ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses facet of the De viris illustribus as an aspect of its composition or function in late antiquity. The Christian literature most similar to Jerome's De viris illustribus was not the lists of late antique grammarians, poets, historians or orators, as Suetonius' lists contained, but lists of heretics and their associated heresies. Moreover, the language that Augustine used in his 40th epistle also presupposed that the De viris illustribus had a specific functional value. Cassiodorus praised Gennadius, saying that he 'judged most definitively concerning those who wrote about the divine law'. Cassiodorus even explicitly stated that the work was used in the course of argumentation among Christians. He began by explaining why Christian authors produced literature in the first place: divine inspiration, consolatory letters, sermons to the people, and disputes with heretics. Cassiodorus wrote nothing about the value of the work in combatting paganism.
