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Encyclopedia Britannica



FIRMICUS, MATERNUS JULIUS

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 424 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FAT-FLA
FIRMICUS, MATERNUS JULIUS , a Latin writer, who lived in the reign of
Constantine
  and his successors. About the year 346 he composed a
work
  entitled De erroribus profanarum religionum, which he inscribed to Constantius and Constans, the sons of
Constantine
 , and which is still extant. In the first part (chs. 1-17) he attacks the false objects of
worship
  among the Oriental cults; in the second (chs. 18-29) he discusses a number of formulae and
rites
  connected with the mysteries. The whole tone of the
work
  is fanatical and declamatory rather than argumentative, and is thus in such
sharp
  contrast with the eight books on astronomy (Libri VIII. Matheseos) bearing the same author's name, that the two works have usually been attributed to different writers. Mommsen (Hermes vol. 29, pp. 468-472) has, however, shown that the astronomya work interfused with an urbane Neoplatonic spiritwas composed about 336 and not in 354 as was formerly held. When we add to this the similarity of style, and the fact that each betrays a connexion with Sicily, there is the strongest reason for claiming the same author for the two books, though it shows that in the 4th century acceptance of Christianity did not always mean an advance in ethical standpoint.
The Christian work is preserved in a Palatine MS. in the Vatican library. It was first printed at Strassburg in 1562, and has been reprinted several times, both separately and along with the writings of Minucius
Felix
 , Cyprian or Arnobius. The most correct editions are those by Conr. Bursian (
Leipzig
 , 1856), and by C.
Halm
 , in his Minucius
Felix
  (Corp. Scr. Eccl. Lat. ii.), (Vienna, 1867). The Neoplatonist work was first printed by Aldus Manutius in 1501, and has often been reprinted. For full discussions see G. Ebert, Gesch. der chrt lat. Litt., ed. 1889, p. I29 ff.; O. Bardenhewer, Patrologie, ed. toot, p. 354,


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