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Arnobius
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Introductory Notice to Arnobius.
[3274] The carelessness of some copyist makes the ms. read ve-st-ri, “your,” corrected as above by Ursinus.
[3275] So Ursinus, followed by Heraldus, LB., and Orelli, for the ms. errores, which Stewechius would change into errones—“vagrants”—referring to the spirits wandering over the earth: most other edd., following Gelenius, read, “called demigods, that these indeed”—dæmonas appellat, et hos, etc.
[3276] So the ms., which is corrected in the first ed. “us to be willing”—nos velle: Stewechius reads, “us to be making good progress, are envious, enraged, and cry aloud,” etc.—nos belle provenire compererunt, invident, indignantur, declamitantque, etc.; to both of which it is sufficient objection that they do not improve the passage by their departure from the ms.
[3277] A beautiful appeal, and one sufficient to show that our author was no longer among catechumens.]
[3278] So LB. and Orelli; but the ms. reads, “himself to be like a god by his prophets,” etc.—se esse similem profiteatur in vatibus.
[3279] So corrected by Pithœus for the ms. profanus.
[3280] [Evidences of our author’s Christian status abound in this fine passage.]
[3281] So Gelenius, followed by Orelli and others, for the ms., reading divini interpretes viri (instead of juris)—“O men, interpreters of the sacred and divine,” which is retained by the 1st ed., Hildebrand, and Oehler.
[3282] Aii Locutii. Shortly before the Gallic invasion, b.c. 390, a voice was heard at the dead of night announcing the approach of the Gauls, but the warning was unheeded. After the departure of the Gauls, the Romans dedicated an altar and sacred enclosure to Aius Locutius, or Loquens, i.e., “The Announcing Speaker,” at a spot on the Via Nova, where the voice was heard. The ms. reads aiaceos boetios, which Gelenius emended Aios Locutios.
[3283] So emended by Ursinus for the ms. libentinos, which is retained in the 1st ed., and by Gelenius, Canterus, and others. Cf. iv. 9, where Libentina is spoken of as presiding over lusts.
[3284] As a soul was assigned to each individual at his birth, so a genius was attributed to a state. The genius of the Roman people was often represented on ancient coins.
[3285] Thus the Athenians paid honours to Leæna, the Romans to Acca Laurentia and Flora.
[3286] The superstitions of the Egyptians are here specially referred to.
[3287] That is, by whose pleasure and at whose command they are preserved from annihilation.
[3288] So Orelli, adopting a conjecture of Meursius, for the ms. nobis.
[3289] That is, not self-existent, but sprung from something previously in being.
[3290] Columen is here regarded by some as equal to culmen; but the term “pillar” makes a good sense likewise.
[3291] This is according to the doctrine of Pythagoras, Plato, Origen, and others, who taught that the souls of men first existed in heavenly beings, and that on account of sins of long standing they were transferred to earthly bodies to suffer punishment. Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. iii. p. 433.
[3292] The Peripatetics called God the locus rerum, τόπος πάντων, the “locality and the area of all things;” that is, the being in whom all else was contained.
[3293] [This prayer of Arnobius is surely worthy of admiration.]
[3294] Diagoras of Melos and Theodorus of Cyrene, called the Atheists. The former flourished about b.c. 430, the latter about b.c. 310. See Cic., Nat. Deor., i. 2. [Note the universal faith, cap. 34, infra.]
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