---
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: 105 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/105/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 105. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/105/"
---

# 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.

## 105. Book 5 · Chapter 17

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/105/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/105/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 645 from the founding of the City, after the Cimbric and Teutonic war and the fifth consulship of Marius, by which the condition of the Roman empire is judged to have been rightly preserved, in the sixth consulship of that same Gaius Marius it was so shaken that it almost collapsed utterly through disaster within.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita DCXLV post Cimbricum et Teutonicum bellum et quintum Marii consulatum, quo status imperii Romani iure conseruatus iudicatur, sexto consulatu eiusdem C. Marii ita labefactatus est, ut paene usque ad extremum intestina clade conciderit.

*Note: Marius’s sixth consulship and the rising of Saturninus belong to 100 BC (654 by the usual Varronian reckoning); Orosius’s dates in this part of the book run several years early.*

[¶1] To unroll and run through the windings of the discords and the inextricable causes of the seditions seems to me both unprofitable and long;

> Latin: 2 euoluere ac percurrere mihi discordiarum ambages et inextricabiles seditionum causas incommodum simul ac longum uidetur;

[¶2] let it suffice, indeed, to have touched briefly on this: that Lucius Apuleius Saturninus first emerged as the author of the tumult that was stirred up, a most bitter enemy of Quintus Metellus Numidicus, a truly foremost man; when Metellus had been made censor, Saturninus dragged him from his house and, as he fled to the Capitol, besieged him with an armed multitude, but was driven off from there by the indignation of the Roman knights, after very great slaughter had been done in front of the Capitol. Then Saturninus and Glaucia, through the treachery of the consul Gaius Marius, killed Aulus Nunnius, his rival for office.

> Latin: 3 sane breuiter strinxisse sufficiat, quia primus L. Apuleius Saturninus excitati tumultus auctor exstiterit, Q. Metello Numidico uiro sane primario acerrimus inimicus, qui eum censorem creatum protractum domo atque in Capitolium confugientem armata multitudine obsedit, unde equitum Romanorum indignatione deiectus est, plurima ante Capitolium caede facta. A. Nunium deinde, conpetitorem suum, Saturninus et Glaucia fraude C. Marii consulis occiderunt.

[¶3] In the following year Marius, consul for the sixth time, Glaucia as praetor, and Saturninus as tribune of the plebs conspired to drive Metellus Numidicus into exile by any violence whatever. A day was set for his trial, and by judges suborned from the same faction the innocent Metellus was criminally condemned, and went into exile to the grief of the whole City.

> Latin: 4 subsequente anno Marius sexto consul et Glaucia praetor et Saturninus tribunus plebi conspirauerunt Metellum Numidicum in exilium quacumque ui agere. die dicta a suppositis eiusdem factionis iudicibus per scelus innocens Metellus damnatus in exilium cum totius urbis dolore discessit.

[¶4] That same Saturninus, fearing that Memmius, a keen and upright man, would be made consul, had him killed when a sedition had suddenly arisen: as Memmius fled, he was beaten to pieces with a shapeless club by Saturninus’s henchman Publius Mettius.

> Latin: 5 idem Saturninus Memmium, uirum acrem et integrum, fieri consulem timens, orta subito seditione fugientem per P. Mettium satellitem informi stipite conminutum interfecit.

[¶5] As the senate and the Roman people raged at such great evils to the commonwealth, the consul Marius, with a disposition suited to the moment, joined himself to the consensus of the good and calmed the aroused plebs with a gentle speech. Saturninus, with infamous daring, held an assembly in his own house, and there was hailed by some as king, by others as imperator.

> Latin: 6 fremente pro tantis reipublicae malis senatu populoque Romano, Marius consul accommodato ad tempus ingenio consensui bonorum sese inmiscuit commotamque plebem leni oratione sedauit. Saturninus infamibus ausis contionem domi suae habuit ibique ab aliis rex, ab aliis imperator est appellatus.

[¶6] Marius, having enrolled the plebs by maniples, stationed the other consul with armed guards on the hill and himself fortified the gates. Battle was joined in the Forum; Saturninus, driven from the Forum by the Marians, fled to the Capitol; Marius cut the pipes by which water was brought to it.

> Latin: 7 Marius manipulatim plebe descripta alterum consulem cum praesidiis in colle disposuit, ipse portas communiuit. in foro proelium commissum est; Saturninus a Marianis foro pulsus in Capitolium confugit; Marius fistulas, quibus eo aqua deducebatur, incidit.

[¶7] Then a quite dreadful fight took place at the approach to the Capitol, and many were slain around Saufeius and Saturninus. Saturninus, crying out openly, protested that Marius was the author of all his schemes;

> Latin: 8 bellum deinde in aditu Capitolii horridum satis actum est, multi circa Saufeium et Saturninum caesi. Saturninus palam clamitans, Marium auctorem esse omnium molitionum suarum, contestatus est;

[¶8] but when Saturninus himself, Saufeius, and Labienus, under compulsion from Marius, had taken refuge in the senate-house, they were killed by the Roman knights after the doors had been broken down. Gaius Glaucia was dragged from the house of Claudius and slaughtered.

> Latin: 9 cum autem ipse Saturninus et Saufeius et Labienus cogente Mario in curiam confugissent, per equites Romanos effractis foribus occisi sunt. C. Glaucia extractus e domo Claudii trucidatus est.

[¶9] Furius, tribune of the plebs, decreed that the property of all of them should be confiscated. Gnaeus Dolabella, Saturninus’s brother, fleeing through the vegetable market, was killed together with Lucius Giganius. And so, with the authors of so great a sedition slain, there was quiet for the people.

> Latin: 10 Furius, tribunus plebi, bona omnium publicanda decreuit. Cn. Dolabella, Saturnini frater, per forum holitorium fugiens, cum L. Giganio interfectus est. itaque auctoribus tantae seditionis occisis quies populo fuit.

[¶10] Then Cato and Pompeius, to the joy of the whole City, brought forward a bill for the recall of Metellus Numidicus; that it might not be carried, the factions of the consul Marius and of Furius, tribune of the plebs, interposed their veto.

> Latin: 11 tunc Cato atque Pompeius rogationem de reditu Metelli Numidici totius urbis gaudio promulgarunt: quae ne perficeretur, Marii consulis et Furii tribuni plebi factionibus intercessum est.

[¶11] Rutilius too, a man of the utmost integrity, displayed such constancy of good faith and innocence that, when a day had been set for his trial by his accusers, until the hearing he neither let his hair or beard grow long, nor sought to win supporters with mourning clothes or humble dress, nor soothed his enemies, nor mollified his judges; even the speech allowed him by the praetor he made no more submissive than his spirit.

> Latin: 12 Rutilius quoque uir integerrimus adeo fidei atque innocentiae constantia usus est, ut die sibi ab accusatoribus dicta, usque ad cognitionem neque capillum barbamue promiserit neque sordida ueste humiliue habitu suffragatores conciliarit, inimicos permulserit, iudices temperarit, orationem quoque a praetore concessam nihilo summissiorem quam animum habuerit.

[¶12] Though he was assailed by manifest calumny, and in the opinion of all good men was thought rightly due to be acquitted, he was condemned through the perjury of the judges. He moved to Smyrna and grew old there, devoted to the study of letters.

> Latin: 13 cum euidenti oppugnaretur calumnia et opinione bonorum omnium iure absoluendus putaretur, peiurio iudicum condemnatus est. qui Zmyrnam conmigrans litterarum studiis intentus consenuit.