---
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: 39 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/39/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 39. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/39/"
---

# 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.

## 39. Book 2 · Chapter 18

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/39/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/39/#p-N

[¶0] At almost the same time a civil war — nay, more than civil — was being waged among the Persians, and was scarcely ended by parricide. For after the death of King Darius, when his sons Artaxerxes and Cyrus were disputing over the kingdom, they at length fought it out with great preparations and with the ruin of provinces and peoples on both sides.

> Latin: 1 Isdem fere diebus bellum ciuile, immo etiam plus quam ciuile, uix parricidio terminatum, apud Persas gerebatur. mortuo enim rege Dario cum Artaxerxes et Cyrus filii eius de regno ambigerent, tandem apparatibus magnis, prouinciarum ac populorum ruinis utrimque certatum:

[¶1] In this conflict, when chance had thrown the two brothers against each other as they charged from opposite sides, Artaxerxes was the first to be wounded by his brother, but was snatched from death by the speed of his horse and escaped; Cyrus, however, was soon overwhelmed by the royal cohort and so put an end to the struggle. Artaxerxes, therefore, having gained possession both of the spoils of his brother’s expedition and of his army, secured the power of the kingdom by parricide.

> Latin: 2 in quo conflictu cum e diuerso concurrentes sibi ambo fratres mutuo casus obiectauisset, prior Artaxerxes uulneratus a fratre equi uelocitate morti exemptus euasit. Cyrus autem mox a cohorte regia oppressus finem certamini dedit. Artaxerxes ergo et praeda fraternae expeditionis et exercitu potitus potestatem regni parricidio firmauit.

[¶2] Thus the whole of Asia and Europe were thrown into confusion with deaths and crimes, partly each within itself, partly against one another.

> Latin: 3 sic uniuersa Asia atque Europa, partim in se singulae, partim inter se inuicem funeribus et flagitiis permiscebantur.

[¶3] See how, in the smallest page and in the fewest words, I have not so much unfolded the doings of so many provinces, peoples and cities as wound up whole tangles of miseries. For who “could unfold in speech the disaster of that time, its deaths, or match its sorrows with tears”?

> Latin: 4 Ecce paruissima pagina uerbisque paucissimis quantos de tot prouinciis populis atque urbibus non magis explicui actus operum, quam inplicui globos miseriarum. quis enim cladem illius temporis, quis fando funera explicet aut aequare lacrimis possit dolores?

[¶4] And yet these very things, because they have faded through a long lapse of ages, have become for us exercises for the wit and the delights of storytelling. Yet if anyone were to apply his mind more attentively, and with the whole affection of his mind immerse himself almost in those very causes and wars, and then again, as though set on the height of a theatre, were to measure out both times each in its own qualities, I would readily say that he will judge that those times could not have been so unhappily disordered and confounded except when God was angered and turned away, nor these be so composed except when he is favourable and merciful.

> Latin: 5 uerumtamen haec ipsa, quia multo interiectu saeculorum exoleuerunt, facta sunt nobis exercitia ingeniorum et oblectamenta fabularum. quamquam si quis intentius adhibeat animum seseque toto mentis adfectu ipsis paene causis bellisque permisceat ac rursus uelut in arce spectaculi constitutus utrumque in suis qualitatibus tempus permetiatur, facile dixerim eum iudicaturum, neque illa nisi irato atque auersato Deo posse tam infeliciter perturbari ac permisceri neque ista sic nisi propitio et miserante conponi.

[¶5] In these times, then, Sicily was shaken by a very severe earthquake, and was moreover laid waste by the fires and hot ashes boiling out of Mount Etna, with very great damage to fields and country houses.

> Latin: 6 His deinde temporibus grauissimo motu terrae concussa Sicilia, insuper exaestuantibus Aethnae montis ignibus fauillisque calidis cum detrimento plurimo agrorum uillarumque uastata est.

[¶6] At that time, too, the city of Atalante, which adjoined Locris and was joined to the land, was cut off by a sudden onslaught of the sea and left desolate as an island. A pestilence also attacked the pitiable remnants of the Athenians and ravaged them for a long time.

> Latin: 7 Tunc etiam Atalante ciuitas, Locris adhaerens terrae contigua, repentino maris impetu abscissa atque in insulam desolata est. Atheniensium quoque miserabiles reliquias pestis inuasit diuque populata est.

*Note: Both events belong to the 420s BC: Thucydides (3.89) records the flooding at Atalante in the earthquakes of 426, and the great plague of Athens began in 430.*