---
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: 48 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/48/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 48. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/48/"
---

# 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.

## 48. Book 3 · Chapter 7

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/48/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/48/#p-N

[¶0] I think that I should also count among the evils that first treaty struck with the Carthaginians, which belongs to these same times; especially since from it arose evils so grievous that they seem to have begun from that moment.

> Latin: 1 Numerandum etiam inter mala censeo primum illud ictum cum Carthaginiensibus foedus, quod isdem temporibus fuit; praesertim ex quo tam grauia orta sunt mala, ut exim coepisse uideantur.

*Note: In fact the second treaty between Rome and Carthage (348 BC); Polybius (3.22) records an earlier one dated to the first year of the Republic.*

[¶1] For in the year 402 from the founding of the City envoys were sent from Carthage to Rome and concluded a treaty.

> Latin: 2 anno siquidem ab urbe condita CCCCII legati a Carthagine Romam missi sunt foedusque pepigerunt.

[¶2] That this entry of the Carthaginians into Italy would be followed by a hailstorm of evils and an unbroken darkness of continual miseries is attested by the faithful record of the histories, by the ill fame of places, and by the abhorrence of the days on which these things were done.

> Latin: 3 quem ingressum Carthaginiensium in Italiam malorum grandinem secuturam continuarumque miseriarum tenebras iuges historiarum fides locorumque infamia et abominatio dierum, quibus ea gesta sunt, protestantur.

[¶3] At that time, too, night was seen to stretch over the greater part of the day, and a stony hail falling from the clouds pelted the earth with real stones.

> Latin: 4 Tunc etiam nox usque ad plurimam diei partem tendi uisa est et saxea de nubibus grando descendens ueris terram lapidibus uerberauit.

[¶4] In these days, too, was born Alexander the Great, truly a whirlpool of miseries and the most savage whirlwind of the whole East.

> Latin: 5 Quibus diebus etiam Alexander Magnus, uere ille gurges miseriarum atque atrocissimus turbo totius orientis, est natus.

[¶5] At that time, too, Ochus, also called Artaxerxes, after carrying through a very great and long war in Egypt, deported a great many of the Jews and ordered them to live in Hyrcania by the Caspian Sea:

> Latin: 6 Tunc etiam Ochus, qui et Artaxerxes, post transactum in Aegypto maximum diuturnumque bellum plurimos Iudaeorum in transmigrationem egit atque in Hyrcania ad Caspium mare habitare praecepit:

[¶6] and it is believed that they remain there to this very day, their race greatly increased, and that they will one day break out from there.

> Latin: 7 quos ibi usque in hodiernum diem amplissimis generis sui incrementis consistere atque exim quandoque erupturos opinio est.

[¶7] In the storm of this same war, as he passed through, he also destroyed Sidon, the wealthiest city of the province of Phoenicia; and Egypt — though he had previously been defeated there — he then subdued, crushed it with the sword, and subjected it to the rule of the Persians.

> Latin: 8 cuius etiam belli tempestate transcurrens et Sidonam opulentissimam Phoenicis prouinciae urbem deleuit et Aegyptum, quamuis prius uictus, tunc tamen subactam comminutamque ferro Persarum subiecit imperio.