Lactantius c. 250 AD – c. 325 AD
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian Latin author and rhetorician who served as tutor to the son of the emperor Constantine. Trained in classical rhetoric and converted as an adult, he produced the Divine Institutes, the first systematic presentation of Christian thought in elegant Latin prose, addressed to a cultivated pagan readership. His later On the Deaths of the Persecutors records the history of the Diocletianic persecution and the rise of Constantine. The renewed interest in his polished Latin in the Renaissance earned him the title the Christian Cicero.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Roman
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Lactantius:
“If God did not exist, ethics would be merely human convention.”
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Attributed to Lactantius:
“Justice is the mother of all virtues.”
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Attributed to Lactantius:
“Religion is the bond between God and human beings.”
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Attributed to Lactantius:
“Wisdom and religion are inseparable; we cannot have one without the other.”
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Attributed to Lactantius:
“The first duty is to know God; the second, to fear him; the third, to love him.”