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 216 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. come to men, but the cry arose — Christianos ad lea- nem. This was true, for the pagans ascribed public misfortunes to the anger of the gods at Christian impiety. The charge was not to slumber till the Empire's overthrow was laid at Christian doors. Cyprian writes to refute it on the occasion of a pesti- lence.^ A refutation of like charges is the leading motive of the lengthy Adversus Nationes of the Afri- can Arnobius, written shortly after the last and most thorough of all the persecutions, that under Diocle- tian. Conversely, writing after the persecutions had ceased, Lactantius,* in his historical writing, De Mor- tibus persecutorum, directs his polemic narrative to show the evil ends of the persecuting emperors. His great work was the Divinae InstitutioneSj written when the Christian cause was nearing its imperial triumph under the rising star of Constantine. There was then no urgent need to free Christianity from blame for the ills of an Empire which, for the time, appeared to be renewing its strength ; but there was need to set forth systematically the elements of Christian truth, and Lactantius calls his work the Divinae Insti- tutionesy using the title of elementary legal treatises. Its general purpose was to show that pagan worship and philosophy did not accord with reason and truth, while Christianity was both true and reasonable. Accordingly, in philosophic manner and with elegant 1 Ad Demetrianum, Migne, Patr. Lat., Vol. IV. 2 Lactantius, as well as his teacher, Arnobius, was a professor of rhetoric before his conversion to Christianity. His style is classical, and expresses little Christian feeling. Nor does his work represent a deep understanding of Christianity.