Arnobius The Elder

FL. c.304-310. A teacher of rhetoric from Sicca in Numidia, he was converted from paganism to Christ. His defense of Christianity, entitled Ad Nationes, concentrated on exposing the errors of pagan worship and mythology. The divinity of Christ he based primarily on the miracles, and he advocated hope in Christ as the only real basis for immortality. Despite his respect for pagan philosophers like Plato, he argued that the soul is not immortal by nature. As a recent convert he lapsed occasionally into unorthodoxy; Christ, for instance, is not coequal with the Father, he said.