---
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: 29 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/29/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 29. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/29/"
---

# 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.

## 29. Book 2 · Chapter 8

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/29/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/29/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 245 from the founding of the City, Darius, some while after Cyrus had been killed among the Scythians, obtained the kingdom by lot. For between them reigned Cambyses, the son of Cyrus;

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita CCXLV Darius Cyro apud Scythas interfecto post aliquantum interuallum sorte regnum adeptus est. regnauit enim medius eorum Cambyses Cyri filius;

[¶1] who, having conquered Egypt, abominated the whole religion of Egypt and abolished its ceremonies and its temples.

> Latin: 2 qui deuicta Aegypto cunctam Aegypti religionem abominatus caerimonias eius et templa deposuit.

[¶2] After him the Magi too dared to steal into the kingdom under the name of the king whom they had killed; but they were soon detected and crushed.

> Latin: 3 post hunc etiam magi sub nomine quem occiderant regis regno obrepere ausi; qui quidem mox deprehensi et oppressi sunt.

[¶3] Darius, then, one of those who had checked the audacity of the Magi with the sword, was made king by the consent of all. After he had recovered by war the Assyrians and Babylon, which were falling away from the kingdom of the Persians, he made war on Idanthyrsus, king of the Scythians, chiefly for this reason: that he had not obtained the marriage he had sought with his daughter.

> Latin: 4 Darius itaque, unus ex his qui magorum audaciam ferro coercuerant, consensu omnium rex creatus est. qui postquam Assyrios ac Babylonam a Persarum regno deficientem bello recuperauit, Antyro, regi Scytharum, hac uel maxime causa bellum intulit, quod filiae eius petitas sibi nuptias non obtinuisset.

*Note: Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king of Herodotus’s account of Darius’s campaign (4.126–127); Orosius’s text calls him Antyrus.*

[¶4] A great necessity, no doubt, that seven hundred thousand men should be exposed to the danger of death for the lust of one man! For when, with incredible preparation, he had entered Scythia with seven hundred thousand armed men, and the enemy would give him no opportunity for a regular battle, but on top of that kept tearing at the rear of his forces with sudden raids,

> Latin: 5 magna scilicet necessitas, pro unius libidine hominis septingenta milia uirorum periculo mortis exponi. incredibili quippe apparatu cum septingentis milibus armatorum Scythiam ingressus, non facientibus hostibus iustae pugnae potestatem, insuper repentinis incursibus extrema copiarum dilacerantibus,

[¶5] fearing that his return might be cut off by the breaking of the bridge over the river Danube, he fled back in alarm, having lost eighty thousand fighting men — though he did not count this number of the lost among his losses; and a host that scarcely anyone else would have dared aspire to possess, he did not even feel the loss of.

> Latin: 6 metuens ne sibi reditus interrupto ponte Histri fluminis negaretur, amissis octoginta milibus bellatorum trepidus refugit, quamuis hunc amissorum numerum inter damna non duxerit, et, quem habendum uix quisquam ambire ausus esset, perditum ille non sensit.

[¶6] Then he attacked and subdued Asia and Macedonia. He also overcame the Ionians in a naval engagement. Next he launched an assault and directed his arms against the Athenians, because they had given help to the Ionians against him.

> Latin: 7 inde Asiam Macedoniamque adgressus perdomuit. Ionas quoque nauali congressione superauit. deinde in Athenienses, cur Ionas aduersum se auxilio iuuissent, impetum fecit atque arma direxit.

[¶7] The Athenians, however, when they learned that Darius was approaching, although they had asked the Lacedaemonians for help, yet, having learned that the Persians were held up by the rest of a four-day religious observance, seized their hope from the opportunity, and with only ten thousand citizens drawn up and a thousand Plataean auxiliaries burst out onto the plains of Marathon against six hundred thousand of the enemy.

> Latin: 8 porro autem Athenienses ubi aduentare Darium conpererunt, quamuis auxilium a Lacedaemoniis poposcissent, tamen, cum detineri Persas quadriduanae religionis otio conpertum haberent, spem occasione sumentes instructis tantum decem milibus ciuium et Plataeensibus auxiliaribus mille aduersum sescenta milia hostium campis Marathoniis proruperunt.

*Note: In Herodotus (6.106) it is the Spartans who are held back by a religious observance, which delayed their help until after the battle; Orosius transfers the delay to the Persians.*

[¶8] Miltiades commanded in that war; relying more on speed than on strength, with a swift enough advance he closed with the enemy hand to hand before he could be driven back by an unhindered discharge of arrows.

> Latin: 9 Miltiades ei tunc bello praefuit, qui celeritate magis quam uirtute fretus alacri satis expeditione prius hosti comminus inhaesit quam posset expedito sagittarum iactu propulsari.

[¶9] So great was the difference in the manner of fighting in that war that on the one side there seemed to be men ready to kill, on the other cattle prepared for slaughter.

> Latin: 10 tanta in eo bello diuersitas certandi fuit, ut ex alia parte uiri ad occidendum parati, ex alia pecudes ad moriendum praeparatae putarentur.

[¶10] Two hundred thousand Persians fell on that occasion on the plains of Marathon.

> Latin: 11 ducenta milia Persarum apud campos Marathonios ea tempestate ceciderunt.

*Note: Herodotus (6.117) gives 6,400 Persian dead and 192 Athenian; Orosius’s figures, like his 600,000 Persians in the field, are those of the later, inflated tradition.*

[¶11] Darius felt this loss: for, defeated and put to flight, he took to his ships and fled back to Persia.

> Latin: 12 sensit Darius hoc damnum: nam uictus fugatusque arreptis nauibus refugit in Persas.

*Note: Darius did not lead the expedition of 490 BC in person; his generals Datis and Artaphernes commanded at Marathon.*

[¶12] But as he was renewing the war and preparing to take vengeance on the victors, he died in the very midst of his preparations, in the seventy-fourth Olympiad, that is, in the year 275 from the founding of the City, at which time at Rome the virgin Popilia was buried alive for the crime of unchastity.

> Latin: 13 cum autem instauraret bellum et ulcisci in uictores moliretur, in ipso apparatu concidit olympiade LXXIIII, hoc est post urbem conditam anno CCLXXV, quo tempore Romae Popilia uirgo ob crimen stupri uiua defossa est.

*Note: Darius died in 486 BC, in the seventy-third Olympiad.*