L ACT.A'N T I US, (LUCI US C(E LI US, or CzECILIUS FIRM IAN US LACTANTIUS), one of the early Latin fathers, was a scholar of Arnobius, who taught rhetoric at Sicca in Africa. Ile lived at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century. His native country is uncertain, but he is generally supposed to have been an African. On the invitation of Diocletian, he went to Nieomedia, where be taught rhetoric. He became afterwards preceptor to Crispus, the son of Constantine, in Gaul. The time of his death is not satisfactorily ascertained.
His chief work is the 'Divine Institutions,' in seven books, written in repiy to two heathens who wrote against Christianity at the begin ning of Dioeletiau's persecution. The date of the composition of this work cannot be exactly fixed. Basnage, Du Pin, and others place it about 320; Cave and Lardner about 306: Lardner states the argu ments on both sides in his 'Credibility;' and, on the whole, the latter opinion seems the more probable. Du Pin has given an analysis of the Institutions.' The other extant works of Lactautius are, an Epitome of the Divine Institutions;' the first five books of which were not known in Jerome's time, but were discovered and published by Pfaff in the year 1712; a treatise on the ' Workmanship of God ;' a treatise on the ' Wrath of God,' and a work entitled `Symporrion; which he wrote when he was very young. He also wrote an Itinerary
from Africa to Nieomedia,' a work entitled ' Graminaticua,' two books to Asclepiades, and eight books of Epistles, all of which aro lost. A work on the 'Deaths of Persecutors' is ascribed to Lactau tins, but its genninenees is much disputed.
The testimony to his learning, eloquence, and piety is most abundant. Le Clerc calls him the most eloquent of the Latin fathers, and Du Pin places his style almost on a level with Cicero's. Many writers however value his rhetoric more than his theology. He has been charged, among other errors, with Manichaeism, from which Lardner takes great pains to defend him.
Complete editions of his works wore published by licurnann at Gottingen in 1786 (the preface to this edition contains a catalogue of former editions); and by the AbleS Lenglet, 2 vols. 9to, Paris, 1748.