Arnobius
Arnobius (died c. 330) was an early Christian apologist of Berber origin during the reign of Diocletian (284–305).
Arnobius | |
|---|---|
| Died | c. 330 |
| Nationality | Roman |
| Other names | Arnobius the Elder, Arnobius Afer, Arnobius of Sicca |
| Occupation(s) | Theologian, writer |
| Notable work | Adversus nationes |
| Era | Roman philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
Main interests |
|
Notable ideas | Early form of the Pascal's Wager |
According to Jerome's Chronicle, Arnobius, before his conversion, was a distinguished Numidian rhetorician at Sicca Veneria (El Kef, Tunisia), a major Christian center in Proconsular Africa, and owed his conversion to a premonitory dream. However, Arnobius writes dismissively of dreams in his surviving book.
According to Jerome, to overcome the doubts of the local bishop as to the earnestness of his Christian belief he wrote (c. 303, from evidence in IV:36) an apologetic work in seven books, which St. Jerome calls Adversus gentes but which is entitled Adversus nationes in the only (9th-century) manuscript that has survived. Jerome's reference, his remark that Lactantius was a pupil of Arnobius and the surviving treatise are all the surviving facts about Arnobius.