Back أرنوبيوس Arabic Arnobius AZ Арнобий Bulgarian Arnobius an Henañ BR Arnobi el Vell Catalan Arnobius Czech Arnobius der Ältere German Αρνόβιος Greek Arnobio EO Arnobio de Sicca Spanish
Arnobius | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Died | c. 330 |
| Nationality | Roman |
| Other names | Arnobius the Elder, Arnobius Afer, Arnobius of Sicca |
| Occupation(s) | Theologian, writer |
| Notable work | Adversus nationes |
| Era | Roman philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
Main interests | |
Notable ideas | Early form of the Pascal's Wager |
Arnobius[a] (died c. 330) was an early Christian apologist of Berber origin[1] during the reign of Diocletian (284–305).
According to Jerome's Chronicle, Arnobius, before his conversion, was a distinguished Numidian rhetorician at Sicca Veneria (El Kef, Tunisia), a major Christian center in Proconsular Africa, and owed his conversion to a premonitory dream.[2] However, Arnobius writes dismissively of dreams in his surviving book.
According to Jerome, to overcome the doubts of the local bishop as to the earnestness of his Christian belief he wrote (c. 303, from evidence in IV:36) an apologetic work in seven books, which St. Jerome calls[3] Adversus gentes but which is entitled Adversus nationes in the only (9th-century) manuscript that has survived. Jerome's reference, his remark that Lactantius was a pupil of Arnobius[4] and the surviving treatise are all the surviving facts about Arnobius.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Pellegrin, Arthur (1944-01-01). Histoire de la Tunisie: depuis les origines jusqu'a nos jours (in French). La Rapide. p. 69.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
EB1911was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ De Viris Illustribus, lxxix.
- ^ Jerome, Epistle 70.5. Arnobius' and Lactantius' readings of the classical pagan authors are compared in G. L. Ellspermann, The Attitude of the Early Christian Writers to Pagan Literature and Learning (Washington) 1949:56-50, 72-77.