Sallust was one of the four authors who drew the quadriga of Late Roman
education. Lactantius was employed by emperors to provide education in
Latin rhetoric to future political leaders in the Roman Empire; the
Divine Institutes, it will be argued, was designed precisely to explicate
Christianity to men in the Latinate political milieu of the imperial
court. It is therefore significant that quotations from and allusions
to Sallust are deployed at a few strategic points in the exposition of the
Institutes. This paper will argue that Lactantius engaged with Sallust's thought
on central matters at issue between Christians and pagans such as the character of Providence, the nature of Man and the shape of world history and, writing at a time when the pagan authorities were persecuting the Church, provided a response that is distinctively and uncompromisingly Christian.
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