Biographical data on Lactantius are meager. In his catalogue of illustrious men St. Jerome informs us that Lactantius studied under Arnobius. Accepting an imperial invitation Lactantius taught rhetoric at Nicomedia but relinquished this professorship after the outbreak of the Diocletian persecution. In 317 Constantine summoned Lactantius to Trier to supervise the education of his son Crispus. The principal work of Lactantius is the Divine Institutes (Divinae institutions) which was written over a period of years (304-313). It is an apologetic work in seven books which bear the following...