Opening the library…
Adversus Gentes
Arnobius of Sicca
A vigorous Latin defense of Christianity against claims that conversion had angered the gods, combining criticism of Roman mythology and cult with arguments about Christ and the soul.
14. Do you dare to laugh at us when we
Pl. Cf. Milman’s note on Gibbon, vol. 2, c. xi. p. 7.
Lit., “certain fires.”
Plato, in the passage referred to (Phædo, st. p. 113, § 61), speaks of the Styx not as a river, but as the lake into which the Cocytus falls. The fourth river which he mentions in addition to the Acheron, Pyriphlegethon, and Cocytus, which he calls Stygian, is the Ocean stream.
So the ms., according to Hild., reading parvæ; but acc. to Rigaltius and Crusius, it gives pravæ—“of no mean.”
So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading doloris afficiat sensu, by merely dropping m from the ms. sensu-m; while all the other edd. read doloribus sensuum—“affects with the pains of the senses.”
i.e., not compounded of soul and body.
Or, “not unsuitably,” absone.
Lit., “in the failure (or ‘disappointment’) of,” etc.
i.e., neither immortal nor necessarily mortal.
So Gelenius emended the unintelligible ms. reading se-mina by merely adding s, followed by all edd., although Ursinus in the margin suggests se mîam, i.e., mi-sericordiam—“pity;” and Heraldus conjectures munia—“gifts.”
So almost all edd., from a conjecture of Gelenius, supplying ut, which is wanting in the ms., first ed., and Oehler.
It is worth while to contrast Augustine’s words: “The death which men fear is the separation of the soul from the body. The true death, which men do not fear, is the separation of the soul from God” (Aug. in Ps. xlviii., quoted by Elmenhorst).
In the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, and Orelli, both verbs are made present, but all other edd. follow the ms. as above.
In the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, and Orelli, both verbs are made present, but all other edd. follow the ms. as above.
Lit., “and unknown.” Here Arnobius shows himself ignorant of Jewish teaching, as in iii. 12.