---
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: 175 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/175/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 175. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/175/"
---

# 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.

## 175. Book 7 · Chapter 41

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/175/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/175/#p-N

[¶0] I should now have ample opportunity to say much about matters of this kind, were it not that, in all men alike, the secret conscience within each one’s mind speaks for itself.

> Latin: 1 Multa nunc mihi de huiuscemodi rebus loquendi facultas foret, si non secundum omnes homines apud unius cuiusque mentem conscientia secreta loqueretur.

[¶1] The Spanish provinces were broken into and suffered slaughter and devastation — nothing new, indeed: for what they have now endured from the barbarians for those two years in which the hostile sword raged, they had once suffered from the Romans for two hundred years, and had borne also under the emperor Gallienus for almost twelve years, while the Germans laid them waste.

> Latin: 2 inruptae sunt Hispaniae, caedes uastationesque passae sunt: nihil quidem nouum, hoc enim nunc per biennium illud, quo hostilis gladius saeuiit, sustinuere a barbaris, quod per ducentos quondam annos passae fuerant a Romanis, quod etiam sub Gallieno imperatore per annos propemodum duodecim Germanis euertentibus exceperunt.

[¶2] Yet who is there who, conscious of his own deeds and those of his people, or even of his thoughts, and fearing the judgements of God, would not confess that he has suffered all things justly, or even borne but little? Or he who does not understand himself and does not fear God — how has he not suffered these things justly, and those but small?

> Latin: 3 uerumtamen quis non se, qui sui suorumque actuum uel etiam cogitationum conscius iudicia Dei metuit, iuste omnia passum uel etiam parua sustinuisse fateatur? aut qui se non intellegit Deumque non metuit, quomodo non iuste ista et quidem parua sustinuit?

[¶3] This being so, the mercy of God, with the same loving kindness with which he had long ago foretold it, nevertheless provided that, according to his Gospel, in which he ceaselessly admonished, “When they persecute you in one city, flee to another,” whoever wished to leave and go away might use the barbarians themselves as hired servants and protectors.

> Latin: 4 quae cum ita sint, illud tamen clementia Dei eadem pietate, qua dudum praedixerat, procurauit, ut secundum euangelium suum, quo incessabiliter commonebat: cum uos persecuti fuerint in una ciuitate, fugite in aliam, quisque egredi atque abire uellet, ipsis barbaris mercennariis ministris ac defensoribus uteretur.

*Note: Matthew 10:23.*

[¶4] This they then offered of their own accord; and those who could have taken everything, killing everyone, asked only for a small payment as the wage for their service and for the loads they carried. And this was indeed done by very many.

> Latin: 5 hoc tunc ipsi ultro offerebant; et qui auferre omnia interfectis omnibus poterant, particulam stipendii ob mercedem seruitii sui et transuecti oneris flagitabant. et hoc quidem a plurimis factum est.

[¶5] But those who did not believe the Gospel of God, being contumacious — or, if they did not even hear it, doubly contumacious — did not give place to wrath, and were justly overtaken and crushed by the wrath that came upon them.

> Latin: 6 qui autem non crediderunt euangelio Dei quasi contumaces, uel si etiam non audierunt dupliciter contumaces, non dederunt locum irae, iuste a superueniente ira conprehensi et oppressi sunt.

[¶6] And yet soon after this the barbarians, cursing their swords, turned to the plough, and now cherish the remaining Romans as allies and friends, so that there are now found among them certain Romans who would rather endure poverty with freedom among the barbarians than the anxiety of paying tribute among the Romans.

> Latin: 7 quamquam et post hoc quoque continuo barbari exsecrati gladios suos ad aratra conuersi sunt residuosque Romanos ut socios modo et amicos fouent, ut inueniantur iam inter eos quidam Romani, qui malint inter barbaros pauperem libertatem, quam inter Romanos tributariam sollicitudinem sustinere.

[¶7] And yet, if the barbarians had been let into the Roman frontiers for this reason alone — that throughout east and west the churches of Christ are commonly filled with Huns, Suebi, Vandals and Burgundians, and with diverse and countless peoples of believers — the mercy of God would seem worthy to be praised and exalted, since, even if with our own undoing, such great nations would be receiving the knowledge of the truth, which they surely could not have found except by this occasion.

> Latin: 8 quamquam si ob hoc solum barbari Romanis finibus inmissi forent, quod uulgo per orientem et occidentem ecclesiae Christi Hunis Suebis Vandalis et Burgundionibus diuersisque innumeris credentium populis replentur, laudanda et adtollenda misericordia Dei uideretur, quandoquidem, etsi cum labefactione nostri, tantae gentes agnitionem ueritatis acciperent, quam inuenire utique nisi hac occasione non possent.

[¶8] For what loss is it to a Christian who longs for eternal life to be withdrawn from this world at any time and in any manner? And what gain is it to a pagan, hardened against the faith in the midst of Christians, if he draws out his day a little longer, since he must die at some time, and his conversion is despaired of?

> Latin: 9 quid enim damni est Christiano ad uitam aeternam inhianti, huic saeculo quolibet tempore et quoquo pacto abstrahi? quid autem lucri est pagano in medio Christianorum aduersus fidem obdurato, si paulo diutius diem protrahat, quandoque morituro, cui desperata conuersio est?

[¶9] And since the judgements of God are ineffable, and we can neither know them all nor explain those we know, I would put it briefly thus: that the chastisement of God the judge, in whatever way it comes, is justly borne by those who know, and justly borne by those who do not know.

> Latin: 10 Et quia ineffabilia sunt iudicia Dei, quae nec scire omnia nec explicare quae scimus possumus, breuiter expresserim, correptionem iudicis Dei, quoquo pacto accidat, iuste sustinere qui sciunt, iuste sustinere qui nesciunt.