---
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: 145 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/145/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 145. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/145/"
---

# 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.

## 145. Book 7 · Chapter 11

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/145/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/145/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 846 from the founding of the City — although Eutropius wrote that this was the year 850 — Nerva, by then a very old man, was created emperor, the tenth from Augustus, by Petronius, the praetorian prefect, and Parthenius the eunuch, the slayer of Domitian; and he adopted Trajan as heir to his rule, through whom, by divine provision, he truly took thought for the afflicted commonwealth.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita DCCCXLVI - quamuis Eutropius quinquagesimum hunc esse annum scripserit - Nerua admodum senex a Petronio praefecto praetorio et Parthenio spadone, interfectore Domitiani, imperator decimus ab Augusto creatus Traianum in regnum adoptauit, per quem reuera adflictae reipublicae diuina prouisione consuluit.

*Note: Nerva became emperor on 18 September AD 96, the year 849 by the usual reckoning; Eutropius (8.1) gives 850. Parthenius was Domitian’s chamberlain; Eutropius does not call him a eunuch.*

[¶1] By his first edict he recalled all the exiles — whereupon the apostle John too, freed by this general indulgence, returned to Ephesus — and when a year of his rule had run its course, Nerva, worn out by disease, departed this life.

> Latin: 2 hic primo edicto suo cunctos exules reuocauit - unde et Iohannes apostolus hac generali indulgentia liberatus Ephesum rediit - emensoque anno imperii sui Nerua confectus morbo diem obiit.