(d. 43 BC), while rhetor Quintilian (d. 100 AD) claimed that the word was created by the Stoic philosopher Sergius Plautus (d. 62 AD).

Early use of the term is also attested in works of Apuleius (d. 170 AD) and Tertullian (d. 240 AD). During Late Antiquity, the term was often used in Christian theology, and