What are the views of Arnobius (died around 330 A. D.) on participating in military service?

The answer

Arnobius emphasizes that, “evil ought not to be requited with evil (Matt. 5:39), that it is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it, that we should rather shed our own blood than stain our hands and our conscience with that of another, an ungrateful world is now for a long period enjoying a benefit from Christ, inasmuch as by His means the rage of savage ferocity has been softened, and has begun to withhold hostile hands from the blood of a fellow- creature”⁹⁶⁰

Arnobius criticizes Rome for having destroyed some nations and subjected others to its yoke.⁹⁶¹ At the same time, he defends the Christians against the accusation that many misfortunes befell the Roman state because of Christian differences to paganism. In his apology, he points out that if one considers the three hundred years since Christianity arose, “In these years and seasons that have intervened, victories innumerable have been gained from the conquered enemy,—that the boundaries of the empire have been extended, and that nations whose names we had not previously heard, have been brought under our power.”⁹⁶² Does he mean that Christians served in the army or that they were praying for the empire?

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty