means be attributed to the Christians. He skilfully contends that Christians who worship the self-existent God cannot justly be called less religious than those who worship subordinate deities, and concludes by vindicating the Godhead of Christ. In the second book Arnobius digresses into a long discussion on the soul, which he does not think is of divine origin, and which he scarcely believes to be immortal. He even says that a belief in the soul's immortality would tend to remove moral restraint, and have a prejudicial effect on human life. In the concluding chapters he answers the objections drawn from the recent origin of Christianity. Books iii., iv. and v. contain a violent attack on the heathen mythology, in which he narrates with powerful sarcasm the scandalous chronicles of the gods, and contrasts with their grossness and immorality the pure and holy worship of the Christian. These books are valuable as a repertory of mythological stories. Books vi. and vii. ably handle the questions of sacrifices and worship of images. The confusion of the final chapter points to some interruption. The work of Arnobius appears to have been written when he was a recent convert, for he does not possess a very extensive knowledge of Scripture. He knows nothing of the Old Testament, and only the life of Christ in the New, while he does not quote directly from the Gospels. He is also at fault in regard to the Jewish sects. He was much influenced by Lucretius and had read Plato. His statements concerning Greek and Roman mythology are based respectively on the _Protrepticus_ of Clement of Alexandria, and on Antistius Labeo, who belonged to the preceding generation and attempted to restore Neoplatonism. There are some pleasing passages in Arnobius, but on the whole he is a tumid and a tedious author. EDITIONS.--Migne, _Patr. Lat._ iv. 349; A. Reifferscheich in the _Vienna Corpus Script. Eccles. Lat._ (1875). TRANSLATIONS.--A.H. Bryce and H. Campbell in _Ante-Nicene Fathers_, vi. LITERATURE.--H.C.G. Moule in _Dict. Chr. Biog._ i.; Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_; and G. Kruger, _Early Chr. Lit._ p. 304 (where full bibliographies are given). ARNOBIUS ("the younger"), Christian priest or bishop in Gaul, flourished about 460. He is the author of a mystical and allegorical commentary on the Psalms, first published by Erasmus in 1522, and by him attributed to the elder Arnobius. It has been frequently reprinted, and in the edition of De la Barre, 1580, is accompanied by some notes on the Gospels by the same author. To him has sometimes been ascribed the anonymous treatise, _Arnobii catholici et Serapionis conflictus de Deo trino et uno ... de gratiae liberi arbitrii concordia_, which was probably written by a follower of Augustine. The opinions of Arnobius, as appears from the commentary, are semi-Pelagian.