Marcus Minucius Felix

Marcus Minucius Felix was one of the earliest of the Latin apologists for Christianity.

Of his personal history nothing is known, and even the date at which he wrote can be only approximately ascertained as between 150-270 AD. Jerome's De Viris Illustribus #58 speaks of him as "Romae insignis causidicus," but in that he is probably only improving on the expression of Lactantius^[1] who speaks of him as "non ignobilis inter causidicos loci."

He is now exclusively known by his Octavius, a dialogue on Christianity between the pagan Caecilius Natalis and the Christian Octavius Januarius.

The Octavius is admittedly earlier than Cyprian's Quod idola dei non sint, which borrows from it; how much earlier can be determined only by settling the relation in which it stands to Tertullian's Apologeticum.

Since A. Ebert's exhaustive argument in 1868, repeated in 1889, the priority of Minucius has been generally admitted; the objections are stated in the Dictionary of Christian Biography article by G. Salmon.

Editions

• F. Sabaeus-Brixianus, as Bk. viii. of Arnobius (Rome, 1543)
• F. Balduinus, first separate edition (Heidelberg, 1560)
• Jacques Paul Migne, Patrol. Lat. iii. 239
• Karl Felix Halm in Corp. Scr. Lcd. Lat. (Vienna, 1867)
• Hubert Ashton Holden.

Translations: R. E. Wallis, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. iv.; A. A. Brodribb's Pagan and Puritan.

References

• H. Boenig's article in Hauck-Herzog's Realencyk. vol. 13
• Histories of early Christian Literature by Adolf Harnack, G. Kruger, A. Ehrhard and Otto Bardenhewer.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• The Date of the Octavius, Holmes V. M. Dennis, 3d The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 50, No. 2 (1929), pp. 185-189 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Notes

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Minucius Felix

• Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes
•  "Minucius Felix". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Minucius_Felix.