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L. Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius, Fragmenta

Editors' preface

LACTANTII FIRMIANI

FRAGMENTA (a).

FRAGMENTS OF LACTANTIUS FIRMIANUS (a).

I. Timor, amor, laetitia, tristitia, libido, concupiscentia, ira, miseratio, zelus, admiratio, hi motus animi, vel affectus a Domino ab initio hominis exsistunt conditi, et naturae humanae utiliter et salubriter sunt inserti, ut per eos ordinate et rationabiliter regendo se homo, virtutes bonas viriliter agendo exercere possit, per quas a Domino perpetuam accipere vitam juste meruisset. Hi namque animi motus intra fines proprios coarctati, hoc est in bona parte positi, in praesenti virtutes bonas et in futuro aeterna praemia parant; extra metas vero suas affluentes, hoc est in malam partem declinantes, vitia et iniquitates exsistunt et aeternas poenas pariunt. V. Muratorii Antiqu. ital. med. aevi III, p. 849.

I. Fear, love, joy, sorrow, desire, concupiscence, anger, pity, zeal, admiration: these motions of the mind, or affections, were created by the Lord from the beginning of man, and were implanted usefully and wholesomely in human nature, so that by governing himself through them in an orderly and rational way, man might be able to exercise good virtues by acting manfully, through which he would justly have merited to receive perpetual life from the Lord. For these motions of the mind, when confined within their proper bounds, that is, placed on the good side, produce good virtues in the present and eternal rewards in the future; but when overflowing beyond their limits, that is, declining to the bad side, they become vices and iniquities and give birth to eternal punishments. See Muratori, Antiquitates Italicae medii aevi III, p. 849.

II. Nostra quoque memoria Lactantius de metris, pentameter, inquit, et tetrameter. Maxim. Victorin. de carmine heroico, c. 5, p. 1957. Putsch. (cf. Hieron. catal. c. 80: habemus et alium librum, qui inscribitur Grammaticus).

II. Within our own memory too, Lactantius, on metres: pentameter, he says, and tetrameter. Maximus Victorinus, On Heroic Verse, ch. 5, p. 1957, Putschius. (Compare Jerome, Catalogue, ch. 80: we have also another book, which is entitled The Grammarian.)

III. Firmianus ad Probum de metris comoediarum sic dicit: « Nam quod de metris comoediarum requisisti, et ego scio plurimos existimare, Terentianas vel maxime fabulas metrum non habere comoediae graecae, i. e. Menandri, Philemonis, Diphili, qui trimetris

III. Firmianus, writing to Probus on the metres of comedies, speaks thus: "For as to your inquiry about the metres of comedies, I too know that very many think that the plays of Terence above all do not have the metre of Greek comedy, that is, of Menander, Philemon and Diphilus, who consist of trimeter

Editors' notes and page, col. 275

Footnotes

(a) ‹anchor: FRAGMENTA (a), the title band across cols 275/276› · call in col 276 (on the title band; the note is set across cols 275–276)

Fragmentum de extremo judicio (Nullus vel negat vel dubitat.... esse ventura), quod Steph. Baluzius in c. Colbert. 1095, libro VII Institutionum subjunctum invenerat et Lactantio tribuerat, Augustini est, de Civit. Dei XX, c. 30. Legitur etiam in quibusdam aliis codd. ut Kell. Augustini nomine adjecto idque vir quidam pius subjecit, ut lector ab erroribus Lactantii de regno millenario caveret. Adduco praeterea de epistolis Lactantii deperditis haec Damasi et Hieronymi testimonia: « Fateor tibi, eos quos mihi jampridem Lactantii dederas libros, ideo non libenter lego, quia et plurimae epistolae ejus usque ad mille spatia versuum tenduntur, et raro de nostro dogmate disputant: quo fit, ut et legenti fastidium generet longitudo, et si qua brevia sunt, scholasticis magis sunt apta, quam nobis, de metris et regionum situ et philosophis disputantia (al. disputantibus). » (Damas. ep. ad Hieron XXXV. Opp. Hier. ed. Vallars. I, 1, p. 159). « Multi per imperitiam scripturarum, quod et Firmianus in octavo (Vallars. rescribit altero) ad Demetrianum epistolarum libro facit, asserunt sp. s. saepe patrem, saepe filium nominari; et cum perspicue in trinitate credamus, tertiam personam auferentes, non substantiam ejus volunt esse, sed nomen. » (Hieron. in ep. ad Gal. IV, 6., add. ei. ad Pammach. et Ocean. ep. LXXXIV. ed. Vallars I, 1, p. 528, de v. ill. c. 80: habemus... ad Demetrianum auditorem suum epistolarum libros duos.) O. F. FRITZSCHE.

The fragment on the last judgement ("No one either denies or doubts.... are to come"), which Stephen Baluze had found appended to Book VII of the Institutes in Colbert codex 1095 and had attributed to Lactantius, is Augustine's, City of God XX, ch. 30. It is also read in certain other manuscripts, such as Kell., with Augustine's name added; and some pious man appended it so that the reader might beware of Lactantius's errors about the millennial kingdom. I adduce besides these testimonies of Damasus and Jerome on Lactantius's lost letters: "I confess to you that I do not read willingly the books of Lactantius which you gave me long ago, because very many of his letters stretch to a thousand lines, and they rarely discuss our doctrine; so that their length breeds weariness in the reader, and whatever is short is better suited to schoolmen than to us, discussing metres and the situation of regions and philosophers (another reading: philosophers who discuss)." (Damasus, letter to Jerome XXXV, Works of Jerome, Vallarsi ed., I, 1, p. 159.) "Many through ignorance of the Scriptures, as Firmianus also does in the eighth (Vallarsi corrects to 'second') book of his letters to Demetrianus, assert that the Holy Spirit is often named the Father, often the Son; and though we believe plainly in the Trinity, they take away the third person and will have it to be not a substance but a name." (Jerome on the letter to the Galatians IV, 6; add to it [the letter] to Pammachius and Oceanus, letter LXXXIV, Vallarsi ed. I, 1, p. 528; Lives of Illustrious Men ch. 80: "we have... two books of letters to Demetrianus, his pupil.") O. F. Fritzsche.

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Page

running head: 275 FIRMIANI LACTANTII FR[cut off at image edge]
marginal letters: A ‹misericordiam suam servet›; B ‹centia, ira, miseratio›; C ‹de carmine heroico›; D ‹tii de regno millenario› (beside the footnote block)
old-edition numerals: (none)
other: a full-width band (LACTANTII FIRMIANI / FRAGMENTA (a).) stands across cols 275/276 in mid-page; the lines above it in both columns (and the Variorum notae under them) belong to the previous unit and are not set; the band itself is not set (unit boundary)
other: the column opens with the end of the previous work (another unit); not set here: the unit begins at I. Timor, amor

PL 7:276

versibus constant. Nostri enim veteres comoediae scriptores in modulandis fabulis sequi maluerunt Eupolim, Cratinum, Aristophanem, ut praefatum est.» Mensuram esse in fabulis, h. e. μέτρον, Terentii et Plauti ac caeterorum comicorum et tragicorum dicant hi, Cicero, Scaurus, Firmianus. Rufinus grammaticus de metris comicis, p. 2712 s. Putsch.

verses. For our old writers of comedy preferred, in setting their plays to measure, to follow Eupolis, Cratinus, Aristophanes, as has been said before." That there is measure in the plays, that is, metron, of Terence and Plautus and the rest of the comic and tragic poets, these say: Cicero, Scaurus, Firmianus. Rufinus the grammarian, On Comic Metres, p. 2712 f., Putsch.

IV. Lactantii nostri quae in tertio ad Probum volumine de hac gente opinatus sit verba ponemus. Galli, inquit, antiquitus a candore corporis Galatae nuncupabantur; et Sibylla sic eos appellat. Quod significare voluit poeta cum ait: Tum lactea colla Auro innectuntur (Virg, Aen. VIII, 660 s.), cum posset dicere candida. Hinc utique Galatia provincia, in quam Galli aliquando venientes, cum Graecis se miscuerunt. Unde primum ea regio Gallograecia, post Galatia nominata est. Nec mirum si hoc ille de Galatis dixerit, et occidentales populos tantis in medio terrarum spatiis praetermissis, in orientis plaga consedisse memorarit. — Hieronym. commentar. in ep. ad Gal. l. II, Opp. ed. Vallars. VII, 1, p. 426. (Hieron. de viris ill. c. 80: habemus ad Probum epistolarum libros quatuor.)

IV. We shall set down the words of our Lactantius, giving what he thought about this people in the third volume to Probus. The Gauls, he says, were in ancient times called Galatae from the whiteness of their bodies; and the Sibyl calls them so. This is what the poet meant when he says: Then their milk-white necks are bound with gold (Virgil, Aeneid VIII, 660 f.), when he could have said "white". Hence, certainly, the province of Galatia, into which the Gauls at one time came and mingled with the Greeks. Whence that region was first named Gallograecia, afterwards Galatia. Nor is it surprising if he said this of the Galatians, and related that western peoples, passing over such great stretches of land in between, settled in the region of the east. — Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, bk. II, Works, Vallarsi's edition, VII, 1, p. 426. (Jerome, On Illustrious Men, ch. 80: we have four books of letters to Probus.)

Editors' notes and page, col. 276