---
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: 172 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/172/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 172. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/172/"
---

# 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.

## 172. Book 7 · Chapter 38

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/172/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/172/#p-N

[¶0] Meanwhile Count Stilicho, sprung from the race of the Vandals, an unwarlike, greedy, treacherous and crafty people, thinking it of little account that he held command under an emperor, was striving by any means to put in the emperor’s place his son Eucherius, who, as most report, had been planning a persecution of the Christians ever since he was a boy and a private person.

> Latin: 1 Interea comes Stilico, Vandalorum inbellis auarae perfidae et dolosae gentis genere editus, parui pendens quod sub imperatore imperabat, Eucherium filium suum, sicut a plerisque traditur, iam inde Christianorum persecutionem a puero priuatoque meditantem, in imperium quoquo modo substituere nitebatur.

[¶1] For this reason, while cherishing by a secret treaty Alaric and the whole nation of the Goths — who were humbly and sincerely begging for the best of peace and any place at all to settle — and publicly denying them the means both of war and of peace, he kept them in reserve to wear down and to terrify the commonwealth.

> Latin: 2 quamobrem Alaricum cunctamque Gothorum gentem, pro pace optima et quibuscumque sedibus suppliciter ac simpliciter orantem, occulto foedere fouens, publice autem et belli et pacis copia negata, ad terendam terrendamque rempublicam reseruauit.

[¶2] Moreover, other nations, irresistible in their numbers and strength, by whom the Gallic and Spanish provinces are now oppressed — that is, the Alans, the Suebi and the Vandals, together with the Burgundians, driven on by the same movement — he roused, actively soliciting them to take up arms, once the fear of the Roman name had been wiped away.

> Latin: 3 praeterea gentes alias copiis uiribusque intolerabiles, quibus nunc Galliarum Hispaniarumque prouinciae premuntur, hoc est Alanorum Sueborum Vandalorum ipsoque simul motu inpulsorum Burgundionum, ultro in arma sollicitans, deterso semel Romani nominis metu suscitauit.

*Note: The charge that Stilicho invited the Vandals, Alans and Suebi is generally rejected; it reflects the hostility to him after his fall in 408.*

[¶3] He wanted them meanwhile to batter the banks of the Rhine and pound upon the Gallic provinces, hoping, wretched man, that under this pressure of necessity he could wrest the empire from his son-in-law for his son, and that the barbarian nations could be as easily suppressed as stirred up.

> Latin: 4 eas interim ripas Rheni quatere et pulsare Gallias uoluit, sperans miser sub hac necessitatis circumstantia, quia et extorquere imperium genero posset in filium et barbarae gentes tam facile comprimi quam commoueri ualerent.

[¶4] And so, when this stage-play of such great crimes was laid bare to the emperor Honorius and the Roman army, the army rose up most justly and Stilicho was killed — he who, to clothe a single boy in purple, had given up the blood of the whole human race;

> Latin: 5 itaque ubi imperatori Honorio exercituique Romano haec tantorum scelerum scaena patefacta est, commoto iustissime exercitu occisus est Stilico, qui ut unum puerum purpura indueret, totius generis humani sanguinem dedidit;

[¶5] Eucherius was killed, who, to win for himself the favour of the pagans, was threatening to consecrate the beginnings of his reign by restoring the temples and overthrowing the churches; and with them a few accomplices in such great schemes were punished. Thus with the least trouble and the punishment of a few, the churches of Christ, together with their devout emperor, were both set free and avenged.

> Latin: 6 occisus Eucherius, qui ad conciliandum sibi fauorem paganorum restitutione templorum et euersione ecclesiarum inbuturum se regni primordia minabatur, paucique cum isdem satellites tantarum molitionum puniti sunt. ita minimo negotio paucorumque poena ecclesiae Christi cum imperatore religioso et liberatae sunt et uindicatae.

[¶6] And so, after such great increases of blasphemy, and with no repentance, that final punishment, long held suspended, overtook the City.

> Latin: 7 Itaque post haec tanta augmenta blasphemiarum nullamque paenitentiam ultima illa diuque suspensa urbem poena consequitur.