LACTANTIUS’ DIVINE INSTITUTES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE EPITOME

Abstract

If the epitome of a work should ideally retain all the most important content of the original, this process should also imply a synopsis of ideas based on a particular goal. The Divine Institutes and the Epitome of the same work, both indisputably authored by Lactantius, allow us to note the way in which an author simplifies his text, adapting it, as we will argue, based on the final audience and eventually producing a work that, in spite of its title, is not a simple resume.