Arnobius

the Younger, is usually placed about A. D. 460, and is believed to have been a bishop or presbyter in Gaul.

Works

He is known to us only as the author of one or two works of very little importance, which have sometimes been attributed to Arnobius the elder.

an allegorical commentary on the Psalms

We possess under his name an allegorical commentary on the Psalms, which is inscribed to Leontius, bishop of Arles, and Rusticus, bishop of Narbonne. This commentary, though the notes are very brief, contains sufficient evidence that the author was a Semipelagian.

Editions

It was first printed at Basel (1522, 4to.) together with Erasmus's commentary on Psalm ii., and was reprinted at Cologne, 1532, 8vo. A much better edition than either of these is that by L. de la Barre, Paris, 1639, 8vo., which also contains some notes by the same Arnobius on several passages of the Gospels, which had been published separately before by G. Cognant, Basel, 1543, 8vo. The commentary of Arnobius is also contained in the Bibl. Patr. (Lugdun. vol. viii.).

Altercatio cum Serapione Aegyptio

There is also contained in the Bibl. Patr. (Lugdun. vol. viii.) to him a work entitled Altercatio cum Serapione Aegyptio; but the principles of the Arnobius who speaks in this Altercatio are strictly those of St. Augustin, and it cannot be the work of a Semipelagian.

Praedestinatus

Sirmond has endeavoured to shew, that our Arnobius the Younger is the author of the work which bears the title Praedestinatus, and which has come down to us as the production of an anonymous writer; but his arguments are not satisfactory.

Further Information

Du Pin, Noav. Bibl. des Aut. Eccles. 3.2, p. 219; Cave, Hist. Lit. i. p. 360, ed. Lond.; Bähr, Die Christl. Röm. Theol. p. 378.

[L.S]

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.