---
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: 11 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/11/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 11. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/11/"
---

# 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.

## 11. Book 1 · Chapter 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/11/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/11/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 1008 before the founding of the City there was in Egypt first an unusual, almost cloying abundance, and then a long and intolerable famine, which Joseph, a just and wise man, relieved by divine providence: so the historian Pompeius and his abridger Justin teach, who says among other things:

> Latin: 1 Anno ante urbem conditam MVIII fuisse apud Aegyptum primum insolitam fastidiendamque ubertatem deinde iugem atque intolerabilem famem, cui Ioseph uir iustus et sapiens diuina prouisione subuenerit, Pompeius historicus eiusque breuiator Iustinus docet, qui inter cetera sic ait:

*Note: Pompeius Trogus, whose Philippic Histories survive only in Justin’s epitome. The passage quoted is Justin 36.2.*

[¶1] “Joseph was the youngest of his brothers. Fearing his outstanding talent, his brothers seized him by stealth and sold him to foreign merchants.

> Latin: 2 Minimus aetate inter fratres Ioseph fuit; cuius excellens ingenium fratres ueriti, interceptum peregrinis mercatoribus uendiderunt.

[¶2] Carried off by them into Egypt, he there mastered the magic arts with his shrewd intelligence and soon became very dear to the king himself. For he was most skilled in reading prodigies and was the first to found the interpretation of dreams; nothing of divine or human law seemed unknown to him,

> Latin: 3 a quibus deportatus in Aegyptum, cum magicas ibi artes sollerti ingenio percepisset, breui ipsi regi percarus fuit. nam et prodigiorum sagacissimus erat et somniorum primus intellegentiam condidit, nihilque diuini iuris humanique ei incognitum uidebatur:

[¶3] so much so that, foreseeing many years ahead a coming barrenness of the fields, he had gathered in the crops; and so great were the proofs of his skill that his answers seemed to come not from a man but from a god.

> Latin: 4 adeo ut etiam agrorum sterilitatem futuram ante multos annos prospiciens fruges congregasset; tantaque experimenta eius fuerunt, ut non ab homine, sed a Deo responsa uiderentur.

[¶4] Joseph’s son was Moses, who, besides inheriting his father’s knowledge, was also commended by the beauty of his form. But when the Egyptians were suffering from scabies and leprosy, warned by an oracle, they drove him out of the borders of Egypt together with the sick, lest the plague spread to more.” So much for Justin.

> Latin: 5 filius Ioseph Moyses fuit, quem praeter paternae scientiae hereditatem etiam formae pulchritudo commendabat. Sed Aegyptii cum scabiem et uitiliginem paterentur, responso moniti eum cum aegris, ne pestis ad plures serperet, terminis Aegypti pellunt. haec Iustinus.

*Note: Justin makes Moses the son of Joseph. In Exodus Moses is a Levite, born generations after Joseph’s death; Orosius quotes the error without comment.*

[¶5] But since this same Moses, whom these men attest to have been wise and learned, wrote of these things more fully and more truly, as deeds done by himself and his people, first the ignorance of these writers must be made good by his credit and authority, which even they approve;

> Latin: 6 sed quoniam haec idem Moyses, quem isti sapientem scientemque fuisse adtestantur, plenius ueriusque tamquam per se suosque gesta conscripsit, primum fide eius atque auctoritate quam etiam isti probant horum ignorantia supplenda,

[¶6] and then the deceitful malice of the Egyptian priests must be refuted. Either by cunning — which is the more evident — they tried to withdraw from memory the manifest wrath and mercy of the true God, confusing their account piecemeal, lest, to the shame of their idols, they should show him to be rightly worshipped by whose counsel, as they would have had to teach, these evils were foretold and by whose help they were avoided; or perhaps, to take it more indulgently, they forgot.

> Latin: 7 dehinc sacerdotum Aegyptiorum fallax malitia confutanda est, qui uel astu, quod manifestius est, euidentem iram misericordiamque ueri Dei memoriae subtrahere conati sunt, particulatim expositione confusa, ne in contumeliam idolorum suorum eum colendum merito ostenderent, cuius consilio adnuntiata haec mala et auxilio euitata docuissent; uel forte, ut indulgentius accipiamus, obliti sunt.

[¶7] For by the provision of that Joseph of ours, who was a servant of the true God and devoutly and earnestly concerned for his Lord’s creation, they themselves, being priests, had plenty of grain; but because they were false priests, they did not grieve along with the others who were starving.

> Latin: 8 illius enim nostri Ioseph, qui fuit ueri Dei seruus et pro creatura domini sui pie intenteque sollicitus, prouisione ipsi abundabant frugibus quasi sacerdotes; sed, quia falsi sacerdotes erant, cum ceteris esurientibus non dolebant.

[¶8] For indeed, what pleases a man he forgets; what pains him he remembers. Yet though the histories and annals are silent, the land of Egypt itself pronounces itself a witness to what happened at that time: brought then under royal power and restored to its cultivators, it has paid down to the present an unceasing tax of a fifth part of all its produce.

> Latin: 9 enimuero cui placet, obliuiscitur: cui dolet, meminit. quamquam huius temporis argumentum historiis fastisque reticentibus ipsa sibi terra Aegypti testis pronuntiat: quae tunc redacta in potestatem regiam restitutaque cultoribus suis, ex omni fructu suo usque ad nunc quintae partis incessabile uectigal exsoluit.

[¶9] This great famine, then, took place under the Diospolitan king of the Egyptians, whose name was Amosis, at the time when Baleus ruled the Assyrians and Apis the Argives.

> Latin: 10 fuit itaque haec fames magna sub rege Aegyptiorum Diopolita, cui nomen erat Amosis, quo tempore Baleus Assyrios, Argiuos Apis regebat.

[¶10] Now the seven years of famine were preceded by another seven years of plenty. Their abundance, which would have perished all the more carelessly the more richly it had sprung up, our Joseph by his skill gathered and stored, and so preserved the whole of Egypt.

> Latin: 11 fuerunt autem ante annos famis septem praecedentes alii septem ubertatis anni. quorum affluentiam tanto neglegentius perituram quanto uberius natam Joseph noster sollertia sua collegit et condidit totamque Aegyptum conseruauit.

[¶11] He acquired all the money for Pharaoh and the glory for God, rendering with most just stewardship tax to whom tax was due and honour to whom honour; he gathered in the cattle, lands and property of all; and those who had sold themselves with their lands at the rate fixed for receiving rations he released on the agreed terms of a fifth part.

> Latin: 12 adquisiuit uniuersam Pharaoni pecuniam et Deo gloriam, reddens dispensatione iustissima cui uectigal, uectigal, cui honorem, honorem, omniumque pecora terras censusque collegit; ipsos autem, qui semet cum terris suis accipiendae stipis taxatione uendiderant, statuta quintae partis pactione laxauit.

[¶12] Who would believe that this Joseph, whom God appointed as the author of the Egyptians’ preservation, fell so quickly from their memory that shortly afterwards they consigned his sons and his whole kindred to slavery, afflicted them with labours, and crushed them with slaughter?

> Latin: 13 hunc Ioseph, quem constituit Deus Aegyptiis conseruatae salutis auctorem, quis credat ita in breui eorum excidisse memoriae, ut filios eius atque uniuersam cognationem paulo post seruitio addixerint, laboribus adfecerint, internecionibus profligarint?

[¶13] It is no wonder, then, if even now some are found who, having turned aside from their necks the sword that hung over them by holding up the Christian name before them, either pass over or defame the very name of Christ, by which alone they are saved, and claim to be burdened by the times of those through whose merits they are set free.

> Latin: 14 quamobrem non est mirandum, si nunc quoque aliqui reperiuntur, qui cum a ceruicibus suis inpendentem gladium praetento Christiano nomine auerterint, ipsum nomen Christi, quo solo salui sunt, aut dissimulent aut infament grauarique se eorum temporibus adserant, quorum meritis liberantur.