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Lactantius
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Introductory Notice To Lactantius.
[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.
[937] Sacramenti.
[938] Fingendi.
[939] Undique quadrat.
[940] Hierocles, referred to in chapter 2.
[941] Apollonius, a celebrated Pythagorean philosopher of Tyana: his works and doctrines are recorded by Philostratus, from whom Lactantius appears to have derived his account. The pagans compared his life and actions with those of Christ. [See Origen, vol. iv. p. 591, this series.]
[942] Apuleius, a native of Madaura, a city on the borders of the province of Africa, he professed the Platonic philosophy. He was reputed a magician by the Christian writers. [Author of The Golden Ass, a most entertaining but often indecent satire, which may have inspired Cervantes, and concerning which see Warburton, Div. Legat., vol. ii. p. 177 (et alibi), ed. London, 1811.]
[943] Affectavit divinitatem.
[944] Noster.
[945] Sacramentum.
[946] With one spirit, “uno spiritu.”
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