---
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: 167 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/167/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 167. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/167/"
---

# 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.

## 167. Book 7 · Chapter 33

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/167/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/167/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 1128 from the founding of the City, Valens, the thirty-ninth, held the imperial power for four years after the death of Valentinian, the one man before whom he might have blushed for his ungodly conduct. Immediately, with the unbridled audacity of licence, he passed a law that monks — that is, Christians who, laying aside the manifold business of worldly affairs, give themselves wholly to the single work of faith — should be compelled to military service.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita MCXXVIII Valens tricesimus nonus imperium quattuor annis Valentiniano mortuo tenuit, cui soli, cum impie ageret, potuisset erubescere. ilico uelut effrenata libertatis audacia legem dedit, ut monachi, hoc est Christiani qui ad unum fidei opus dimissa saecularium rerum multimoda actione se redigunt, ad militiam cogerentur.

[¶1] At that time a great multitude of monks dwelling there had filled those vast solitudes of Egypt and its outspread sands, which human society had never known because of their thirst and barrenness and their most dangerous abundance of serpents.

> Latin: 2 uastas illas tunc Aegypti solitudines harenasque diffusas, quas propter sitim ac sterilitatem periculosissimamque serpentum abundantiam conuersatio humana non nosset, magna habitantium monachorum multitudo compleuerat.

[¶2] Here tribunes and soldiers were sent, to drag away the holy and true soldiers of God under a new name for persecution. Many companies of saints were slain there.

> Latin: 3 huc tribuni et milites missi, qui sanctos ac ueros milites Dei alio nomine persecutionis abstraherent. interfecta sunt ibi agmina multa sanctorum.

[¶3] As for what was done everywhere, throughout the various provinces, by these and similar orders against the catholic churches and the peoples of the right faith, let it suffice that it is made clear enough by my very choice to keep silent.

> Latin: 4 quae autem per diuersas ubique prouincias his similibusque iussis aduersus ecclesias catholicas et rectae fidei populos gesta sint, satis significatum ipsa reticendi electione sufficiat.

[¶4] Meanwhile in the regions of Africa, Firmus, rousing the Moorish nations and setting himself up as king, laid waste Africa and Mauretania; he took Caesarea, the most famous city of Mauretania, by treachery, then filled it with slaughter and fire and gave it to the barbarians as plunder.

> Latin: 5 Interea in Africae partibus Firmus sese excitatis Maurorum gentibus regem constituens Africam Mauretaniamque uastauit; Caesaream urbem nobilissimam Mauretaniae dolo captam, deinde caedibus incendiisque conpletam barbaris in praedam dedit.

[¶5] So Count Theodosius, father of the Theodosius who afterwards ruled the empire, was sent by Valentinian; he broke the scattered Moorish nations in many battles, and drove Firmus himself, crushed and overwhelmed, to his death.

> Latin: 6 igitur comes Theodosius, Theodosii qui post imperio praefuit pater, a Valentiniano missus effusas Maurorum gentes multis proeliis fregit, ipsum Firmum afflictum et oppressum coegit ad mortem.

[¶6] Afterwards, when with most experienced foresight he had restored the whole of Africa, together with Mauretania, to a better state than before, he was ordered to be killed at the goading of envy, which crept stealthily upon him; whereupon he chose first to be baptized at Carthage for the remission of sins; and after he had obtained the sacrament of Christ which he had sought, secure now, after a glorious life in the world, of eternal life as well, he willingly offered his throat to the executioner.

> Latin: 7 post cum experientissima prouidentia totam cum Mauretania Africam meliorem pristinis reddidisset, instimulante et obrepente inuidia iussus interfici, apud Carthaginem baptizari in remissionem peccatorum praeoptauit ac postquam sacramentum Christi quod quaesierat adsecutus est, post gloriosam saeculi uitam etiam de uitae aeternitate securus percussori iugulum ultro praebuit.

[¶7] Meanwhile the emperor Gratian, still quite a young man, seeing an incalculable multitude of enemies poured into the Roman frontiers, relying on the power of Christ, threw himself upon the enemy with a far unequal number of soldiers, and forthwith, at Argentaria, a town of the Gallic provinces, brought a most fearsome war to an end with incredible good fortune. For more than thirty thousand Alamanni are said to have been killed in that battle with very slight loss to the Romans.

> Latin: 8 Gratianus interea imperator admodum iuuenis cum inaestimabilem multitudinem hostium Romanis infusam finibus cerneret, fretus Christi potentia, longe inpari militum numero sese in hostem dedit et continuo apud Argentariam, oppidum Galliarum, formidulosissimum bellum incredibili felicitate confecit. nam plus quam triginta milia Alamannorum minimo Romanorum detrimento in eo proelio interfecta narrantur.

[¶8] In the thirteenth year of the reign of Valens, however — that is, a short time after Valens had carried out the mangling of churches and the slaughter of saints throughout the whole east — that root of our miseries sent up at once a most abundant growth of shoots.

> Latin: 9 Tertio decimo autem anno imperii Valentis, hoc est paruo tempore postea quam Valens per totum orientem ecclesiarum lacerationes sanctorumque caedes egerat, radix illa miseriarum nostrarum copiosissimas simul frutices germinauit.

[¶9] For the nation of the Huns, long shut away behind inaccessible mountains, seized by a sudden frenzy, blazed out against the Goths, and, throwing them into confusion everywhere, drove them from their ancient homes. The Goths, fleeing across the Danube, were received by Valens without any treaty agreement, and did not even hand over their arms to the Romans, which would have made it safer to trust the barbarians.

> Latin: 10 siquidem gens Hunorum, diu inaccessis seclusa montibus, repentina rabie percita exarsit in Gothos eosque passim conturbatos ab antiquis sedibus expulit. Gothi transito Danuuio fugientes, a Valente sine ulla foederis pactione suscepti ne arma quidem, quo tutius barbaris crederetur, tradidere Romanis.

[¶10] Then, driven by hunger and injuries through the intolerable greed of the general Maximus, they rose up in arms, defeated the army of Valens, and poured through Thrace, throwing everything into confusion with slaughter, fire and plunder.

> Latin: 11 deinde propter intolerabilem auaritiam Maximi ducis fame et iniuriis adacti in arma surgentes, uicto Valentis exercitu per Thraciam sese, miscentes simul omnia caedibus incendiis rapinisque, fuderunt.

[¶11] Valens, setting out from Antioch, as he was being drawn to the final lot of that unhappy war, goaded by a late repentance for his very great sin, ordered the bishops and the other saints to be recalled from exile.

> Latin: 12 Valens egressus de Antiochia cum ultima infelicis belli sorte traheretur, sera peccati maximi paenitentia stimulatus episcopos ceterosque sanctos reuocari de exiliis imperauit.

[¶12] And so, in the fifteenth year of his reign, he fought that lamentable war in Thrace with the Goths, who were by then most thoroughly equipped through the training of their strength and an abundance of supplies. There, at the very first onset of the Goths, the squadrons of the Roman cavalry were thrown into confusion and deserted the infantry, leaving them without protection.

> Latin: 13 Itaque quinto decimo imperii sui anno lacrimabile illud bellum in Thracia cum Gothis iam tunc exercitatione uirium rerumque abundantia instructissimis gessit. ubi primo statim impetu Gothorum perturbatae Romanorum equitum turmae nuda peditum deseruere praesidia.

*Note: The battle of Adrianople, 9 August 378.*

[¶13] Soon the legions of infantry, surrounded on every side by the enemy cavalry, were first overwhelmed by clouds of arrows; then, when, maddened by fear, they were driven scattered over pathless ground, they were utterly cut to pieces and perished by the swords and lances of their pursuers.

> Latin: 14 mox legiones peditum undique equitatu hostium cinctae ac primum nubibus sagittarum obrutae, deinde, cum amentes metu sparsim per deuia cogerentur, funditus caesae gladiis insequentum contisque perierunt.

[¶14] The emperor himself, wounded by an arrow and turned to flight, was carried with difficulty into the hut of a certain small farmstead and lay hidden there; caught by the pursuing enemy, he was burned to death when fire was set beneath it; and, so that the testimony of his punishment and of the divine indignation might stand the more as a terrible example to posterity, he was even denied a common burial.

> Latin: 15 ipse imperator cum sagitta saucius uersusque in fugam aegre in cuiusdam uillulae casam deportatus lateret, ab insequentibus hostibus deprehensus, subiecto igne consumptus est et, quo magis testimonium punitionis eius et diuinae indignationis terribili posteris esset exemplo, etiam communi caruit sepultura.

[¶15] Let the obstinacy and wretchedness of the pagans console itself — but in this alone: that in Christian times and under Christian kings so many disasters, heaped up at once, weighed down the bowed neck of the commonwealth: provinces overthrown, an army destroyed, an emperor burned. This is truly a great thing for our grief, and all the more wretched for being so new.

> Latin: 16 Consoletur se, sed in hoc solo, peruicacia miseriaque gentilium, quia temporibus et regibus Christianis tantae simul congestae clades pressam reipublicae onerauere ceruicem: euersae prouinciae, deletus exercitus, imperator incensus. magnum reuera hoc est ad nostrum dolorem magisque miserum quo magis nouum.

[¶16] But what does this contribute to the consolation of the pagans, who see plainly that in these things too it was the persecutor of the churches who was punished? The one God has handed down one faith and has spread one Church throughout the whole world: this he looks upon, this he loves, this he defends. Under whatever name anyone may cover himself, if he is not joined to it he is a stranger, if he attacks it he is an enemy.

> Latin: 17 sed quid hoc ad consolationem proficit paganorum, qui palam peruident et in his quoque persecutorem ecclesiarum fuisse punitum? unus Deus unam fidem tradidit, unam ecclesiam toto orbe diffudit: hanc aspicit, hanc diligit, hanc defendit; quolibet se quisquis nomine tegat, si huic non sociatur, alienus, si hanc inpugnat, inimicus est.

[¶17] Let the pagans console themselves, as much as they like, with the punishments of Jews and heretics, provided only that they confess — above all from this proof, the death of Valens — both that there is one God and that he is no respecter of persons.

> Latin: 18 consolentur se gentiles, in quantum uolunt, Iudaeorum haereticorumque suppliciis, tantum et unum Deum esse et eundem personarum acceptorem non esse uel ex hac potissimum Valentis extincti probatione fateantur.

[¶18] The Goths had earlier asked, as suppliants, through envoys, that bishops be sent to them from whom they might learn the rule of the Christian faith. The emperor Valens, with deadly depravity, sent teachers of the Arian doctrine. The Goths held fast to what they received as the first rudiments of the faith. And so, by the just judgement of God, they themselves burned alive the man on whose account they too, even when dead, will burn for the vice of their error.

> Latin: 19 Gothi antea per legatos supplices poposcerunt, ut illis episcopi, a quibus regulam Christianae fidei discerent, mitterentur. Valens imperator exitiabili prauitate doctores Arriani dogmatis misit. Gothi primae fidei rudimento quod accepere tenuerunt. itaque iusto iudicio Dei ipsi eum uiuum incenderunt, qui propter eum etiam mortui uitio erroris arsuri sunt.