ARNOBIUS (called SAfer,' sometimes "the Elder"), a teacher of rhetoric : b. Numidia, Africa; flourished about 300 A.D. At first he was a fierce opponent of Christianity; but he was converted and wrote seven books, 'Adver sus Nationes' (or Gentes), in which he seeks to refute the charge of his contemporaries that Christianity was the cause of all misery in the world. To this point he devotes books I and II. The other books are a polemic against heathenism, showing in III, IV and V the folly and immorality of the polytheistic mythology; while VI and VII speak of the heathen temple and sacrificial service. When the work was composed cannot be stated exactly, but prob ably it was after 303. Arnobius was neither a clear thinker nor a skillful writer. The work lacks a comprehensive knowledge of the Scrip ture and is Influenced greatly by Lucretius and Plato. Greek mythology he knew only from the 'Protrepticus> of Clement of Alexandria.
and Roman mythology from the writings of Cornelius Labeo. His naive modalism is merely the expression of a very superstitious senti ment, and his notions concerning the origin, nature and continuance of the soul have any thing but a Christian-ecclesiastical color. He is, on the whole, a tedious author. The work was edited by Migne in 'Patrologia Latina' (Vol. XIV, p. 399) ; by Reifferscheid in the 'Vienna Corpus Scripti Ecclesiastici LatinP (1875, English translation with bibliography in 'Ante-Nicene Fathers,' Vol. VI, 1887). Con sult Moule, H. C. G., in 'Dictionary Christian Biography' (Vol. I) ; Herzog-Hauck, 'Real encyklopadie) ; Kruger, G., 'Early Christian Literature> (with bibliography, p. 304) ; Spind ler, 'De Arnobii genere dicendi> (Strassburg 190l); Scharnagl, (De Arnobli majoris latinitatO (Gbrz 1894-95).