---
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: 135 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/135/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 135. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/135/"
---

# 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.

## 135. Book 7 · Chapter 1

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/135/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/135/#p-N

[¶0] Enough evidence has now been gathered, I think, by which it can be proved openly, without any of that hidden mystery which belongs to the few faithful, that the one true God whom the Christian faith proclaims both created the world and its creatures when he willed, and ordered it through many means while he was unknown through many, and established it in unity when he was declared through his only Son; and at the same time that his power and his patience have shone out in proofs of many kinds.

> Latin: 1 Sufficientia ut arbitror documenta collecta sunt, quibus absque ullo arcano, quod paucorum fidelium est, probari de medio queat, unum illum et uerum Deum, quem Christiana fides praedicat, et condidisse mundum creaturamque eius, cum uoluit, et disposuisse per multa, cum per multa ignoraretur, et confirmasse ad unum, cum per unicum declaratus est, simulque potentiam patientiamque eius multimodis argumentis eluxisse.

[¶1] In this, I understand, narrow and downcast minds take some offence, because so great a patience is mingled with so great a power. “For if he was powerful enough,” they say, “to create the world, to establish the peace of the world, and to make the worship and knowledge of himself known to the world, what need was there of so great — or, as they themselves feel, so ruinous — a patience, that what came about at the last through the errors, disasters and toils of men might rather have begun so from the beginning by the power of the God whom you proclaim?”

> Latin: 2 in quo quidem angustas deiectasque mentes offendi paulisper intellego, quod tantae potentiae patientia tanta miscetur. si enim potens erat, inquiunt, creare mundum, componere pacem mundi, insinuare mundo cultum ac notitiam sui, quid opus fuit tanta uel, ut ipsi sentiunt, tam perniciosa patientia, ut in ultimo erroribus cladibus laboribusque hominum fieret, quod a principio uirtute eius, quem praedicas, Dei sic potius coepisse potuisset?

[¶2] To them I could answer truthfully that the human race was created and established from the beginning for this purpose: that, living under religion, in peace and without toil, it should merit eternity as the fruit of its obedience; but that, abusing the goodness of the Creator who granted it freedom, it turned licence into defiance and slid from contempt into forgetfulness;

> Latin: 3 quibus quidem ueraciter respondere possem, ad hoc ab initio creatum et institutum humanum genus, ut sub religione cum pace sine labore uiuens fructu oboedientiae aeternitatem promereretur, sed abusum bonitate creatoris libertatem indulgentis in contumaciam uertisse licentiam atque ex contemptu in obliuionem defluxisse,

[¶3] and that the patience of God is now just, and just in both directions: so that, though scorned, he does not utterly destroy the one on whom he wills to have mercy, and, though scorned yet powerful, he allows him to be afflicted with toils for as long as he wills; and further, that it follows that he should always justly exercise his governance even over one who does not know it, to whom one day, in his mercy, he will restore upon repentance the possibility of the ancient grace.

> Latin: 4 iustamque nunc esse patientiam Dei et iustam in utramque partem, ut nec contemptus disperdat in totum cui misereri uelit et affici laboribus dum uelit sinat contemptus potens; deinde subsequens esse, iuste semper adhibere quamuis ignoranti gubernationem, cui aliquando pie restituturus sit paenitenti antiquae gratiae facultatem.

[¶4] But since these things, although they are said most truly and most forcefully, nevertheless require a hearer who is faithful and obedient, and my dispute — whether with people who will one day believe, I shall see — is certainly now with unbelievers, I shall rather bring forward those arguments which, even if they refuse to approve them, they cannot disprove.

> Latin: 5 sed haec quoniam, etsi uerissime fortissimeque dicuntur, fidelem tamen atque oboedientem requirunt, mihi autem, uidero an aliquando credituris, certe nunc cum incredulis actio est, promptius ea proferam, quae ipsi etsi probare noluerint, inprobare non possint.

[¶5] Accordingly, so far as the conscience of human minds is concerned, both of us live in reverence for religion and in the acknowledgement and worship of a higher power, differing only in faith: for ours it is to confess that all things exist from one God and through one God; theirs, to think there are as many gods as there are things.

> Latin: 6 Itaque, quantum ad conscientiam humanarum mentium pertinet, utrique sub reuerentia religionis et confessione cultuque supernae potentiae uiuimus, distante dumtaxat fide; quia nostrum est, fateri ex uno et per unum Deum constare omnia, illorum, tam multos deos putare quam multa sunt.

[¶6] “If it lay in the power of the God whom you proclaim,” they say, “that the Roman Empire should become so vast and so exalted, why then did his patience stand in the way of its happening earlier?” They will be answered in the very same words: if it lay in the power of the gods whom you proclaim that the Roman Empire should become so vast and so exalted, why then did their patience stand in the way of its happening earlier?

> Latin: 7 si potentiae Dei, inquiunt, quem praedicatis, fuit, ut Romanum imperium tam amplum ac tam sublime fieret, cur igitur patientia eiusdem obfuit, ut ante non fieret? quibus sub eodem uerbo respondebitur: si potentiae deorum, quos praedicatis, fuit, ut Romanum imperium tam amplum ac tam sublime fieret, cur igitur patientia eorundem obfuit, ut ante non fieret?

[¶7] Did the gods themselves not yet exist? Did Rome itself not yet exist? Were the gods not worshipped? Did Rome not yet seem fit for empire? If the gods did not yet exist, the argument falls away; for why should I discuss their delay there, where I do not even find their nature? But if the gods did exist, then either their power, as they themselves judge, or their patience is at fault: their patience if it was present, their power if it was lacking.

> Latin: 8 an ipsi dii nondum erant? an adhuc Roma ipsa non erat? an illi non colebantur? an haec necdum idonea imperio uidebatur? si non dum erant dii, cessat intentio; in quid enim iam ibi eorum discutio moram, ubi ne ipsam quidem inuenio naturam? si autem erant dii, aut potentia eorum, ut ipsi iudicant, aut patientia in culpa est: uel patientia, si fuit, uel potentia, si defuit.

[¶8] Or, if it seems more persuasive that the gods existed at that time, able to advance the Romans, but that the Romans who might rightly be advanced did not yet exist, then we are looking for a power that is the author of things, not for a craftsman’s skill. For the question concerns gods — great ones, as they suppose — not the meanest of artisans, whose art ceases unless material is supplied.

> Latin: 9 aut, si magis suadibile uidetur fuisse tunc quidem deos, qui prouehere potuissent, sed nondum exstitisse Romanos, qui prouehi iure possent, nos auctorem rerum potentiam, non artificem scientiam quaerimus. de diis quippe, ut putant, magnis, non de fabris uilissimis quaestio est, quibus nisi materia accedat, ars cessat.

[¶9] For if to foreknow and to will were always at their disposal — or rather, with foreknowledge subordinate to will, since for omnipotence, at least with regard to its own works, to foreknow is the same as to will — then whatever was foreknown and had the will’s assent ought not to have been waited for, but created; especially since they relate that that Jupiter of theirs was accustomed in sport to turn heaps of ants into peoples of men.

> Latin: 10 si enim praescisse illis ac uoluisse praesto semper fuit, immo etiam subiacente praescientia, quia apud omnipotentiam de operibus dumtaxat suis hoc est praescire quod uelle quodcumque illud praesciebatur, cui uoluntas adstipularetur, non exspectari oportuit sed creari; maxime cum et Iouem illum suum aceruos formicarum in populos hominum ludo uertere solitum ferant.

[¶10] Further, as to the care of ceremonies, I think it need not even be reviewed, since amid continual sacred rites there was no end and no rest from ceaseless disasters until Christ, the Saviour of the world, shone forth. That the peace of the Roman Empire was predestined for his coming, although I think I have already shown it sufficiently, I shall nevertheless try to supplement in a few words.

> Latin: 11 porro autem de cura caerimoniarum nec recensendum arbitror, quoniam inter sacra continua incessabilibus cladibus nullus finis ac nulla requies fuit, nisi cum saluator mundi Christus inluxit: cuius aduentui praedestinatam fuisse imperii Romani pacem, etsi iam sufficienter ostendisse me arbitror, tamen paucis adhuc supplere conabor.