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Lactantius
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Introductory Notice To Lactantius.
[916] Mella.
[917] Virgil, Bucol., x. 8.
[918] There is a reference here to a well-known passage of Lucretius, i. 935: “As physicians, when they purpose to give nauseous wormwood to children, first smear the rim round the bowl with the sweet yellow juice of honey, that the unthinking age of children may be fooled as far as the lips, but though beguiled, not be betrayed.”
[919] Sub prætextu.
[920] Sordida.
[921] Incutere. So Lucretius, i. 19, “incutiens amorem.”
[922] Ponderat.
[923] Sine fuco.
[924] [Vol iv. 173. Note our author’s reference to the founders of Latin Christianity, all North-Africans, like Arnobius and himself. See vol. iv. pp. 169, 170.]
[925] Unus.
[926] The word κοπρίας is applied to sycophants and low buffoons and jesters, who, for the sake of exciting laughter, made boastful and extravagant promises.
Chap. II.—To What an Extent the Christian Truth Has Been Assailed by Rash Men.
[927] [Let us call him Barbatus; for one so graphically described by our author deserves a name worthy of his sole claim to be a philosopher.]
[928] Protegebat.
[929] It was the custom of the philosophers to wear a beard; to which practise Horace alludes, Serm., ii. 3, “Sapientem pascere barbam,” to nourish a philosophic beard. [The readers of this series no longer require this information: but it may be convenient to recur to vol. ii. note 9, p. 321; also, perhaps, to Clement’s terrible defence of beards, Ibid., pp. 276–277.]
[930] Velamentum.
[931] Ambitu. The word denotes the unlawful striving for a post.
[932] [On the reference to these two adversaries, see Lardner, Credib., iii. cap. 65, p. 491; vii. cap. 39, p. 471; also vii. 207.]
[933] Hierocles is referred to, who was a great persecutor of the Christians in the beginning of the fourth century. He was the chief promoter of the persecution which the Christians suffered under Diocletian. [Wrote a work (Philalethes) to show the contradictions of Scripture. Acts xiii. 10.]
[934] [Intima, i.e., of an esoteric character, known only to those within the school or sect.]
[935] Cui fuerat assensus. Other editions read “accensus,” i.e., reckoned among.
[936] Induerat.
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