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Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author (c. 250 – c. 325) who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed,〔His role is examined in detail in Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, ''The Making of a Christian Empire: Lactantius and Rome'', 2000.〕 and a tutor to his son. ==Biography== Lactantius, a Latin-speaking native of North Africa, was a pupil of Arnobius and taught rhetoric in various cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, ending in Constantinople. He wrote apologetic works explaining Christianity in terms that would be palatable to educated people who still practiced the traditional religions of the Empire. He defended Christian beliefs against the criticisms of Hellenistic philosophers. His ''Divinae Institutiones'' ("Divine Institutes") were an early example of a systematic presentation of Christian thought. He was considered somewhat heretical after his death, but Renaissance humanists took a renewed interest in him, more for his elaborately rhetorical Latin style than for his theology. A translator of the ''Divine Institutes'' starts his introduction as follows: Lactantius was not born into a Christian family. In his early life, he taught rhetoric in his native town, which may have been Cirta in Numidia, where an inscription mentions a certain 'L. Caecilius Firmianus'. Lactantius had a successful public career at first. At the request of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, he became an official professor of rhetoric in Nicomedia; the voyage from Africa is described in his poem ''Hodoeporicum''. There, he associated in the imperial circle with the administrator and polemicist Sossianus Hierocles and the pagan philosopher Porphyry; he first met Constantine, and Galerius, whom he cast as villain in the persecutions.〔Paul Stephenson, ''Constantine, Roman Emperor, Christian Victor'', 2010:104.〕 Having converted to Christianity, he resigned his post before Diocletian's purging of Christians from his immediate staff and before the publication of Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" (February 24, 303).〔Stephenson 2010:106.〕 As a Latin ''rhetor'', he subsequently lived in poverty according to Saint Jerome and eked out a living by writing until Constantine I became his patron. The new emperor appointed the aged scholar in 311 or 313. The friendship of the Emperor Constantine raised him from penury and he became tutor in Latin to his son Crispus, whom Lactantius may have followed to Trier in 317, when Crispus was made Caesar (lesser co-emperor) and sent to the city. Crispus was put to death in 326, but when Lactantius died and in what circumstances are un known. Like so many of the early Christian authors, Lactantius depended on classical models. The early humanists called him the "Christian Cicero" (''Cicero Christianus''). His works were copied in manuscript several times in the 15th century and were first printed in 1465 by the Germans Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheim at the Abbey of Subiaco. This edition was the first book printed in Italy to have a date of printing, as well as the first use of a Greek alphabet font anywhere, which was apparently produced in the course of printing, as the early pages leave Greek text blank. It was probably the fourth book ever printed in Italy. A copy of this edition was sold at auction in 2000 for more than $1 million.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lot 65 Sale 6417 LACTANTIUS, Lucius Coelius Firmianus (c. 240–c. 320). Opera. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lactantius」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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