Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius
Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius was a significant early Christian writer and theologian, often referred to as the "Christian Cicero" due to the classical elegance of his Latin prose. He began his career as a rhetoric teacher in Nicomedia under the Roman Emperor Diocletian but faced persecution for his Christian beliefs during the Great Persecution (303-313 CE), which led to him losing his position. Lactantius subsequently relocated westward and began producing influential works, including the "Divinae Institutiones" (Divine Institutes), a comprehensive text aimed at defending Christianity against its critics, and "De Mortibus Persecutorum" (On the Deaths of the Persecutors), which critiques the Roman emperors who persecuted Christians and serves as a crucial historical account of that turbulent era. He later tutored Crispus, the son of Constantine the Great, in Augusta Treverorum. Despite being less recognized than other Christian theologians of his time, Lactantius's writings played a vital role in shaping early Christian thought and literature, marking him as a key figure in the intersection of classical tradition and Christian doctrine. His legacy endures, influencing both religious and literary discourse in subsequent centuries.
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Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius
Related civilization: Imperial Rome
Major role/position: Christian teacher, apologist
Life
Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius (lew-SHEE-uhs SEE-lee-uhs fur-mee-AN-uhs lak-TAN-shee-uhs), having studied with rhetoric teacher Arnobius, received an imperial summons to teach rhetoric at the court of Diocletian in Nicomedia. He may have converted to Christianity while in Bithynia. He therefore lost his position at the start of the Great Persecution (303-313 c.e.) and eventually (305 c.e.) moved west, where he began writing the works for which he is known. In 317 c.e., he began tutoring Crispus, the oldest of Constantine the Great’s sons, in Augusta Treverorum. He may have died there but not before dedicating a revised edition of the Divinae institutiones (303-313 c.e.; Divine Institutes, 1964) to Constantine, whom he had known since their days together in Nicomedia.
Of Lactantius’s numerous works, the two most important are the Divine Institutes, a work in seven books intended to encapsulate all of Christian apologetics and to thereby refute all the opponents of Christianity in all ages, and De mortibus persecutorum (317-318 c.e.; On the Deaths of the Persecutors, 1933), a shrill political pamphlet that describes the divine punishment of the emperors who had persecuted Christians. It is also an extraordinarily important historical source for the period of the Great Persecution.
Influence
Because of the classical elegance of his Latin, Lactantius in the Renaissance became known as the “Christian Cicero.” As a Christian thinker and theologian, he was overshadowed by others, but he is important as a prolific writer and as a vocal opponent of paganism.
Bibliography
Digeser, Elizabeth DePalma. The Making of a Christian Empire: Lactantius and Rome. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000.
Ogilvie, R. M. The Library of Lactantius. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1978.