Lactantius (Lucius Caecilius Firmianus), from a pagan family, was born in Africa around 250 B.C. A pupil of Arnobius, he became, like his master, a teacher of Latin rhetoric. He acquired a reputation, no doubt quite considerable, since the emperor Diocletian sent him to Nicomedia to teach Latin rhetoric there, between 290 and 300. In 303, when Diocletian's persecution began, Lactantius, apparently a recent convert to Christianity, had to lose his official position. Although he then lived in poverty, it does not seem that he had to suffer personally from the persecution: during this period he remained in Bithynia, where he wrote most of his works.
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Group of authors | Africa |