---
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: 72 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/72/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 72. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/72/"
---

# 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.

## 72. Book 4 · Chapter 7

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/72/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/72/#p-N

[¶0] In the year 483 from the founding of the City, that is, in the consulship of Appius Claudius and Quintus Fabius, the Romans sent aid to the Mamertines, to whom Messana, a famous city of Sicily, belonged, against Hiero, king of Syracuse, and the forces of the Carthaginians joined with Hiero; and they sent the consul Appius Claudius with an army.

> Latin: 1 Anno ab urbe condita CCCCLXXXIII id est Appio Claudio Q. Fabio consulibus Mamertinis, quorum Messana nobilis Siciliae ciuitas erat, auxilia contra Hieronem Syracusanum regem et Poenorum copias Hieroni iunctas et Appium Claudium consulem cum exercitu misere Romani.

*Note: The consuls of 264 BC were Appius Claudius Caudex and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus; Orosius’s Quintus Fabius is an error.*

[¶1] He overcame the Syracusans and the Carthaginians so swiftly that the king himself, terrified by the greatness of events, confessed that he had been conquered before he had even engaged;

> Latin: 2 qui tam celeriter Syracusanos Poenosque superauit, ut ipse quoque rex rerum magnitudine perterritus ante se uictum quam congressum fuisse prodiderit;

[¶2] and thereafter, his strength broken and his confidence lost, when he begged as a suppliant for peace, he received it, being fined two hundred talents of silver by order of the consuls.

> Latin: 3 qui exim fractis uiribus amissaque fiducia cum pacem supplex rogaret, ducentis argenti talentis iussu consulum multatus accepit.

[¶3] The consuls encircled with siegeworks and a rampart Agrigentum, a city of Sicily, and the garrisons of the Carthaginians there.

> Latin: 4 consules Agrigentum Siciliae ciuitatem ibique praesidia Poenorum operibus ualloque cinxerunt.

[¶4] And when Hannibal the elder, general of the Carthaginians, shut in by that siege, had been reduced to extreme want, Hanno, the new general of the Carthaginians, intervened unexpectedly with 1,500 horsemen, 30,000 foot soldiers and 30 elephants as well, and for a little while delayed the storming of the city.

> Latin: 5 cumque inclusus ea obsidione senior Hannibal imperator Poenorum ad summam egestatem redactus esset, Hanno imperator nouus Carthaginiensium cum equitibus mille quingentis et triginta milibus peditum, triginta etiam elephantis ex inprouiso intercessit expugnationemque ciuitatis paulisper distulit.

[¶5] But the city was soon taken: the Carthaginians were defeated and routed in a very great battle, eleven elephants were brought into the Romans’ power, and the Agrigentines were all sold into slavery; Hannibal the elder made a sortie with a few men and escaped.

> Latin: 6 sed continuo ciuitas capta est: Poeni maximo bello uicti et profligati, undecim elephanti in potestatem redacti, Agrigentini sub corona omnes uenditi sunt; Hannibal senior facta cum paucis eruptione diffugit.

[¶6] In the consulship of Gnaeus Cornelius Asina and Gaius Duilius, when Hannibal the elder was ravaging the sea-coast of Italy with a fleet of seventy ships which he had equipped, the Romans too gave orders for a fleet to be built and equipped.

> Latin: 7 Cn. Cornelio Asina C. Duilio consulibus cum Hannibal senior oram Italiae maritimam instructa septuaginta nauium classe uastaret, Romani et ipsi classem fabricari atque instrui praeceperunt.

[¶7] The consul Duilius quickly accomplished this; for within 60 days from the felling of the trees a fleet of 130 ships had been launched and lay at anchor.

> Latin: 8 quod Duilius consul celeriter inpleuit; nam intra sexaginta dies quam arbores caesae erant centum triginta nauium classis deducta in anchoris stetit.

[¶8] Cornelius Asina, the other consul, made for the island of Lipara with sixteen ships; there, summoned by Hannibal as though to a parley about peace, he was captured by Punic treachery and put to death in chains.

> Latin: 9 Cornelius Asina consul alter cum sedecim nauibus Liparam insulam petiit; ubi ab Hannibale quasi ad conloquium pacis euocatus Punica fraude captus atque in uinculis necatus est.

*Note: Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Asina was not put to death: he was later released and was consul again in 254 BC.*

[¶9] When Duilius, the other consul, heard this, he set out against Hannibal with thirty ships. When the naval battle was joined, Hannibal, having lost the ship in which he sailed, slipped away in a skiff and fled; thirty-one of his ships are reported to have been captured, thirteen sunk, three thousand men killed and seven thousand taken prisoner.

> Latin: 10 quod ubi Duilius alter consul audiit, cum triginta nauibus aduersus Hannibalem profectus est. commisso nauali proelio Hannibal, amissa naui qua uehebatur, scapha subductus aufugit; triginta et una naues eius captae, tredecim mersae, tria milia hominum occisa, septem milia capta referuntur.

[¶10] Afterwards, in the consulship of Gaius Aquilius Florus and Lucius Cornelius Scipio, the Carthaginians put Hanno, who had been appointed in place of Hannibal, in command of a naval battle for the defence of the Sardinians and Corsicans. Defeated by the consul Scipio and having lost his army, he threw himself among the thickest of the enemy and was killed there.

> Latin: 11 Postea Carthaginienses C. Aquilio Floro L. Cornelio Scipione consulibus Hannonem in locum Hannibalis subrogatum pro Sardis et Corsis defensandis nauali proelio praefecerunt, qui a Scipione consule uictus, amisso exercitu ipse confertissimis hostibus se inmiscuit ibique interfectus est.

[¶11] In the same year three thousand slaves and four thousand naval allies conspired to destroy the city of Rome; and, had not a timely betrayal forestalled the plot, the city, bereft of defenders, would have perished at the hands of slaves.

> Latin: 12 eodem anno tria milia seruorum et quattuor milia naualium sociorum in urbis Romae excidium coniurarunt et, nisi maturata proditio consilium praeuenisset, destituta praesidio ciuitas seruili manu perisset.