---
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: 42 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/42/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 42. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/42/"
---

# 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.

## 42. Book 3 · Chapter 1

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/42/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/42/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 364 from the founding of the City — a year which Rome felt to be most grievous because of a captivity unknown to her before, while Greece held it to be magnificent because of an unaccustomed peace — at the very time, that is, when the Gauls held Rome captured and burned, and sold it back, Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, ordered all Greece through envoys to withdraw from arms and rest in peace, announcing that whoever opposed the peace would be attacked in war.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita CCCLXIIII, quem annum sicut grauissimum propter ignotam sibi captiuitatem Roma persensit ita magnificum propter insolitam pacem Graecia habuit, eo siquidem tempore, quo Galli Romam captam incensamque tenuerunt ac uendiderunt, Artaxerxes rex Persarum discedere ab armis et quiescere in pace uniuersam Graeciam per legatos praecepit, denuntians contradictorem pacis bello inpetendum.

[¶1] The Greeks could certainly have scorned him when he gave such orders as steadfastly as they had often bravely defeated him, had they not so gladly seized the opportunity held out to them from whatever quarter, which they had so eagerly desired —

> Latin: 2 quem ita iubentem potuissent utique Graeci tam constanter contemnere, quam fortiter saepe uicerunt, nisi porrectam undecumque occasionem, quam auide desiderauerant, tam libenter hausissent -

[¶2] for they showed how reluctantly and wretchedly they had carried on those wars until then, since they laid them down so easily, even on shameful terms. For what is so unworthy of free and brave men as to lay down their arms at the command of an enemy far removed, often defeated, and still threatening, and to become slaves to peace? — had not their sickly intent for war wasted away in the hearts of all at the mere sound of the peace announced, and had not an unlooked-for rest relaxed them, yawning and stupefied after long vigils of toil, before their will could settle the terms of that very rest.

> Latin: 3 ostenderunt enim, quam aegre et misere illa eatenus gesserint, quae tam facile indigna etiam condicione posuerunt: nam quid tam indignum liberis et fortibus uiris, quam longe remoti, saepe uicti, adhuc hostis et deinde minitantis imperio arma deponere pacique seruire? - si non in ipso tantum adnuntiatae pacis sono per corda cunctorum aegra belli tabuisset intentio et post diuturnas laborum uigilias oscitantes ac stupefactos quies inopina laxasset, priusquam ipsam quietem uoluntas pacta conponeret.

[¶3] But from what source so great an exhaustion came to weigh down the hearts and bodies of all the peoples throughout Greece, persuading their savage spirits so easily to acquiesce in an unaccustomed leisure, I shall show as briefly as I can.

> Latin: 4 unde autem tanta fatigatio omnium per totam Graeciam populorum corda corporaque oppresserit, quae efferos animos ignoto adquiescere otio tam facile persuasit, quam breuissime ostendam.

[¶4] The Lacedaemonians, being men, and Greek men at that, desired the more the more they had; after they had made themselves masters of the Athenians, they swallowed up all Asia in their hope of domination.

> Latin: 5 Lacedaemonii, utpote homines et Graeci homines, quo plura habebant, eo ampliora cupientes, postquam Atheniensium potiti sunt, uniuersam Asiam spe dominationis hauserunt.

[¶5] And so, stirring up war against the whole East, they chose Dercylidas as general for this campaign. When he saw that he would have to fight against the two most powerful governors of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes, he adopted a plan suited to the moment so as to evade the weight of a double engagement: he attacked the one after declaring war, and held the other in suspense by concluding a peace.

> Latin: 6 itaque toto orienti bellum mouentes Hircyliden ducem in hanc militiam legunt. qui cum sibi aduersus duos potentissimos Artaxerxis Persarum regis praefectos Farnabazum et Tissafernen pugnandum uideret, prouiso ad tempus consilio, ut pondus geminae congressionis eluderet, unum denuntiato bello adpetit, alterum pacta pace suspendit.

*Note: Dercylidas, the Spartan commander in Asia from 399 BC; Orosius calls him Hircylides.*

[¶6] Pharnabazus denounced Tissaphernes as a traitor to Artaxerxes, then king of them both, chiefly for having negotiated the terms of a treaty with the enemy in time of war; and he urged the king to appoint in his place, as commander in the naval war, Conon the Athenian, who was then by chance living in exile in Cyprus. So, after five hundred talents of silver had been received, Conon was summoned through Pharnabazus and put in command of the fleet.

> Latin: 7 Farnabazus Tissafernen apud Artaxerxen, communem tunc regem, defert ut proditorem, praesertim qui cum hoste belli tempore de foederis condicione pepigisset; hortaturque regem, ut in locum eius Cononem Atheniensem uirum, qui tunc forte apud Cyprum exulabat, ducem nauali bello constituat. acceptis igitur quingentis argenti talentis Conon per Farnabazum euocatur classique praeficitur.

[¶7] When they learned of this, the Lacedaemonians in their turn sought help for the naval war through envoys from Hercynion, king of Egypt, from whom they received a hundred equipped triremes and six hundred thousand measures of grain; from their allies, too, they gathered great reinforcements on every side.

> Latin: 8 quibus conpertis Lacedaemonii et ipsi auxilia naualis belli a rege Aegypti Hercynione per legatos petunt, a quo centum instructas triremes et sescenta milia modium frumenti acceperunt; a sociis etiam undique magna contraxere subsidia.

*Note: The Egyptian king of the time was Nepherites I; Hercynion is the name Orosius found in his source, Justin.*

[¶8] For this campaign they appointed Agesilaus as general by common consent, a man lame in one foot; but in a most difficult state of affairs they preferred that their king should limp rather than their kingdom. Rarely have generals so evenly matched in every kind of energy come together in a single war; worn out by the bitterest battles against one another and smeared with much blood, they withdrew from each other as if both were unconquered.

> Latin: 9 cui militiae consensu omnium Agesilaum ducem decreuerunt, uirum pede claudum, sed qui in difficillimo rerum statu mallent sibi regem claudicare quam regnum. raro umquam ita pares omni industria duces in unum coiere bellum, qui acerbissimis inuicem proeliis fatigati et multo sanguine obliti uelut inuicti ab alterutro recesserunt.

[¶9] Conon, then, having again received pay from the Great King, this time in person, returned to the fleet, invaded the enemy’s lands, stormed towers, forts and other strongholds, and like a storm let loose laid everything low wherever it fell.

> Latin: 10 igitur Conon accepto iterum per se ipsum a Rege Magno stipendio reuersus ad classem inuadit hostiles agros, turres castella ceteraque praesidia expugnat et ueluti effusa tempestas quacumque incubuit cuncta prosternit.

[¶10] The Lacedaemonians, beset by evils at home, ceased to gape after those abroad and cast away their hope of domination in the imminent danger of slavery; they recalled Agesilaus, whom they had sent with an army into Asia, to the aid of their fatherland.

> Latin: 11 Lacedaemonii uero domesticis malis circumuenti externis inhiare desistunt abiciuntque spem dominationis inminente periculo seruitutis; Agesilaum, quem cum exercitu in Asiam miserant, ad subsidium patriae reuocant.

[¶11] Meanwhile Pisander, the commander left at Sparta by King Agesilaus, had fitted out a very large and very strongly equipped fleet, moved by rivalry with the valour of Agesilaus, so that, while the latter was conducting an expedition by land, he too might range along the coast with his ships.

> Latin: 12 interea Pisander, dux apud Spartam per Agesilaum regem relictus, maximam munitissimamque tunc classem instruxerat, motus aemulatione uirtutis Agesilai, ut, illo pedestrem expeditionem agitante, ipse quoque nauali discursu oram maritimam peruagaretur.

[¶12] Conon, having taken on the task, devoted a twofold care to it, owing diligence to his allies and loyalty to his fatherland, so as to show his nature to his fatherland and give his energy to his allies; yet he leaned the more towards his fellow citizens in this, that he spent the hazard of others’ blood on their quiet and freedom, and fought against the most insolent of enemies at the king’s risk and for his fatherland’s reward.

> Latin: 13 Conon uero suscepto negotio duplicem curam inpendebat debens sociis sollicitudinem, patriae fidem, ut huic exhiberet naturam, illis praeberet industriam: in hoc propensior ciuibus, quod quieti libertatique eorum alieni sanguinis discrimen inpenderet et pugnaret aduersus insolentissimos hostes periculo regis, praemio patriae.

[¶13] So they joined battle at sea, the Persians under Conon, the Spartans under Pisander; soldiers, oarsmen and the commanders themselves were swept with one and the same ardour into mutual slaughter.

> Latin: 14 conserunt itaque nauale certamen Persae Conone, Spartani Pisandro duce; milites remiges ipsique ductores uno pariter in mutuam caedem ardore rapiuntur.

[¶14] The magnitude and savagery of this war is betrayed by the state of the Lacedaemonians, which from then on was ever in decline: for from that point the hopes of the Spartans seemed to ebb and, slipping, to be borne backwards, until, painfully rising and wretchedly falling back again, they were worn out and lost both their power and their name.

> Latin: 15 magnitudinem atque atrocitatem belli istius inclinatus ex hoc semper in posterum Lacedaemoniorum status prodit: namque ex illo fluere ac sublapsa retro referri Spartanorum spes uisa, donec adsurgendo aegre ac misere recidendo confecta et potestate careret et nomine.

[¶15] For the Athenians, however, this same battle was the beginning of the recovery of their power, as it was for the Lacedaemonians the beginning of its loss. So the Thebans first, supported by the help of the Athenians, attacked them while they were wounded and fearful from their earlier disaster, greatly encouraged by their confidence in the valour and energy of their general Epaminondas, with whom they believed they could easily win the rule of all Greece.

> Latin: 16 Atheniensibus uero haec eadem pugna initium recuperandae potentiae sicut Lacedaemoniis amittendae fuit. primi igitur Thebani, auxilio Atheniensium fulti, superiore clade saucios ac trepidos adgrediuntur, multa animati fiducia propter uirtutem atque industriam Epaminondae ducis sui, cum quo sibi facile obtinere posse imperium totius Graeciae uidebantur.

[¶16] A land battle was therefore fought, and the Thebans won with very little trouble. For in this engagement too Lysander was defeated and killed; Pausanias as well, the other general of the Lacedaemonians, was accused of treason and driven into exile;

> Latin: 17 fit itaque terrestre proelium, Thebanis minimo negotio uincentibus. uincitur enim etiam hoc conflictu Lysander et occiditur; Pausanias quoque dux alter Lacedaemoniorum insimulatus proditionis in exilium truditur;

*Note: Orosius, following Justin, runs together events that lie decades apart: Lysander fell at Haliartus in 395 BC, the year before the battle of Cnidus, and was never king (3.1.18), while Epaminondas did not lead the Thebans until the 370s.*

[¶17] and the Thebans, having gained the victory, gathered the force of their whole army and made for Sparta, thinking that they would enter without any trouble a city empty of defenders, since they had already destroyed almost all its forces together with the king himself, and saw it abandoned by all its allies.

> Latin: 18 Thebani autem uictoria potiti, collecta uniuersi exercitus manu, Spartam contendunt, putantes se uacuam praesidio ciuitatem nullo intraturos negotio, cuius iam omnes paene copias cum ipso rege delessent atque ab omnibus sociis destitutos uiderent.

[¶18] The Lacedaemonians, driven by the danger to their city, held a levy, such as it was, of untrained soldiers and went out to meet the enemy. But men once defeated had neither the valour nor the spirit to stand against their conquerors.

> Latin: 19 Lacedaemonii periculo ciuitatis inpulsi habito inexercitati militis qualicumque dilectu obuiam hosti procedunt. sed uictis semel aduersum uictores obsistendi nec uirtus nec animus erat.

[¶19] When, therefore, the slaughter was being dealt out almost on one side only, suddenly King Agesilaus, summoned from Asia, came upon the war unexpectedly; he attacked the Thebans, who were already more elated and more slack from the success of a double victory, and overcame them without difficulty, especially since his forces were still almost intact. Agesilaus himself, however, was seriously wounded.

> Latin: 20 cum igitur caedes tantum unius paene partis ageretur, repente rex Agesilaus arcessitus ex Asia inprouisus bello superuenit; Thebanos iam successu duplicis uictoriae laetiores segnioresque adgreditur nec difficile superat, maxime cum adhuc apud ipsum paene integrae uires haberentur. ipse tamen Agesilaus grauiter uulneratur.

[¶20] But the Athenians, when they learned that the Lacedaemonians had been raised up by an unhoped-for victory, trembling with fear of their former slavery, from which they had then scarcely begun to breathe again, gathered an army and joined it to the Boeotians as an auxiliary force, entrusting it to the general Iphicrates, who, though very young — scarcely twenty years of age — fortified the weakness of his years with maturity of mind.

> Latin: 21 at uero Athenienses cum conperissent insperata Lacedaemonios uictoria subleuatos, pristinae seruitutis, de qua tunc respirare uix coeperant, trepidi metu exercitum contrahunt eumque Boeotiis in auxilium adiungunt, commissum Iphicrati duci, qui adulescens admodum, uixdum annos uiginti natus, infirmitatem aetatis maturitate animi muniebat.

[¶21] Conon too, an Athenian by birth but commander of the Persian army, on hearing of Agesilaus’s return, came back to ravage the lands of the Lacedaemonians. Thus the Spartans, shut in and terrified by the din of enemies resounding on every side, wasted away in almost utter despair.

> Latin: 22 Conon quoque, uir quidem Atheniensis, dux autem Persici exercitus, audito Agesilai reditu ad populandos Lacedaemoniorum agros reuertitur. ita Spartani, strepitu circumsonantium undique hostium clausi atque exterriti, ultima propemodum desperatione tabuerunt.

[¶22] But Conon, when he had sated himself with the wide devastation of the enemy’s soil, went on to Athens, himself sorrowful amid the greatest joy of the citizens, since he saw the city, once most splendidly adorned with people and refinement, now wasted by the wretched squalor of ruins and desolation.

> Latin: 23 sed Conon postquam uasta hostilis soli populatione satiatus est, Athenas pergit, in maximo gaudio ciuium ipse tristis, quippe cum uideret urbem populo quondam cultuque ornatissimam, nunc miserabili ruinarum ac desolationis squalore confectam.

[¶23] And so he wrought a great monument of piety and compassion in its restoration. For the city that the Lacedaemonians had emptied he refilled with the spoils of the Lacedaemonians, and the city burned by the Persians he rebuilt with the Persians as its builders.

> Latin: 24 itaque magnum pietatis miserationisque monumentum in reparatione eius operatus est. namque eam a Lacedaemoniis exinanitam Lacedaemoniorum praedis repleuit, Persis incendentibus concrematam Persis aedificantibus reformauit.

[¶24] Meanwhile Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, as was said at the beginning, commanded all the peoples of Greece through envoys to withdraw from arms and to acquiesce in peace: not because he was compassionately looking after their weariness, but so that, while he was occupied with wars in Egypt, no incursion might be attempted against his kingdom.

> Latin: 25 interea Artaxerxes rex Persarum, sicut principio dictum est, uniuersis Graeciae populis per legatos, ut ab armis discederent et paci adquiescerent, imperauit: non quia misericorditer fessis consuleret, sed ne se in Aegypto bellis occupato aliqua in regnum suum temptaretur inruptio.