Book 3 · Chapter 4

In the year 384 from the founding of the City, in the consulship of Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius, a great pestilence seized all Rome:

1 Anno ab urbe condita CCCLXXXIIII L. Genucio et Q. Seruilio consulibus ingens uniuersam Romam pestilentia corripuit:

not one of the kind in which, as usually happens, the tempering of the seasons, disturbed more or less than usual — that is, an untimely drought in winter, or a sudden heat in spring, or unseasonable moisture in summer, or the undigested allurement of a rich autumn, with, besides, a corrupting breath exhaled from the Calabrian forests — brings sudden passing attacks of acute illnesses;

2 non ut adsolet plus minusue solito temporum turbata temperies, hoc est aut intempestiua siccitas hiemis aut repentinus calor ueris aut incongruus umor aestatis uel autumni diuitis indigesta inlecebra, insuper etiam exspirata de Calabris saltibus aura corrumpens, repentinos acutarum infirmitatum adferre transcursus;

but a grievous and long-lasting one, sparing neither sex and making no difference of age, which wore down everyone continuously for two years with a general wasting, so that even those whom it did not drive to death it left emptied and afflicted by a shameful emaciation.

3 sed grauis diuturnaque in nullo dispar sexu, in nulla aetate dissimilis generali cunctos per biennium iugiter tabe confecit, ut etiam quos non egit in mortem, turpi macie exinanitos adflictosque dimiserit.

At this point, I suppose, the detractors of the Christian times would complain if I were perhaps to pass over in silence the ceremonies by which the Romans then appeased the gods and allayed the diseases.

4 conquererentur hoc, ut arbitror, loco obtrectatores temporis Christiani, si forte silentio praeterierim, quibus tunc caerimoniis Romani placauerint deos et sedauerint morbos.

When the pestilence grew fiercer day by day, the pontiffs took the lead in urging that stage plays be put on, as the gods demanded. Thus, to drive off a temporal plague of the body, a perpetual disease of the soul was summoned.

5 cum pestilentia in dies crudesceret, auctores suasere pontifices, ut ludi scaenici diis expetentibus ederentur. ita pro depellenda temporali peste corporum arcessitus est perpetuus morbus animorum.

This is indeed a rich occasion now for my grief and reproach; but in this matter, in which your Reverence has already exercised your zeal for wisdom and truth, it is not right for me to venture anything. Let it be enough for me to have given a reminder, and to have referred the reader, whatever his purpose, to the fullness of that work.¹

6 uber nunc quidem mihi iste doloris atque increpationis locus est, sed, in quo iam reuerentia tua studium sapientiae et ueritatis exercuit, mihi super eo audere fas non est. commonuisse me satis sit et ex qualibet intentione lectorem ad illius lectionis plenitudinem remisisse.