Lactantius

Footnotes

^[109] De Temporibus. Among the extant works of Theophilus there is not any with this title, but his work to Autolycus contains an apology for Christianity in three books. It is to this that Lactantius here refers.

^[110] Abnepos, son of a great-grandchild.

^[111] Pronepotes, great-grandsons.

Chap. I.—that forgetfulness of reason makes men ignorant of the true god, whom they worship in adversity and despise in prosperity.

^[112] [See Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 176, this series.]

^[113] Nomen. Another reading is numen, deity.

^[114] It was a custom among the heathen nations to crown the images of the gods with garlands of flowers.

^[115] The allusion is to the upright attitude of man, as compared with other created beings. The argument is often used by Lactantius.

^[116] This sentence is omitted in some editions.

^[117] Ovid, Metamorphosis [book i. 85.

Os homini sublime dedit: cœlumque tueri

Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus].

^[118] The allusion is to the supposed derivation of the word ἄνθρωπος, from ἀνὰ, τρέπω, ὤψ, to turn the face upwards.

Chap. II.—what was the first cause of making images; of the true likeness of god, and the true worship of him.

^[119] The word temples is not here applied to the buildings which the faithful set apart for the worship of God, but to the places used by the heathens for their rites and sacrifices. [For three centuries templa was the word among Christians for the idolatrous places.] That buildings were set apart by Christians from the earliest ages for their religious assemblies, is gathered from the express testimony of Tertullian, Cyprian, and other early writers. They were called ecclesiæ; churches, not temples. [For κυριακὸν, dominicum, basilica, etc., see Bingham, book viii. cap i. sec. 2.]

^[120] The heathens thought that the souls of the unburied dead wandered about on the earth, until their remains were committed to the tomb.

^[121] The words simulacrum, “an image,” and similitudo, “a likeness” or “resemblance,” are connected together through the common root similis, “like.”

^[122] Materia is especially used in the sense of wood or timber.

^[123] Stipem jaciunt, “they throw a coin.” The word properly means a “coin,” money bearing a stamped impression; hence stipendium, “soldiers’ pay.”

^[124] Fucus, “colouring juice;” hence anything not genuine, but artificial. Others read succum, “juice.”

^[125] Persius, Satire 2d, 6. Lactantius uses the testimony of heathen writers against the heathen.

^[126] Or wallow—“voluto.”

^[127] Ludicra, “diversions.” The word is applied to stage-plays.

^[128] Adjudicavit, adjudged, made over. Cf. Hor., Ep., i. 18: “Et, si quid abest, Italis adjudicat armis.”

Chap. III.—that cicero and other men of learning erred in not turning away the people from error.

^[129] Fill up and complete the outline which he has conceived.

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