---
title: "Seven Books of History against the Pagans"
author: "Paulus Orosius"
translator: "S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026)"
title_ru: "История против язычников"
title_fr: "Histoires contre les païens"
title_de: "Sieben Bücher Geschichte gegen die Heiden"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Church Fathers"
section: 100 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/100/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 100. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/100/"
---

# Seven Books of History against the Pagans

*Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026)*

Russian: История против язычников · French: Histoires contre les païens · German: Sieben Bücher Geschichte gegen die Heiden

Augustine's pupil tells the whole of world history to prove that the Christian times are not the worst.

## 100. Book 5 · Chapter 12

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/100/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/100/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 627 from the founding of the City, in the consulship of Lucius Caecilius Metellus and Quintus Titius Flamininus, Carthage in Africa, which had been ordered to be restored, was at last, in the twenty-second year after its overthrow, restored and repopulated, families of Roman citizens being led out to inhabit it; a great prodigy had gone before.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita DCXXVII L. Caecilio Metello et Q. Titio Flaminino coss. Carthago in Africa restitui iussa uicensimo secundo demum anno quam fuerat euersa deductis ciuium Romanorum familiis, quae eam incolerent, restituta et repleta est, magno ante prodigio praecedente.

*Note: The consuls of 123 BC were Quintus Caecilius Metellus (Balearicus) and Titus Quinctius Flamininus; Orosius garbles both names.*

[¶1] For when the surveyors sent to mark out the boundaries of the Carthaginian territory found that the stakes they had fixed as markers of the boundaries had been torn up in the night by wolves with their teeth and gnawed, there was for some time hesitation whether it was expedient for the Roman peace that Carthage be rebuilt.

> Latin: 2 nam cum mensores ad limitandum Carthaginiensem agrum missi stipites, terminorum indices, fixos nocte a lupis reuulsos mordicus conrososque reperissent, aliquamdiu haesitatum est, utrum Romanae paci expediret Carthaginem reformari.

[¶2] In the same year Gaius Gracchus, brother of that Gracchus who had already been killed in sedition, was made tribune of the plebs amid tumult and was a great bane to the commonwealth.

> Latin: 3 Eodem anno C. Gracchus, Gracchi illius qui iam occisus in seditione fuerat frater, tribunus plebi per tumultum creatus magna reipublicae pernicies fuit.

[¶3] For after he had often roused the Roman people to the bitterest seditions with largesses and excessive promises — above all on account of the agrarian law, for which his brother Gracchus too had been killed — he at last left the tribunate to his successor Minucius.

> Latin: 4 nam cum saepe populum Romanum largitionibus promissisque nimiis in acerbissimas seditiones excitauisset, maxime legis agrariae causa, pro qua etiam frater eius Gracchus fuerat occisus, tandem a tribunatu Minucio successore decessit.

[¶4] When the tribune of the plebs Minucius had overturned the greater part of the enactments of his predecessor Gracchus and abrogated his laws, Gaius Gracchus, together with Fulvius Flaccus, surrounded by a huge crowd, went up to the Capitol, where an assembly was being held; there, amid the very great tumult that arose, a certain herald was killed by the Gracchans, and this was, as it were, the signal for war.

> Latin: 5 Minucius tribunus plebi cum maxima ex parte decessoris sui Gracchi statuta conuulsisset legesque abrogasset, C. Gracchus cum Fuluio Flacco ingenti stipatus agmine Capitolium, ubi contio agitabatur, ascendit: ibi maximo tumultu excitato quidam praeco a Gracchanis interfectus uelut signum belli fuit.

[¶5] Flaccus, girt about by his two armed sons, and accompanied also by Gracchus, who wore his toga and hid a short sword under his left arm, seized the temple of Diana as though it were a citadel, although he had sent ahead a herald, in vain, to call the slaves to freedom.

> Latin: 6 Flaccus duobus filiis armatis cinctus, comitante etiam Graccho togato breuemque gladium sub sinistra occultante, quamuis et praeconem frustra praemisisset, qui seruos ad libertatem uocaret Dianium tamquam arcem occupauit.

[¶6] Against him Decimus Brutus, a man of consular rank, charged down from the Publician slope amid a mighty struggle. There Flaccus fought long and most obstinately; Gracchus, after he had withdrawn into the temple of Minerva and wished to fall upon his sword, was held back by the intervention of Laetorius. And so, while the battle was long waged with doubtful issue, at last archers sent by Opimius broke up the close-packed multitude.

> Latin: 7 contra D. Brutus uir consularis a cliuo Publicio cum ingenti certamine inruit. ibi Flaccus diu obstinatissime dimicauit; Gracchus, postquam in templum Mineruae secesserat, gladio incumbere uolens, interuentu Laetorii retentus est. itaque cum diu anceps bellum agitaretur, tandem sagittarii ab Opimio missi consertam multitudinem disturbauerunt.

[¶7] The two Flacci, father and son, having leapt down through the temple of Luna into a private house and barred the doors, were run through after the wattled wall had been cut away. Gracchus, while his friends long fought and fell for him, with difficulty reached the Sublician bridge, and there, so as not to be taken alive, offered his neck to his slave.

> Latin: 8 duo Flacci pater filiusque cum per aedem Lunae in priuatam domum desiluissent foresque obiecissent, rescisso craticio pariete confossi sunt. Gracchus diu pro se amicis pugnantibus ac pereuntibus aegre ad pontem sublicium peruenit ibique, ne uiuus caperetur, ceruicem seruo suo praebuit.

[¶8] The head of Gracchus was cut off and brought to the consul; his body was carried to his mother Cornelia at the town of Misenum. This Cornelia, the daughter of the elder Africanus, had withdrawn to Misenum, as I have said, on the death of her first son. The goods of Gracchus were confiscated; the young Flaccus was put to death in the dungeon; of the faction of Gracchus, 250 are reported to have been slain on the Aventine.

> Latin: 9 caput Gracchi excisum consuli adlatum est, corpus ad Corneliam matrem Misenum oppidum deuectum est. haec autem Cornelia, Africani maioris filia, Misenum, ut dixi, prioris filii morte secesserat. bona Gracchi publicata sunt; Flaccus adulescens in robore necatus est; ex factione Gracchi ducenti quinquaginta in Auentino caesi fuisse referuntur.

[¶9] The consul Opimius, as he had been brave in war, so was he cruel in the inquiry. For he put more than three thousand men to death by execution, of whom very many were killed innocent, without even being allowed to plead their cause.

> Latin: 10 Opimius consul sicut in bello fortis fuit ita in quaestione crudelis. nam amplius tria milia hominum suppliciis necauit, ex quibus plurimi ne dicta quidem causa innocentes interfecti sunt.