The Octavius of Minucius Felix.
Rome · 250
M
Minucius Felix
Minucius Felix
?–250 CE · Rome
Marcus Minucius Felix was a Latin Christian apologist, probably of North African origin, who practiced as an advocate (lawyer) at Rome in the late second or early third century. He is best known as the author of the Octavius, an elegant Latin dialogue in the Ciceronian manner that defends Christianity against pagan charges; it is set dramatically on the beach at Ostia. His dates are entirely uncertain; the Octavius is generally placed between c. 160 and 270, with many scholars favouring the late second to early third century. The commonly cited death date of c. 250 is a scholarly inference based on Cyprian's apparent use of the work, not an ancient attestation of his death.
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Stop 1 of 2180Advocate; Author
RomeרומאItaly
What they did here
Jerome (De Viris Illustribus 58) and Lactantius both describe Minucius Felix as a distinguished forensic advocate at Rome; the Octavius itself implies a Roman professional life, and composition of the dialogue is conventionally assigned to Rome, though no ancient source records the precise period of his residence.
Rome in this era
Governed by the Roman emperors from the Antonines through the Tetrarchy, Rome housed a bishop's see of growing prestige, was the scene of periodic persecutions, and saw theologians such as Justin Martyr debate and die for the faith in the second century.
About Rome
Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.
In Rome at the same time
Julius Africanus, Hippolytus, Origen, Sabellius, Novatian, Pope St. Fabian
Across the traditions, in Rome at the same time
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Minucius Felix’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Minucius Felix’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.