seven books, and one book of the same work, and *To Asclepiades* in two books, *On Persecution* in one book, *Letters to Probus* in four books, *Letters to Severus* in two books, *Letters to Demetrianus*, his pupil, in two books, and to the same, *On the Work of God, or the Formation of Man* in one book. In extreme old age he was the teacher of Caesar Crispus, the son of Constantine, in Gaul, who was later killed by his father.

II. Jerome, *Chronicle* in the year of Abraham 2333: Crispus and Constantinus, the sons of Constantinus, and Licinius, the young son of Licinius Augustus from Constantinus’ sister, are proclaimed Caesars. Lactantius, a man most eloquent of all in his own time, instructed Crispus in Latin letters. But he was so poor in this life that he often lacked even necessities. Prosper Tiro (Aquitanus), *Epitoma Chronicon* (in the year after the Lord’s passion 289, under the consuls Sabinus and Rufinus), *Chronica Minora* sæc. IV. V. VI. VII., ed. Mommsen, vol. I fasc. (1892) p. 44.9: Crispus and Constantinus, the sons of Constantinus, and Licinius, the young son of Licinius Augustus from Constantinus’ sister, are proclaimed Caesars. Lactantius instructed Crispus, a man most eloquent of all in his own time. But he was so poor in this life that he often lacked even necessities. III. Jerome, *Epistle* 70 (to Innocentius): Arnobius published seven books *Against the Nations*, and his disciple Lactantius published the same number, who also composed two volumes *On the Anger of God* and *On the Workmanship of God*: if you wish to read these, you will find in them the dialogues of Cicero.

IV. Jerome, *Commentary on Ezekiel* 11, 36 (V D): For we do not expect a bejeweled and golden Jerusalem from heaven, according to the Jewish fables, as they call them... which many of our own, and especially Tertullian’s book entitled *On the Hope of the Faithful* and the seventh volume of Lactantius’ *Institutes* promise. Jerome, *Commentary on Isaiah* 18, preface (IV 707): I do not speak of the mystery of the Trinity, whose correct confession is ignorance of knowledge, but of other ecclesiastical dogmas—namely, concerning the resurrection and the state of souls and human flesh, concerning the promises of future things, how they ought to be received and in what manner the Apocalypse of John is to be understood: which, if we take according to the letter, we must Judaize; if we interpret spiritually as it is written, we will seem to contradict the opinions of many of the ancients—of the Latins, Tertullian, Victorinus, Lactantius. VI.

Jerome, *Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians* Book 2, Chapter 4 (VII E): Our own Firmianus wrote a book *On the Anger of God* in a style both learned and eloquent; whoever reads it, I think, will find it more than sufficient for understanding anger. VII. Damasus, *Letter to Jerome*, Jerome’s *Letter* 35 (I B): I confess to you that the books of Lactantius which you gave me some time ago I do not read willingly, because both his very many letters extend to as many as a thousand lines in length and they rarely discuss our doctrine; as a result, the length generates weariness in the reader, and if any are short, they are more suited to schoolmen than to us, discussing meters, the location of regions, and philosophers. VIII. Jerome, *On Illustrious Men* 111: Acilius Severus in Spain, of the family of that Severus to whom the two books of Lactantius’ letters are written, composed a volume… IX. Jerome, *Letter* 58 (I B): Lactantius, like a certain river of Ciceronian eloquence—if only he could have affirmed our own teachings as easily as he demolished those of others!

Jerome, *Commentary on Isaiah* Book 8, Preface (4th century): Certainly we write for the studious and for those desiring to know sacred scripture, not for the fastidious and those who grow nauseated at every detail. If they desire a river of eloquence and polished declamations, let them read Tully, Quintilian, Gallio, Gabinianus. And to come to our own, Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius, Arnobius, Lactantius, Hilary. XI. Jerome, Letter 48 (1st class B; in defense of his books against Jovinian): ...we have learned that there are, namely, many kinds of speaking, and among other things, that it is one thing to write, another thing: in the former, the discussion is wandering and, responding to an adversary, now proposes this, now that, to argue as one pleases, to say one thing, to do another... in the latter, however, an open brow and, so to speak, frankness is necessary... (p. A) I say nothing of the Latin writers Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius, Victorinus, Lactantius, Hilary, lest I seem not so much to have defended myself as to have accused others.

XII. Jerome, *Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians*, Preface (7th century): Did Tertullian deter the blessed martyr Cyprian, or Cyprian deter Lactantius, or Lactantius deter Hilary, from writing? XIII. Jerome, *On Illustrious Men* LVIII (Minucius Felix): Lactantius also makes mention of this Minucius in his books. XIV. Jerome, *Letter* LX (I E): ... by declining the glory of erudition, he was considered most erudite (sc. Nerotianus). He would say: that is Tertullian's, that is Cyprian's, that is Lactantius's, that is Hilary's. XV. Augustine, *On Christian Doctrine* II.61 (III, p. F Maur): For what else have many of our good faithful done? Do we not see with how much gold and silver and clothing Cyprian, that most gentle doctor and most blessed martyr, came out of Egypt (cf. Exod. 11:2, 12:35) stuffed full? How much Lactantius, how much Victorinus, Optatus, Hilary—to say nothing of the living—how much countless Greeks?

Cassiodorus, *Institutes of Divine and Human Literature* (ed. Garee): Many of our fathers, educated in such literature and remaining in the law of the Lord, arrived at true wisdom, as the blessed Augustine recalls in his book *On Christian Doctrine*, saying: we do not consider with how much gold and silver and clothing Cyprian, the sweetest teacher and most blessed martyr, left Egypt laden, nor how much Lactantius, nor how much Victorinus, Optatus, Hilary. We add Ambrose himself, and Augustine, and Jerome, and many other innumerable Greeks. XVI. Eucherius, *Letter to Valerian* (p. 300 f. Brassican): I could also, were it not lengthy, recount by name many from among countless illustrious men who in the world have followed this stricter observance of divine worship and this way of life; yet, lest I omit all their examples entirely, I will briefly append a few... (p. 301) ... Hilary recently, and now in Italy Bishop Petronius, both from that seat of worldly power, as they say, so full; one ascended to the name of religion, the other to the name of priesthood. And when shall I unfold from that volume of multitude the most famous in eloquence: Firmianus, Minucius, Cyprian, Hilary, John, Ambrose? They too, I believe, said to themselves what one of our own says, when he spurred himself on from the world into this more blessed life with this goad; they said, I believe: what is this?

The unlearned rise up and seize heaven, and we with our learning—behold where we wallow in flesh and blood! They said this, and therefore they themselves later did violence to the kingdom (cf. Luke 16:16). XVII. Sidonius Apollinaris, *Epistles* IV.8 (p. 55, Luet. Johann): Now if one comes to the most holy fathers for comparison: he (sc. Mamertus Claudianus, *On the State of the Soul*) instructs like Jerome, destroys like Lactantius, builds up like Augustine. XVIII. Gennadius, *On Illustrious Men* XV: Following Tertullian, Lactantius, and Papias as authorities (sc. Commodianus), he inculcated in students a sound moral teaching and especially the love of voluntary poverty. XIX. Pope Gelasius, *Letter or Decree on Books to Be Received and Not Received*, which was written by Pope Gelasius with seventy most learned bishops in the apostolic see of the city of Rome, ch. IV. Notice of Apocryphal Books Which Are Not Received, § (Genuine Letters of Roman Pontiffs, ed. Thiel, I p. 467; Credner, *On the History of the Canon* p. 221): The works of Lactantius are apocryphal. The works of Africanus are apocryphal.

Pope Hormisdas, in his Epistle or Decree published in the city of Rome concerning the divine scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church receives or what after this it ought to avoid, chapter V (Thiel p. 937): The works of Lactantius are apocryphal. The works of Africanus are apocryphal.