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482 Credibility of the Gospel History
' called also Lactantius, scholar of Aniobius, being sent for
' in the time of the emperor Dioclesian, together with Flavins
' Grammaticus, whose books of medicines, v,ritten in verse,
' are still extant, taught rhetoric at Nicomedia : but not
' having' many scholars there, it being a Greek city, he be-
' took himself to writing-. We have his Banquet, which he
' wrote when very young : an Itinerary from Africa to
Nicomedia, in'' hexameter verses : and another book, en-
' titled Grammaticus : and an excellent book of the Wrath
' of God ; and seven books of Divine Institutions against the
' Gentiles : and an Epitome of the same work in one book,
'the beginning of which is wanting; and two books to
' Asclepiades : Of the Persecution, one book : four books of
' Epistles to Probus : two books of Epistles to Severus
' two books of Epistles to Demetrian^ his scholar: and to
' the same, one book of the Workmanship of God, or the
' Formation of Man. In his old age he Mas preceptor to
' Crispus Ccesar, son of Constantine, in Gaul, who was after-
' wards put to death by his father.'
Eusebius in his Chronicle, or rather Jerom, (who*^ in his
translation of that work of Eusebius inserted divers things
of his own, especially relating' to the Roman history and
Latin authors,) says, ' that"* Crispus was instructed in Latin
' by Lactantius, the most learned man of his time, but so poor
' in this world, that for the most part he wanted necessaries.'
Cave says, that*^ Lactantius flourisiied chiefly in the year
303, and onwards; which is not much amiss: for though
Lactantius lived partly in the third, and partly in the fourth
metris scriptum versibus; et aliiim librum, qui inscribitiir Grammaticus; et
pulcherrimum De Ir& Dei ; et Institutionum Divinarum adversum Gentes
libros septem ; et ETrtro/xjjv ejusdem operis in libro uno acephalo ; et ad Asclepiadem
libros duos; de Persecutione librum unum ; ad Probuni Epistolarum
ad Severum Epistolarum libros duos; ad Demetrianum, audi-
libros quatuor ;
torem suuai, Epistolarum libros duos ; ad eundem de Opificio Dei, vel Formationehominis,
librum unum. Hie extrema senectute magister CaesarisCrispi, filii
Constantini, in Gallia fuit, tjui postea a patre interfectus. De Vir. 111. cap. 80.
**
I shall here place an ingenious conjecture of Dr. Heumann : Scilicet apud
Hieronymum pro hexamdris scriptwn versibus conjiciebam scriptum fuisse
hexamctris utrumcjiie versibus : Utrumque, id est, tum Symposium, turn
Odceporicum Lactantii. Vid. Sympos. Lact. in Prsef. n. xix.
'^ Sciendum etenim, me esse et interpretis et scriptoris ex parte officio
usum, quia et Graeca fidelissime expressi, et nonnulla, quae interniissa vide-
bantur, adjeci, in Romana maxime histona, quam Eusebius, hujus conditor
libri, non tarn ignorasse, utpote erudilissimus, quam Grace scribens parum
suis necessarian! perstrinxisso, mihi videtur. Hier. Prsef. in Chr. p. 4. f.
•^ Quorum Crispum Lactantius Latinis literis erudivit, vir omnium sue
tempore eruditissimus, sed adeo in hac vita pauper, ut plerumquc etiam neces-
sariis indiguerit. Chron. p. 180. f.
* claruit praecipue ann. 303, et deinceps. H. L. T. i. p. 161.
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