---
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: 51 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/51/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 51. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/51/"
---

# 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.

## 51. Book 3 · Chapters 10–11

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/51/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/51/#p-N

### Chapter 10

[¶1] But after only a short interval — I shudder to relate what was done. For in the consulship of Claudius Marcellus and Valerius Flaccus the matrons of Rome blazed up with an incredible frenzy and love of crime.

> Latin: 1 At uero paruo exim tempore interiecto horresco referre quod gestum est. nam Claudio Marcello et Valerio Flacco consulibus incredibili rabie et amore scelerum Romanae matronae exarserunt.

[¶2] It was, to be sure, a foul and pestilential year, and the dead, struck down on every side, were being carried out in droves; and still everyone held the simple belief that the air was corrupted, when, on the information and proof of a certain slave-girl, first many matrons were compelled to drink the poisons they had brewed, and then, as soon as they had drunk them, perished.

> Latin: 2 erat utique foedus ille ac pestilens annus inflictaeque iam undique cateruatim strages egerebantur et adhuc tamen penes omnes de corrupto aere simplex credulitas erat, cum, exsistente quadam ancilla indice et conuincente, primum multae matronae ut biberent quae coxerant uenena compulsae, deinde, simul atque hausere, consumptae sunt.

[¶3] So great was the number of matrons party to these crimes that 370 of them are reported to have been condemned at one time.

> Latin: 3 tanta autem multitudo fuit matronarum in his facinoribus consciarum, ut trecentae septuaginta damnatae ex illis simul fuisse referantur.

*Note: Livy (8.18) gives 170 matrons condemned; Orosius’s figure is 370.*

### Chapter 11

[¶5] In the year 422 from the founding of the City, Alexander, king of the Epirotes, uncle of the famous Alexander the Great, brought his forces over into Italy; and while he was preparing war against the Romans and, eager to strengthen the forces of his army around the cities neighbouring Rome and either to win allies for himself or draw them away from his enemies, was busy with wars, he was defeated and killed in a very great battle in Lucania by the Samnites, who were supporting the Lucanian people.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita CCCCXXII Alexander rex Epirotarum, Alexandri illius Magni auunculus, traiectis in Italiam copiis cum bellum aduersus Romanos pararet et circa finitimas Romae urbes firmare uires exercitus sui auxiliaque uel sibi adquirere uel hostibus subtrahere studens bellis exerceretur, a Samnitibus, qui Lucanae genti suffragabantur, maximo bello in Lucania uictus atque occisus est.

*Note: Alexander the Molossian was killed near Pandosia in Bruttium about 331 BC by the Lucanians and Bruttians (Livy 8.24), as Orosius himself says at 3.18.3; the Samnites here, and the Sabines at 3.14.4, are mistakes.*

[¶6] But since I have advanced somewhat in reviewing the disasters of the Romans, I shall — reminded, too, by the mention of this Alexander — go back a very few years and, so far as I can, gather great matters into small compass concerning Philip, king of the Macedonians, who had as his wife Olympias, sister of this Alexander of Epirus, by whom he fathered Alexander the Great.

> Latin: 2 Sed, quoniam aliquantum Romanas clades recensendo progressus sum, uel Alexandri istius mentione commonitus, de Philippo Macedonum rege, qui Olympiadem huius Alexandri Epirotae sororem uxorem habuit, ex qua Alexandrum Magnum genuit, paucissimis annis retro repetitis magna paruis in quantum potero colligam.