Jerome. Lives of Illustrious Men 80
80 Firmianus the rhetorician, surnamed Lactantius PL 23, 687
Firmianus, known also as Lactantius, a disciple of Arnobius, during the reign of Diocletian summoned to Nicomedia with Flavius the Grammarian whose poem On medicine is still extant, taught rhetoric there and on account of his lack of pupils (since it was a Greek city) he betook himself to writing. We have a Banquet of his which he wrote as a young man in Africa and an Itinerary of a journey from Africa to Nicomedia written in hexameters, and another book which is called The Grammarian and a most beautiful one On the wrath of God, and Divine institutes against the nations, seven books, and an Epitome of the same work in one volume, without a title, also two books To Asclepiades, one book On persecution, four books of Epistles to Probus, two books of Epistles to Severus, two books of Epistles to his pupil Demetrius and one book to the same On the work of God or the creation of man. In his extreme old age he was tutor to Crispus Cæsar a son of Constantine in Gaul, the same one who was afterwards put to death by his father.
919 Firmianus, qui et Lactantius, Arnobii discipulus, sub Diocletiano principe accitus cum Flavio Grammatico, cujus de Medicinalibus versu compositi exstant libri, Nicomediae rhetoricam docuit, et penuria discipulorum, ob Graecam videlicet civitatem, ad scribendum se contulit. Habemus ejus Symposium, quod adolescentulus scripsit; ὁδοιπορικὸν de Africa usque Nicomediam, hexametris scriptum versibus, et alium librum, qui inscribitur Grammaticus, et pulcherrimum de ira Dei, et Institutionum divinarum adversum gentes libros septem, et ἐπιτομὴν ejusdem operis in libro uno acephalo, et ad Asclepiadem libros duos, de persecutione librum unum, ad Probum Epistolarum libros quatuor, ad Severum Epistolarum libros duos; ad Demetrianum, auditorem suum. Epistolarum libros duos; ad eumdem de Opificio Dei, vel formatione hominis, librum unum. Hic extrema senectute magister Caesaris Crispi, filii Constantini, in Gallia fuit, qui postea a patre interfectus est.
920 Φιρμιανὸς, ὁ καὶ Λακτάντιος, Ἀρνοβίου μαθητὴς ἐπὶ Διοκλετιανοῦ βασιλέως μετασταλεὶς μετὰ Φλαβίου Γραμματικοῦ, οὗτινος περὶ Ἰατρικῶν εἴσι δι' ἐπῶν συγγραφαὶ, ἐν Νικομηδείᾳ τὴν ῥητορικὴν ἐδίδαξε, καὶ τῇ πενίᾳ τῶν μαθητῶν, μάλιστα διὰ Ἑλληνικὴν πόλιν, εἰς συγγράμματα ἑαυτὸν μεθῆκεν. Ἔχομεν τούτου Συμπόσιον, ὅπερ νέος ἐν τῇ Ἀφρικῇ συνέταξε, καὶ ὁδοιπορικὸν ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀφρικῆς ἕως Νικομηδείας δι' ἑξαμέτρων συντεθὲν, καὶ ἄλλην βίβλον, ἥτις ἐπιγράφεται Γραμματικὸς, καὶ ὡραῖον περὶ Ὀργῆς θεοῦ, καὶ θείων Εἰσαγωγῶν κατὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν λόγους ἑπτὰ, καὶ ἐπιτομὴν τοῦ αὐτοῦ σπουδάσματος ἀκέφαλον, καὶ πρὸς Ἀσκληπιάδην λόγους δύο, περὶ Διωγμοῦ λόγον ἕνα, πρὸς Πρόβον Ἐπιστολῶν λόγους τέσσαρας, πρὸς τὸν αὐτὸν περὶ Δημιουργίας Θεοῦ λόγον ἕνα. Οὗτος ἐν τῷ ἐσχάτῳ γήρᾳ διδάσκαλος κατέστη Καίσαρος Κρίσπου, τοῦ υἱοῦ Κωνσταντίνου ἐν Γαλλίαις ὃς ὕστερον παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀνῃρέθη.