12 Facts About Arnobius

Arnobius was an early Christian apologist of Berber origin during the reign of Diocletian.

However, Arnobius writes dismissively of dreams in his surviving book.

Arnobius, whom Revilo P Oliver describes as "a practitioner of the turgid and coarse style that is called African", is a vigorous apologist for Christianity.

Arnobius holds the heathen gods to be real beings, but subordinate to the supreme Christian God.

Arnobius affirms that the human soul is not the work of God, but of an intermediate being, and is not immortal by nature, but capable of putting on immortality as a grace.

Arnobius argues that a belief in the soul's immortality would tend to remove moral restraint, and have a prejudicial effect on human life.

Arnobius praises Christianity's rapid diffusion, credits it with civilizing barbarians, and describes it as being in consonance with Platonism.

In book 2 section 4 of, Arnobius gives the first known version of the argument later called Pascal's Wager, that in case of doubt about religion one should commit to it because of the rewards of doing so and risks of not doing so.

The work of Arnobius appears to have been written when he was a recent convert, for he does not possess a very extensive knowledge of Scripture.

Arnobius knows nothing of the Old Testament, and only the life of Christ in the New, while he does not quote directly from the Gospels.

Arnobius was much influenced by Lucretius and had read Plato.

Arnobius's statements concerning Greek and Roman mythology are based respectively on the Protrepticus of Clement of Alexandria, and on Cornelius Labeo, who belonged to the preceding generation and attempted to restore Neoplatonism.