The Nicene Age · AD 313–400
Marius Victorinus
d. c. 370 · Roman rhetorician · Convert · Trinitarian theologian · Africa → Rome
The Nicene Age
Who Marius Victorinus was
The most celebrated pagan rhetorician of Rome, honoured with a statue in the Forum of Trajan and a translator of Aristotle and the Neoplatonists — who, in old age, astonished the city by publicly professing Christ, a conversion Augustine (who read his translations of Plotinus) recounts in the Confessions as a spur to his own. Victorinus turned his Neoplatonic learning to the defence of Nicaea, writing dense treatises Against Arius that were among the first to bring philosophical metaphysics to bear on the Trinity in Latin. When Julian barred Christians from teaching, he resigned his chair. The learned old pagan whose late conversion moved a greater convert.
Also listed in heretics & schismatics.
Common questions
When did Marius Victorinus die?
Marius Victorinus is dated d. c. 370 in the archive, which places Marius Victorinus in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
What did Marius Victorinus write?
Marius Victorinus has 2 catalogued writings in the archive: Against Arius (Adversus Arium) and Against Arius, with the Theological Hymns.
Which early sources mention Marius Victorinus?
Marius Victorinus is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Jerome of Stridon and Augustine of Hippo. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Marius Victorinus from?
The archive associates Marius Victorinus with Africa, Rome. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Writings (2)
Against Arius (Adversus Arium)
c. 359–363God is before being — He is the cause of being to all that is; and the Son is the form and act of that same one substance, consubstantial with the Father.Read the interlinear source text →
Against Arius, with the Theological Hymns
The converted rhetor's dense Trinitarian metaphysics — Neoplatonism baptized[The treatises and hymns survive whole; Jerome judged them 'very obscure books, understood only by the learned']Read the interlinear source text →
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
On Illustrious Men 101 (the rhetor whose statue stood in Trajan's forum)
c. AD 392Victorinus, an African by birth, taught rhetoric at Rome, and in extreme old age, yielding himself to faith in Christ, wrote books against Arius, written in dialectic style and very obscure language, books which can only be understood by the learned.Jerome of Stridon · On Illustrious Men 101 · source text
Confessions VIII.2
c. AD 410Victorinus, that old man of most learned skill, most cunning in all the liberal sciences… was not ashamed to become the child of Thy Christ, and an infant at Thy font, bowing his neck to the yoke of humility.Augustine of Hippo · VIII · source text
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 301 · Hripsime and her company, AD 301
- AD 303 · The Great Persecution begins, AD 303
- AD 303 · The search of the church at Cirta, AD 303
- AD 306 · The Council of Elvira, AD 306
- AD 311 · Galerius’ edict of Serdica, AD 311
- AD 313 · The Edict of Milan, AD 313
- AD 314 · The Council of Arles, AD 314
- AD 320 · Silvanus tried before Zenophilus, AD 320
- AD 325 · The Council of Nicaea, AD 325
- AD 339 · The persecution of Shapur II, AD 339
- AD 343 · The Council of Serdica, AD 343
- AD 361 · Julian’s pagan restoration, AD 361
- AD 366 · Damasus and the catacomb epigrams, AD 366
- AD 367 · Athanasius lists the 27 NT books, AD 367
Place
Places served
The 2 places the sources put Marius Victorinus, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.