---
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: 102 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/102/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 102. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/102/"
---

# 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.

## 102. Book 5 · Chapter 14

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/102/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/102/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 628 from the founding of the City, the consul Fabius went out to meet Bituitus, king of the Arverni, a Gallic state, who was preparing war with the greatest equipment, with so small an army that Bituitus boasted that the Romans’ small numbers would scarcely suffice as food for the dogs he had with his column.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita DCXXVIII Fabius consul Bituito regi Aruernorum Galliae ciuitatis bellum maximo instructu conparanti adeo cum paruo exercitu occurrit, ut Bituitus paucitatem Romanorum uix ad escam canibus, quos in agmine habebat, sufficere posse iactaret.

[¶1] And since he realized that one bridge over the river Rhône was too little for taking his forces across, he built another of boats fastened together and linked with chains, with planks laid over them and fixed in place.

> Latin: 2 qui cum sibi ad transferendas copias unum pontem Rhodani fluminis parum esse intellegeret, alium conpactis lintribus catenisque conexum superstratis confixisque tabulis instruxit.

[¶2] When battle was joined and long and fiercely waged, the Gauls were defeated and turned to flight; and while each man feared for himself, by crowding their columns together without thought and by their over-hasty crossing of the bridge, they broke its chains and were soon drowned together with the boats themselves.

> Latin: 3 conserta pugna et diu grauiter agitata, uicti Galli conuersique in fugam, dum quisque sibi timet, coaceruatis inconsulte agminibus et praepropero transitu pontis uincula ruperunt ac mox cum ipsis lintribus mersi sunt.

[¶3] The army of Bituitus is recorded to have numbered 180,000 armed men, of whom 150,000 were either slain or drowned.

> Latin: 4 centum octoginta milia armatorum in exercitu Bituiti fuisse traduntur, ex quibus centum quinquaginta milia uel caesa uel mersa sunt.

[¶4] The consul Quintus Marcius made war upon a nation of Gauls situated at the foot of the Alps. When they saw themselves hemmed in by the Roman forces and understood that they would be no match for them in war, they killed their wives and children and threw themselves into the flames.

> Latin: 5 Q. Marcius consul Gallorum gentem sub radice Alpium sitam bello adgressus est. qui cum se Romanis copiis circumsaeptos uiderent belloque inpares fore intellegerent, occisis coniugibus ac liberis in flammas sese proiecerunt.

[¶5] Those, however, who, because the Romans forestalled them, had not then had the opportunity of accomplishing their death and had been captured, destroyed themselves, some by the sword, some by hanging, some by refusing food; and not a single one, not even a little child, survived who would endure the condition of slavery out of love of life.

> Latin: 6 qui uero praeoccupantibus Romanis peragendae tunc mortis suae copiam non habuerant captique fuerant, alii ferro, alii suspendio, alii abnegato cibo sese consumpserunt, nullusque omnino uel paruulus superfuit, qui seruitutis condicionem uitae amore toleraret.