Fragments of Lactantius
Chapter 1
Fear, love, joy, sadness, lust, eager desire, anger, pity, emulation, and admiration—these movements or affections of the mind have existed from the beginning of man's creation by the Lord. They were introduced into human nature for useful and beneficial purposes, so that by ruling himself through them in an orderly way and in agreement with reason, man might be able, by acting courageously, to practice those good qualities by which he would rightly deserve to receive eternal life from the Lord. For when these affections of the mind are kept within their proper limits, that is, when they are used rightly, they produce good qualities now and eternal rewards in the future. But when they go beyond their boundaries, that is, when they turn aside into an evil course, then vices and iniquities arise and bring everlasting punishments.
Also within our memory, Lactantius speaks about meters—the pentameter, he says, and the tetrameter.
Firmianus, writing to Probus about the meters of comedies, speaks in this way: “As for the question you asked about the meters of comedies, I also know that many think that the plays of Terence especially do not have the meter of Greek comedy, that is, the meter of Menander, Philemon, and Diphilus, which consists of trimeter verses. For our ancient writers of comedy, in the rhythm of their plays, chose rather to follow Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristophanes, as has been said before. But that there is a measure, that is, meter, in the plays of Terence and Plautus, and in those of the other comic and tragic writers, let these men declare it: Cicero, Scaurus, and Firmianus.”
We will present the views of our Lactantius, which he expressed in his third book to Probus on this subject. He says that the Gauls were in ancient times called Galatians because of the whiteness of their bodies, and the Sibyl calls them this. And this is what the poet meant to show when he said—
Gold collars adorn their milk-white necks,
when he could have used the word white. It is clear that the province was called Galatia because of this. When the Gauls arrived there, they joined themselves to the Greeks. Because of that, the region was called Gallogræcia, and later Galatia. And it is not surprising if he said this about the Galatians, and reported that a people from the West, after crossing so great a distance through the middle of the earth, settled in a region of the East.