Marcus Minucius Felix (Minucius)
Marcus Minucius Felix (Minucius)
Flourished 200-240 c.e.
Christian apologist
First Apologia in Latin?. The exact dates of Minucius Felix’s life are unknown. There is a tendency to think the more forceful Tertullian wrote his Latin apologies first, in which case Felix’s work would have been written at the beginning of the third century c.e. However, it is not absolutely necessary to consider Minucius’s stylistically polished work as derivative of Tertullian’s. A reference to a speech of Fronto (who died around 170) may therefore give us a closer date for the lawyer Minucius, in which case he antedates Tertullian. Minucius is primarily known for his Octavius, a dialogue between two Christian converts and an educated pagan. The work is modeled on the philosophical dialogues of Cicero.
Source
Henry Chadwick, “Minucius Felix, Marcus,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 988.