---
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: 61 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/61/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 61. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/61/"
---

# 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.

## 61. Book 3 · Chapter 21

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/61/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/61/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 450 from the founding of the City, in the fifth consulship of Fabius Maximus and the fourth of Decius Mus, four of the bravest and most flourishing peoples of Italy came together in a single army and alliance. For the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Samnites and the Gauls, conspiring in one army, attempted to destroy the Romans.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita CCCCL Fabio Maximo V Decio Mure IIII consulibus quattuor fortissimi florentissimique Italiae populi in unum agmen foedusque coierunt. namque Etrusci Umbri Samnites et Galli uno agmine conspirantes Romanos delere conati sunt.

[¶1] The spirits of the Romans were shaken by this war and their confidence undermined, nor did they dare to hope for everything from their strength: by a stratagem they divided their enemies, thinking it safer to involve themselves in several wars than in heavy ones.

> Latin: 2 tremefacti hoc bello Romanorum animi et labefactata fiducia est, nec ausi sunt totum sperare de uiribus: dolo diuisere hostes, tutius rati pluribus se bellis inplicare quam grauibus.

[¶2] And so, having sent some of their men ahead into Umbria and Etruria to ravage the enemy’s lands, and having thereby forced the army of the Umbrians and Etruscans to return to defend their own, they hastened to enter upon war with the Samnites and the Gauls.

> Latin: 3 itaque cum, quibusdam suis ad populandos hostiles agros in Umbriam Etruriamque praemissis, Umbrorum Etruscorumque exercitum redire ad tuitionem suorum coegissent, cum Samnitibus et Gallis bellum inire properarunt.

[¶3] In this war, when the Romans were being hard pressed by the onset of the Gauls, the consul Decius was killed. Fabius, however, after great slaughter in Decius’s part of the army, at last won.

> Latin: 4 in quo bello cum Gallorum impetu Romani premerentur Decius consul occisus est. Fabius tamen post magnam Decianae partis stragem tandem uicit.

[¶4] In that battle forty thousand Samnites and Gauls were slain, while of the Romans seven thousand are reported to have perished from the part of Decius, who was killed, alone.

> Latin: 5 eo proelio quadraginta milia Samnitium siue Gallorum caesa, Romanorum uero septem milia ex Decii tantummodo parte qui occisus est exstincta referuntur.

[¶5] Livy reports, moreover, that, apart from the Etruscans and Umbrians, whom the Romans by cunning drew away from the war, there were 140,330 foot of the Gauls and Samnites and 47,000 horse, and that 1,000 chariot-fighters stood in arms against the Roman battle line.

> Latin: 6 fuisse autem absque Etruscis et Umbris, quos astu Romani bello auocauerunt, Gallorum et Samnitium peditum CXL milia CCCXXX, equitum uero XLVII milia Liuius refert, et carpentarios mille in armis contra aciem stetisse Romanam.

*Note: Livy (10.30) reports such inflated figures only as the claim of certain writers, whom he accuses of exaggeration.*

[¶6] But — as has often been said, the domestic quiet of the Romans was always interrupted by foreign wars, or their successes abroad were weighed down by diseases within, so that their mighty spirits were in every way pressed from every side —

> Latin: 7 Sed - ut saepe dictum est semper Romanorum aut domesticam quietem extraneis bellis interpellatam aut externos prouentus morbis interioribus adgrauatos, tantum ut omnimodis ingentes animi undecumque premerentur -

[¶7] this bloody and grim victory was burdened by a pestilence in the city, and the funeral processions of the dead coming to meet them polluted the triumphal pomp. Nor was there anyone who could be persuaded to rejoice over a triumph, when the whole city was sighing either for the sick or for the dead.

> Latin: 8 hanc cruentam tristemque uictoriam pestilentia ciuitatis onerauit et triumphales pompas obuiae mortuorum exsequiae polluerunt. nec erat cui de triumpho gaudium suaderetur, cum tota ciuitas aut aegris suspiraret aut mortuis.