Note 134 — Chapter XX

The chief Latin writer on philosophy was Firmicus Maternus, whose eight books, Matheseos (Of Learning), published about 354 A. D., are occupied with Neoplatonic astrology. He is to be distinguished from his Christian contemporary and namesake, who wrote of the Error of the Pagan Religions. Gaius Marius Victorinus, who also lived about the middle of the century, was an African by birth, but taught rhetoric at Rome. He was the author of philosophical works, chiefly translations and adaptations from the Greek, but is best known by his extant work on metres in four books, and by some other extant grammatical treatises. In his later life he became a Christian, and wrote commentaries on St. Paul’s epistles, besides some controversial tracts.