Editing Lactantius (section)

==Biography==
Lactantius was of [[Punic]]<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=James Westfall|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dtANAAAAIAAJ&q=Punic+descent|title=A History of Historical Writing: From the earliest times to the end of the seventeenth century|last2=Holm|first2=Bernard J.|date=1967|publisher=P. Smith|language=en}}</ref> or [[Berbers|Berber]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FvgLAQAAIAAJ|title=Annales de la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de l'arrondissement de Saint-Malo|year=1957|page=83|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YstWAAAAYAAJ|title=Dérives|year=1985|page=15|language=fr}}</ref> origin, born into a family that had not converted to Christianity. He was a pupil of [[Arnobius]] who taught at [[Sicca Veneria]], an important city in [[Numidia]] (corresponding to today's city of [[El Kef]] in [[Tunisia]]). In his early life, he taught rhetoric in his native town, which may have been [[Cirta]] in Numidia, where an inscription mentions a certain "L. Caecilius Firmianus".<ref>Harnack, ''Chronologie d. altchr. Lit.'', II,416</ref>

Lactantius had a successful public career at first. At the request of the [[Roman emperor]] [[Diocletian]], he became an official professor of rhetoric in [[Nicomedia]]; the voyage from Africa is described in his poem ''Hodoeporicum'' (now lost).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Conte|first1=Gian Biagio|title=Latin Literature: A History|date=1999|publisher=JHU Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=0-8018-6253-1|page=640|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NJGp_dkXnuUC&pg=PA640|access-date=August 29, 2016}}</ref> There, he associated in the imperial circle with the administrator and polemicist [[Sossianus Hierocles]] and the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic]] philosopher [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]];  he first met [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]], and [[Galerius]], whom he cast as villain in the [[Persecutions of Diocletian|persecutions]].<ref>Paul Stephenson, ''Constantine, Roman Emperor, Christian Victor'', 2010:104.</ref> Having converted to Christianity, he resigned his post<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopædia Britannica|year=1993|edition=15th|volume=7}}</ref> before Diocletian's purging of Christians from his immediate staff and before the publication of Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" (February 24, 303).<ref>Stephenson 2010:106.</ref>

As a Latin ''rhetor'' in a Greek city, he subsequently lived in poverty according to [[Saint Jerome]] and eked out a living by writing until [[Constantine the Great|Constantine I]] became his [[patron]]. The persecution forced him to leave Nicomedia, perhaps re-locating to North Africa.  The emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] appointed the elderly Lactantius Latin tutor to his son [[Crispus]] in 309{{Ndash}}310 who was probably 10{{Ndash}}15 years old at the time.<ref name=barnes>Barnes, Timothy, Constantine: Dynasty, Religion and Power in the Later Roman Empire, 2011, p. 177-8.</ref> Lactantius followed Crispus to [[Trier]] in 317, when Crispus was made [[Caesar (title)|Caesar]] (subordinate co-emperor) and sent to the city. Crispus was [[death penalty|put to death]] by order of his father [[Constantine I]] in 326.  The time and circumstances of Lactantius's death are unknown.<ref name=Healy>{{catholic|title=Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius|inline=1|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08736a.htm|last=Healy|first=Patrick|volume=8|year=1910|access-date=26 February 2016}}</ref>