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[German version] ('That idols are not gods'). An apologetic treatise in rhythmic form from the mid-4th cent. AD, attributed to Cyprianus [2] but based on Lactantius [1]. Contents: 1-7: Rejection of the cult of the gods as a demonic illusion, not the cause of the greatness of Rome; 8-9: Discovery of the one God; 10-14: Mission, work, passion and resurrection of Christ; 15: Call to follow. The main sources are Minucius [II 1] Felix and Tertullianus, Apologeticum (see also De spectaculis), as well as Lactantius ( Divinae institutiones, De ira dei, Epitome), Cyprianus (title based on Ad Fortu…

[1] Christian Theologist and apologist, c. 250-325 [German version] A. Life L. Caelius Firmianus qui et L., Christian Latin writer, born in Africa around 250, probably died in Gaul in 325. Diocletian summoned him to teach rhetoric at Nicomedia in Bithynia where he converted, and after the outbreak of the Great Persecution of Christians in 303 he became an apologist ( Apologists). Around 315, Constantine [1] brought him to Gaul, probably to Trier, to be the teacher of his son Crispus. Heck, Eberhard (Tübingen) [German version] B. Works De opificio dei (‘On the Workmanship of God’; 303…

Name of a Roman gens. The patrician bearers of the name from the 5th and 4th cents. BC that have come down to us are of disputed historicity, in any case the early family history has been embellished in the late Republic.  It is these Minucii that later membesrs (from the 3rd century BC) trace themselves back to. A prominent cognomen is Augurinus (M. [I 1-3] and [I 5 and 6]), deriving from the first plebeian augur M. [I 7], applied only subsequently to the early Republican members. The political zen…