Arnobius
- An African Church father in the time of Diocletian, c. A. D. 295. His work, Adversus Gentes, is distinguished by strength and purity of diction; cf. Teuffel, Röm. Lit. § 639, 2.—
- II Arnŏbĭus (junior), ii, m., a theological author, c. A. D. 460, who wrote a Commentary on the Psalms; cf. Teuffel, Röm. Lit. § 462, 1.
An African who won a high reputation as a master of rhetoric at Sicca in Numidia, in the reign of Diocletian. He was at first a heathen and an assailant of Christianity; but on becoming a Christian, to prove the sincerity of his conversion, he wrote (about A.D. 295) the extant work Adversus Gentes. This is a superficial and rhetorical defence of Christianity and attack on polytheism, but it is full of instruction with regard to the contemporary heathenism and its various worships. It is contained in seven books. The text is derived from a MS. in Paris of the ninth century, in which the work is entitled Adversus Nationes. The editio princeps is that of Sabaeus (Rome, 1543). Good editions are those of Hillebrand (Halle, 1844), and Reifferscheid (1875). Eng. trans. in the Ante-Nicene Library, vol. xix.