---
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: 37 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/37/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 37. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/37/"
---

# 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.

## 37. Book 2 · Chapter 16

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/37/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/37/#p-N

[¶0] Among the Athenians, meanwhile, since they had long been troubled by domestic discord, the supreme power of government was transferred to the senate by the will of the people in the face of the threatening danger: for discords are nourished by leisure, but when necessity presses, private causes and hatreds are set aside and counsel is taken for the common good.

> Latin: 1 Apud Athenienses uero cum diu domestica discordia agitaretur, imminente periculo summa imperii ad senatum populi uoluntate transfertur: quippe otio discordiae nutriuntur, at ubi necessitas incubuit, postpositis priuatis causis atque odiis in commune consulitur.

[¶1] But since this very arrangement proved ruinous because of the pride ingrained in that people and their tyrannical lusts, at length the exile Alcibiades was recalled by the army and appointed commander of the fleet.

> Latin: 2 sed hoc ipsum cum propter insitam genti superbiam et tyrannicas libidines perniciosum foret, tandem Alcibiades exul ab exercitu reuocatur et dux classis constituitur.

[¶2] Learning of this, the leading men at first tried to betray the city to the Spartans; then, having planned it in vain, they went into exile of their own accord. So Alcibiades, having freed his country, directed the fleet against the enemy.

> Latin: 3 quo conperto principes primo Spartanis urbem prodere moliti sunt; deinde, cum id frustra cogitassent, in exilium sponte cesserunt. igitur Alcibiades patria liberata classem in hostes dirigit.

[¶3] Battle was joined and the Athenians seized the victory. Moreover, the greater part of the Spartan army was slaughtered, almost all their generals too were killed, and eighty ships were captured, besides those which perished in the conflict, burned and sunk.

> Latin: 4 commisso proelio uictoriam Athenienses capessunt. porro autem maior pars Spartani exercitus caesa, duces quoque paene omnes interfecti et octoginta naues captae absque his, quae in conflictu incensae demersaeque perierunt.

[¶4] When the war was transferred back to land, it went just as unhappily for the Spartans. Broken by these events, the Lacedaemonians sought peace, but could not obtain it.

> Latin: 5 rursus bellum in terram translatum Spartanis aeque infeliciter cessit. quibus rebus fracti Lacedaemonii petiere pacem, nec tamen impetrare potuerunt.

[¶5] Moreover, the Syracusan garrisons were recalled to Sicily on hearing of the threat of a Carthaginian war. So Alcibiades, with his victorious fleet, ranged through all Asia, plundering and laying everything low with wars, fires and slaughter; and of the cities that had some time before defected from the alliance he captured and recovered a great many.

> Latin: 6 praeterea Syracusana praesidia in Siciliam audita Carthaginiensis belli infestatione reuocata sunt. quamobrem Alcibiades classe uictrici totam Asiam peruagatur, bellis incendiis caedibus rapit sternitque omnia; urbes, quae dudum a societate defecerant, capit recipitque quamplurimas.

[¶6] Having thus won a great name, Alcibiades entered Athens as victor amid the admiration and joy of all.

> Latin: 7 Sic Alcibiades magni nominis factus Athenas cum admiratione et gaudio omnium uictor ingreditur.

[¶7] After a short interval he increased his strength, enlarged the numbers of his army and fleet, and made again for Asia. The Lacedaemonians, for their part, put Lysander in command of the fleet and of the war.

> Latin: 8 paruo post interuallo auget uires, exercitum classemque numero prouehit rursusque Asiam petit. Lacedaemonii uero Lysandrum ducem classi belloque praeficiunt.

[¶8] Cyrus too, the brother of Darius, who had been put in charge of Ionia and Lydia in place of Tissaphernes, strengthened them with great resources and auxiliaries. Lysander therefore, with a sudden attack, overwhelmed the army of Alcibiades, which was intent on plunder and therefore scattered and straggling everywhere, conquered it without any real engagement, and cut it down as it fled.

> Latin: 9 Cyrus etiam frater Darii, in locum Tissafernis Ioniae Lydiaeque praepositus, magnis eos opibus auxiliisque confirmat. Lysander itaque Alcibiadis exercitum praedae intentum ac per hoc ubique dispersum ac uagum repentino incursu opprimit, sine aliquo conflictu uincit caeditque fugientem.

*Note: Cyrus the Younger was the son of Darius II, not his brother.*

[¶9] This was a great disaster for the Athenians, and the wound they received was far more savage than the one they had lately inflicted. Learning of it, the Athenians supposed that Alcibiades had taken care to avenge his old grievance over his exile by this crime of treachery,

> Latin: 10 magna haec clades Atheniensibus, et multo hoc atrocius uulnus, quam dudum inflixerant, susceperunt. quo conperto Athenienses opinati sunt Alcibiaden antiquum exilii sui dolorem isto scelere proditionis uindicare curasse,

[¶10] and therefore they appointed Conon in his place, entrusting to him the remaining force and the conduct of the war.

> Latin: 11 ideoque in locum eius Cononem constituunt, cui residuam manum et summam belli committunt.

[¶11] Wishing at least to make up his depleted forces in number, he chose old men and boys and enrolled an army. But a force of this kind brought no delay to the war, which is usually decided by strength, not by numbers.

> Latin: 12 qui supplere saltem numero exhaustas copias uolens, senes ac pueros legit exercitumque conscripsit. sed huiusmodi manus moram bello non attulit: quippe quod robore, non numero confici solet.

[¶12] So this unwarlike force was at once either captured or slaughtered, and so great a carnage of the slain was made in that battle that not only the dominion but even the very name of the Athenians seemed to have been destroyed.

> Latin: 13 itaque statim inbellis manus uel capta uel caesa est, tantaque strages occisorum illo proelio facta est, ut deletum non solum regnum, sed etiam nomen Atheniensium uideretur.

[¶13] But they, their affairs desperate, resolved to grant foreigners the freedom of the city — so that those who a little before had held dominion throughout all Asia might now, from this rabble, at least defend their walls and their liberty — and though, even by their own judgement, they were not equal to defending these things even with walls set before them, they nevertheless prepared to try a naval battle once again.

> Latin: 14 at illi desperatis rebus statuunt urbem peregrinis dare - ut, qui per totam Asiam paulo ante dominati sunt, nunc ex hac conluuie muros saltem libertatemque tueantur - et, quamuis uel suo iudicio ad haec tuenda etiam obiectis muris non sufficiant, iterum tamen experiri nauale proelium parant.

[¶14] Fury bereft of counsel takes grief for valour, and as much as anger plots, so much does daring promise.

> Latin: 15 expers consilii furor dolorem uirtutem putat, quantumque meditatur ira, tantum promittit audacia.

[¶15] And so, with all of them partly captured and partly killed, of the very remnants too nothing remained. Only the general Conon, outliving both the war and the people, fearing the cruelty of his fellow citizens, withdrew to King Cyrus.

> Latin: 16 itaque omnibus partim captis partim interfectis de ipsis quoque reliquiis nihil reliqui factum est. solus dux Conon superstes bello et populo, timens ciuium crudelitatem, ad Cyrum regem concessit.

*Note: After Aegospotami (405 BC) Conon fled to Evagoras, king of Salamis in Cyprus (Xenophon, Hellenica 2.1.29), not to Cyrus.*

[¶16] Evagoras, the general of the Lacedaemonians, having taken all their cities from them, left the Athenians nothing but an empty city; nor this for long, for afterwards he surrounded the city itself with a siege. Within, famine, desolation and disease harried the besieged;

> Latin: 17 Euacoras autem dux Lacedaemoniorum ademptis omnibus ciuitatibus nihil Atheniensibus praeter inanem urbem reliquit; nec hoc diu, nam et ipsam urbem postea obsidione circumdedit. agebat intrinsecus fames desolatio et morbus obsessos,

*Note: The Spartan commander who stripped Athens of its allies and besieged it was Lysander. Orosius has turned Evagoras, Conon’s Cypriot protector, into a Spartan general; the Latin has Euacoras.*

[¶17] and when, after all the abominations of miseries which it is a horror even to speak of, no hope presented itself but death, they sued for peace.

> Latin: 18 et cum post omnia miseriarum abominamenta, quae etiam dicere horror est, nihil spei praeter mortem occurreret, pacem petiuere.