---
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: 113 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/113/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 113. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/113/"
---

# 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.

## 113. Book 6 · Chapter 1

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/113/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/113/#p-N

[¶0] All men, of whatever sect, way of life or country, are always so raised up by a natural good towards the outlook of prudence that, even if they do not in practice prefer the rational part of the mind to the delight of the body, they nevertheless know by judgement that it ought to be preferred. This mind, lit up under the guidance of reason, rising in the midst of the virtues — towards which it rises with an inborn favour, even though it is inclined to vices — looks out upon the knowledge of God as upon a citadel.

> Latin: 1 Omnes homines cuiuslibet uel sectae uel uitae uel patriae ita semper ad prospectum prudentiae naturali bono eriguntur, ut oblectamento corporis rationale mentis etsi non actu praeferant, iudicio tamen praeferendum sciant. quae mens, ratione duce inlustrata, in medio uirtutum, quibus genuino fauore, quamuis uitiis inclinetur, adsurgit, scientiam Dei quasi arcem prospicit.

[¶1] For any man may despise God for a time; he cannot be wholly ignorant of him. Hence some, believing God to be in many things, have fashioned many gods out of an undiscerning fear. But from this men have by now departed, above all through the working of the authority of truth and through the scrutiny of reason itself.

> Latin: 2 Deum enim quilibet hominum contemnere ad tempus potest, nescire in totum non potest. unde quidam dum in multis Deum credunt, multos deos indiscreto timore finxerunt. sed hinc iam uel maxime cum auctoritate ueritatis operante tum ipsa etiam ratione discutiente discessum est.

[¶2] For even their philosophers — to say nothing of our own saints — while they sought and searched into all things with intent study of mind, found one God, the author of all things, to whom alone all things should be referred; hence even now the pagans, whom the truth, now made plain, convicts of obstinacy rather than of ignorance, confess when they are questioned by us that they do not follow many gods, but venerate many ministers under one great god.

> Latin: 3 quippe cum et philosophi eorum, ut de nostris sanctis sileam, dum intento mentis studio quaerunt scrutanturque omnia, unum Deum auctorem omnium reppererunt, ad quem unum omnia referrentur; unde etiam nunc pagani, quos iam declarata ueritas de contumacia magis quam de ignorantia conuincit, cum a nobis discutiuntur, non se plures deos sequi sed sub uno deo magno plures ministros uenerari fatentur.

[¶3] There remains, then, a disagreement about the understanding of the true God, confused by many conjectures of the understanding, since about one God almost all hold one opinion. Thus far human inquiry, though with labour, has been able to go. But where reasoning fails, faith comes to its aid. For “unless we believe, we shall not understand”:

> Latin: 4 restat igitur de intellegentia ueri Dei per multas intellegendi suspiciones confusa dissensio, quia de uno deo omnium paene una opinio est. hucusque humana scrutatio, etsi cum labore, potuit. at ubi ratiocinatio deficit, fides subuenit. nisi enim crediderimus, non intellegemus:

[¶4] hear from God himself, and believe God himself, whatever you would know truly about God. Accordingly this same one and true God — upon whom, as we have said, every sect converges, though from differing opinions — he who changes kingdoms and orders the times, who also punishes sins, who has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, founded the Roman Empire, taking up a shepherd of the poorest condition.

> Latin: 5 ab ipso audias ipsique Deo credas, quod uerum uelis scire de Deo. itaque idem unus et uerus Deus, in quem omnis, ut diximus, etsi ex diuersis opinionibus secta concurrit, mutans regna et disponens tempora, peccata quoque puniens, quae infirma sunt mundi elegit, ut confundat fortia, Romanumque imperium adsumpto pauperrimi status pastore fundauit.

[¶5] After this empire, long advanced through kings and consuls, had become master of Asia, Africa and Europe, he gathered the whole of it, by his own ordinance, under a single emperor, at once the most valiant and the most merciful.

> Latin: 6 hoc per reges et consules diu prouectum postquam Asiae Africae atque Europae potitum est, ad unum imperatorem eundemque fortissimum et clementissimum cuncta sui ordinatione congessit.

[¶6] Under this emperor, whom almost all nations justly honoured with love and fear mingled, the true God, who was worshipped with an anxious superstition by those who did not know him, opened that great fountain of the knowledge of himself; and, to teach men more readily through a man, he sent his Son, working mighty works that surpassed man and refuting the demons, whom some had thought gods, so that those who had not believed him as a man might believe his works as the works of God;

> Latin: 7 sub hoc imperatore, quem omnes fere gentes amore et timore permixto iuste honorarent, Deus uerus, qui superstitione sollicita ab ignorantibus colebatur, magnum illum intellegentiae suae fontem aperuit promptiusque per hominem docturus homines filium suum misit operantem uirtutes, quae praecellerent hominem, coarguentemque daemonas, quos aliqui deos putauissent, ut qui ipsi tamquam homini non credidissent, operibus tamquam Dei crederent;

[¶7] and further, so that in a great silence and a peace of the widest extent the glory of the new name and the swift report of the salvation proclaimed might run abroad quickly and without hindrance; or also so that his disciples, as they went through the various nations and freely offered the gifts of salvation to all, might have a safe liberty of going about and of speaking, as Roman citizens among Roman citizens.

> Latin: 8 deinde ut in magno silentio ac pace latissima inoffense et celeriter noui nominis gloria et adnuntiatae salutis uelox fama percurreret uel etiam ut discipulis eius per diuersas gentes euntibus ultroque per cunctos salutis dona offerentibus obeundi ac disserendi quippe Romanis ciuibus inter ciues Romanos esset tuta libertas.

[¶8] I have thought this worth recalling because this sixth little book extends as far as Caesar Augustus, of whom these things are said.

> Latin: 9 Quod ideo commemorandum putaui, quia hic sextus libellus usque ad Caesarem Augustum, de quo haec dicuntur, extenditur.

[¶9] But if some think this most lucid account void, and assign the matter rather to their own gods, whom, they say, they first chose by prudence and then invited with outstanding worship, so that through them this most ample and most beautiful empire might be founded for them —

> Latin: 10 quodsi aliqui hanc lucidissimam rationem inritam putant, suisque dis potius adsignant, quos primum prudentia elegerint deinde praecipuo cultu inuitarint, ut sibi per eos amplissimum hoc pulcherrimumque imperium conderetur -

[¶10] for so they boast: that by the best kind of rites they themselves earned the special favour of the gods, and that when these rites were taken away or neglected, “all the gods by whom this empire had stood departed, leaving their shrines and altars” —

> Latin: 11 sic enim iactitant, quia ipsi optimo genere sacrorum emeruerint praecipuum deorum fauorem, quibus ademptis uel praetermissis discesserint omnes adytis arisque relictis Di, quibus imperium hoc steterat -

*Note: Virgil, Aeneid 2.351–2, where the gods are said to have deserted Troy on the night of its fall.*

[¶11] then, although your reverend Holiness has discussed many things most forcefully and most truly, this place nevertheless requires of me too that I add a few words.

> Latin: 12 unde, quamuis reuerentia sanctitatis tuae multa fortissime uerissimeque disseruerit, tamen et mihi locus exigit, ut pauca subiciam.

*Note: Orosius addresses Augustine, at whose request he wrote; Augustine answered this pagan charge at length in the early books of the City of God.*

[¶12] If the Romans earned the favour of the gods by worshipping them and lost it by not worshipping them, then that Romulus himself, the parent of Rome, should have been kept safe amid so many evils pressing upon him from his very birth — who earned this by worship?

> Latin: 13 si Romani colendo deos emeruerunt fauorem deorum et non colendo amiserunt: ut ipse Romulus, parens Romae, inter tot mala ab ipso ortu suo ingruentia saluus esset, colendo quis meruit?

[¶13] Was it Amulius, his grandfather, who exposed him to death? His father, who was uncertain? Rhea his mother, guilty of unchastity? The Albans, his kin, who themselves too persecuted the very seeds of the Roman name from the beginning? Or the whole of Italy, which for four hundred years, as long as it dared, gaped for its destruction?

> Latin: 14 an Amulius auus, qui exposuit ad necem? an pater, qui incertus fuit? an Rhea mater stupri rea? an Albani parentes, ipsa quoque ab initio Romani nominis germina persequentes? an tota Italia quae per quadringentos annos, dum audere potuit, excidio eius inhiauit?

*Note: Amulius was in fact the great-uncle of Romulus, the brother of his grandfather Numitor; Orosius calls him auus, “grandfather”.*

[¶14] No, they say; but the gods themselves, because they knew that they would be worshipped, guarded their future worshippers. Then they have foreknowledge.

> Latin: 15 non, inquiunt, sed di ipsi, quia se colendos sciebant, futuros custodiere cultores. ergo praescii sunt.

[¶15] If they have foreknowledge, why, among the ages of so many years, did they bring this empire to the highest citadel of power at precisely that time when he willed to be born among men and to be acknowledged as a man — he after whose name they themselves were despised as nothing, and even those whom they had advanced ran to him together with the whole world?

> Latin: 16 si praescii sunt, cur hoc imperium inter tot annorum saecula eo potissimum tempore ad summam potentiae arcem perduxerunt, quo ille nasci inter homines atque adgnosci ut homo uoluit, post cuius nomen et ipsi pro nihilo contempti sunt et cum uniuerso mundo etiam illi, quos ipsi prouexerant, cucurrerunt?

[¶16] But, they say, he crept in humbly and entered in secret. If he was hidden and humble, whence so celebrated a fame, so undoubted a faith, so manifest a power? By certain signs and mighty works he seized and held the minds of men, anxious with superstition. But if a man could do these things, the gods ought to have been able to do more.

> Latin: 17 sed humiliter obrepsit, inquiunt, et latenter intrauit. latentis et humilis unde tam celebris fama, tam indubitata fides, tam manifesta potentia? signis quibusdam et uirtutibus mentes hominum superstitione sollicitas cepit et tenuit. at haec si homo potuit, di magis posse debuerunt.

[¶17] Or was it because he preached that this power had been handed to him by the Father that men at length came to the understanding of that known and unknown God, whom, as I have said, no one can grasp except through him? Nor can anyone, unless, having looked through his whole self and looked down upon it, he has turned to the wisdom of God and transferred all the reasoning of inquiry to the faith of believing.

> Latin: 18 an quia ille hanc potentiam a Patre sibi traditam praedicabat, peruentum est aliquando ad intellegentiam illius noti et ignoti Dei, quam adprehendere, ut dixi, nemo nisi per ipsum potest? nec quisquam potest, nisi qui toto se perspecto ac despecto conuersus ad sapientiam Dei omnem quaerendi ratiocinationem transtulerit ad credendi fidem.

[¶18] Nevertheless, let me discuss it briefly. These gods, whom they declare to be so great that they appear both to have advanced the Roman commonwealth when propitious and to have afflicted it when averse, were certainly being worshipped with the utmost devotion and attention at that very time — as is openly established — when Christ willed to be born and began to be proclaimed to the nations.

> Latin: 19 uerumtamen breuiter discutio: di isti, quos tantos ferunt, ut Romanam rempublicam et propitii prouexisse et auersi adflixisse uideantur, eo certe tempore, quod palam constat, quo nasci Christus uoluit et adnuntiari gentibus coepit deuotissime atque intentissime colebantur.

[¶19] Were they then, taking counsel both for themselves and for their worshippers, unable either to check or to repel his superstition, on account of which they saw that they would be spurned and their worshippers forsaken? And yet, if they were spurned by the unwilling, pardon should have been granted and these should not have been deserted; if by the willing, their foreknowledge should have been kept, and these should never have been helped in the first place.

> Latin: 20 ita illi consulentes et sibi et cultoribus suis non potuerunt uel reprimere uel repellere superstitionem eius, propter quam spernendos se cultoresque suos destituendos uiderent? quamquam si ab inuitis, danda uenia nec deserendi fuerunt; si a uoluntariis, seruanda praescientia nec prius fuerant adiuuandi.

[¶20] This was done, they say; for we stirred up nations, inflamed kings, established laws, appointed judges, prepared punishments with tortures and crosses, and searched the whole world, if by any means the Christian name and worship might be scraped off from the face of the whole world.

> Latin: 21 hoc factum est, inquiunt; nam excitauimus gentes, accendimus reges, instituimus leges, disposuimus iudices, praeparauimus poenas suppliciis et crucibus, orbem totum scrutati sumus, siquo modo Christianum nomen et cultus uniuerso mundo posset abradi.

[¶21] This was done only so long as that fruitful cruelty went on advancing, amid torments and through torments, until it took possession of the very summit of royal power, through which alone it could have been prevented.

> Latin: 22 hoc eatenus factum est, donec fecunda crudelitas eo usque inter tormenta ac per tormenta proficeret, quamdiu ipsum regium culmen, per quod solum prohiberi potuerat, occuparet.

[¶22] And what followed afterwards? The Christian emperors, they say, ordered the rites to cease and the temples to be closed, and therefore “all the gods by whom this empire had stood departed, leaving their shrines and altars.”

> Latin: 23 et quid postea consecutum est? imperatores, inquiunt, Christiani cessare sacra et claudi templa iusserunt atque ideo Excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis Di, quibus imperium hoc steterat.

[¶23] O how great and how unoffending is the light of truth, if only weak eyes were not unhappily shut against it as it freely offers itself! If the Christian faith, through many past ages, could in no way be suppressed, though nations, kings, laws, slaughters, crosses and deaths raged against it on every side — nay rather, as I have said, it grew amid these things and through them — while the worship of idols, already in a manner failing of itself and blushing for itself, ceased at a single most merciful command without any terror of punishment:

> Latin: 24 O quanta et quam inoffensa lux ueritatis est, si non aduersus eam ultro sese offerentem inbecilli infeliciter oculi clauderentur! si Christiana fides per multa retro tempora saeuientibus undique aduersum se gentibus regibus legibus caedibus crucibus ac mortibus reprimi nullo modo potuit, immo, ut dixi, inter haec et per haec creuit, cultus autem idolorum iam quodammodo ex se deficiens ac sibi erubescens ad unam clementissimam iussionem sine ullo poenali terrore cessauit:

[¶24] who can doubt that through the demonstration of this understanding the creature has at last come to know, concerning its Creator, what it had hitherto sought through the various reasonings of the mind, however intent, while darkened by other things, and that through this it at once clung to the love of him whom, even in ignorance, it had loved?

> Latin: 25 cui dubium est hoc per istius intellegentiae demonstrationem de creatore suo tandem innotuisse creaturae, quod illa eatenus per uarias ratiocinationes mentis, intentae quamlibet, aliis offuscata quaesierit ac per hoc statim amori eius, quem etiam ignorans dilexerat, inhaesisse?

[¶25] It is no wonder, then, if in a great household some slaves are found who, made accustomed by the habits and wantonness of seducers, abuse their master’s patience to the point of despising him; and so God justly rebukes the ungrateful, the unbelieving, or even the obstinate with various chastisements.

> Latin: 26 nec igitur mirum est, si in magna familia inueniuntur aliqui serui, qui consuetudine lasciuiaque seductorum adsuefacti patientia domini sui ad contemptum ipsius abutantur: unde et merito Deus uel ingratos uel incredulos uel etiam contumaces uariis correptionibus arguit;

[¶26] This must indeed always be confessed, but above all for that time when as yet there was no church throughout the whole world to temper, by the intervention of faithful prayers, the deserved punishments of the world and the just judgement of God, once his clemency had been entreated. Hence also these things which seem evils to men, of whatever kind they are, were all without doubt more grievous then, as will be proved by the very order in which they have been begun.

> Latin: 27 quod semper utique confitendum est, tunc tamen praecipue, quando adhuc per uniuersum mundum nulla erat ecclesia, quae interuentu fidelium precum meritas mundi poenas iustumque iudicium Dei exorata ipsius clementia temeraret: unde etiam haec, quae mala hominibus uidentur, qualiacumque sunt, grauiora sine dubio omnia fuerunt, sicut ipso, quo coepta sunt, ordine probabuntur.

[¶27] The Mithridatic War — or, to speak more truly, the disaster of the Mithridatic War, involving many provinces at once — was drawn out and protracted for forty years.

> Latin: 28 Bellum Mithridaticum uel, ut uerius dicam, belli Mithridatici clades multas simul inuoluens prouincias tracta et protenta per quadraginta annos fuit.

[¶28] For it broke out, as I have said, in the year 662 from the founding of the City, the year in which the first civil war too had begun; and in the consulship of Cicero and Antonius, to use the words of the finest poet, it was “scarcely brought to an end by barbarian poison.”

> Latin: 29 nam DCLXII, ut dixi, anno ab urbe condita, quo etiam primum ciuile bellum coeperat, inardescens, consulatu uero Ciceronis et Antonii, ut uerbis poetae optimi loquar, barbarico uix consummata ueneno est.

*Note: The war broke out in 88 BC, which is 666 on the usual (Varronian) reckoning from the founding of the City. The poet quoted is Lucan (Pharsalia 1), alluding to Mithridates’ death by poison in 63 BC, the year of Cicero’s consulship.*

[¶29] But within these times only thirty years of waging war are found. How it came to be called forty by most writers is not easily determined.

> Latin: 30 sed in his temporibus triginta gerendi belli inueniuntur anni. qualiter autem quadraginta a plerisque dicti sint non facile discernitur.