---
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: 74 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/74/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 74. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/74/"
---

# 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.

## 74. Book 4 · Chapter 9

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/74/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/74/#p-N

[¶0] The Carthaginians, broken by wars and drained by disasters, asked Regulus for peace. But when they heard the intolerable and harsh terms of peace, thinking it safer to die armed than to live in misery, they resolved to purchase for a price the help not only of Spaniards and Gauls, of whom they had long had very many, but also of Greeks.

> Latin: 1 Carthaginienses fracti bellis et cladibus exinaniti pacem a Regulo poposcerunt. sed cum intolerabiles et duras condiciones pacis audissent, tutius rati sese armatos mori quam miseros uiuere, pretio non solum Hispanorum uel Gallorum auxilia, quae iam dudum plurima habebant, sed etiam Graecorum conparanda duxerunt.

[¶1] And so they summoned Xanthippus, king of the Lacedaemonians, with auxiliaries, and put him in command of the war as general. Xanthippus inspected the forces of the Carthaginians, led them out onto the plain, changed their equipment far for the better, and joined battle with the Romans.

> Latin: 2 itaque Xanthippum Lacedaemoniorum regem cum auxiliis accitum, ducem bello praefecerunt. Xanthippus, inspectis Poenorum copiis atque in campum deductis, longe in melius mutato apparatu pugnam cum Romanis conseruit.

*Note: Xanthippus was a Spartan mercenary commander, not a king of Sparta.*

[¶2] There was a huge collapse of Roman strength there: for thirty thousand Roman soldiers were laid low in that encounter. Regulus, that famous general, was captured with five hundred men and, thrown into chains, at last, in the tenth year of the Punic War, afforded the Carthaginians a famous triumph.

> Latin: 3 ingens ibi ruina Romanorum uirium fuit: nam triginta milia militum Romanorum in illa tunc congressione prostrata sunt. Regulus ille dux nobilis cum quingentis uiris captus est et in catenas coniectus decimo demum anno Punici belli nobilem triumphum Carthaginiensibus praebuit.

[¶3] Xanthippus, conscious of so bold a deed and fearing a change in unstable affairs, at once departed from Africa for Greece.

> Latin: 4 Xanthippus tam audacis facti conscius rerum instabilium mutationem timens ilico ex Africa migrauit in Graeciam.

[¶4] Then the consuls Aemilius Paulus and Fulvius Nobilior, on hearing of the captivity of Regulus and the disaster of the Roman army, were ordered to cross into Africa with a fleet of three hundred ships, and made for Clupea. The Carthaginians came there at once with an equal fleet, nor could the naval battle be put off.

> Latin: 5 Igitur Aemilius Paulus et Fuluius Nobilior consules audita captiuitate Reguli et clade exercitus Romani transire in Africam cum classe trecentarum nauium iussi Clipeam petunt. eo confestim Carthaginienses cum pari classe uenerunt; nec differri potuit nauale certamen.

[¶5] Of the ships of the Carthaginians 104 were sunk and 30 captured with their fighting men, and besides 35,000 of their soldiers were slain; of the Romans, 9 ships were sunk and 1,100 soldiers perished.

> Latin: 6 centum et quattuor naues Carthaginiensium demersae, triginta cum pugnatoribus captae, praeterea triginta et quinque milia militum ex ipsis caesa sunt; Romanorum autem nouem nauibus depressis mille centum periere milites.

[¶6] The consuls pitched camp at Clupea. Two Hannos, generals of the Carthaginians, again assembled there with a great army, and, when battle was joined, lost nine thousand soldiers.

> Latin: 7 consules apud Clipeam castra posuerunt. duo Hannones imperatores Poenorum eo rursus cum magno exercitu conuenerunt proelioque commisso nouem milia militum perdiderunt.

[¶7] But — since in those days the Romans never had lasting good fortune, and whatever successes they had were at once buried under great masses of evils — when the Roman fleet, laden with plunder, was returning to Italy, it was overturned in an unspeakable shipwreck: for of 300 ships, 220 perished, and 80 were barely saved by throwing their cargo overboard.

> Latin: 8 sed - ut tunc apud Romanos numquam diuturna felicitas erat et qualescumque successus magnis continuo malorum molibus obruebantur - cum Romana classis ad Italiam praedis onusta remearet, infando naufragio euersa est: nam de trecentis nauibus ducentae uiginti perierunt, octoginta uix abiectis oneribus liberatae sunt.

[¶8] Hamilcar, the general of the Carthaginians, was sent with an army into Numidia and Mauretania; and after he had dealt hostilely and bloodily with them all, because they were said to have welcomed Regulus gladly, he fined those who remained a thousand talents of silver and twenty thousand oxen, and the chief men of all the peoples he fastened to the gibbet.

> Latin: 9 Hamilcar dux Poenorum cum exercitu in Numidiam Mauretaniamque missus postquam hostiliter cruenteque in uniuersos egit, cur Regulum libenter suscepisse dicerentur, mille argenti talentis et uiginti milibus boum reliquos condemnauit; principes autem omnium populorum patibulo suffixit.

[¶9] In the third year — as unbridled madness always quickly forgets its dangers — the consuls Servilius Caepio and Sempronius Blaesus crossed to Africa with 260 ships and ravaged the whole sea-coast which lies around the Syrtes; and, advancing inland and capturing and overthrowing very many cities, they carried huge plunder down to the fleet.

> Latin: 10 Tertio anno - sicut semper indomitus furor cito periculorum obliuiscitur - Seruilius Caepio et Sempronius Blaesus consules ducentis sexaginta nauibus Africam transgressi uniuersam oram maritimam, quae circa Syrtes iacet, depopulati sunt atque in superiora progressi captis euersisque ciuitatibus plurimis ingentem praedam ad classem deuexerunt.

[¶10] Then, as they were returning to Italy, near the promontory of Palinurus, which runs out into the deep from the Lucanian mountains, they were dashed upon the rocks and unhappily lost 150 transport ships and the famous plunder they had so cruelly acquired.

> Latin: 11 inde cum ad Italiam redirent, circa Palinuri promuntorium, quod a Lucanis montibus in altum excurrit, inlisi scopulis centum quinquaginta naues onerarias nobilemque praedam crudeliter adquisitam infeliciter perdiderunt.

[¶11] At last, among the Romans, the enormity of their miseries overcame their most shameless greed: for the senators, now thoroughly weary of seafaring, decreed that no fleet larger than sixty ships should be kept for the defence of Italy — a decree which, driven by unbridled greed, they promptly broke.

> Latin: 12 uicit aliquando apud Romanos improbissimam cupiditatem enormitas miseriarum: nam patres, quibus iam nauticae rei pertaesum esset, decreuere ne amplius quam sexaginta nauium classis ad subsidium haberetur Italiae; quod quidem decretum continuo adacti indomita cupiditate ruperunt.

[¶12] Moreover, the consul Cotta crossed into Sicily, fought very many battles by land and sea against the Carthaginians and Sicilians, and throughout all Sicily left heaps of unburied slain, partly of enemies and partly of allies as well.

> Latin: 13 praeterea Cotta consul in Siciliam transgressus plurimis proeliis aduersum Poenos et Siculos terra marique pugnauit et per totam Siciliam partim hostium partim etiam sociorum inhumatas strages reliquit.

[¶13] In the consulship of Lucius Caecilius Metellus and Gaius Furius Placidus, Hasdrubal, the new general of the Carthaginians, came from Africa to Lilybaeum with 130 elephants and more than 30,000 horse and foot, and immediately joined battle with the consul Metellus at Panormus.

> Latin: 14 L. Caecilio Metello C. Furio Placido consulibus Hasdrubal nouus Carthaginiensium imperator cum elephantis centum triginta et equitum peditumque amplius triginta milibus Lilybaeum uenit ex Africa et continuo cum Metello consule apud Panormum pugnam conseruit.

*Note: The consul of 251 BC was Gaius Furius Pacilus; Orosius writes Placidus.*

[¶14] But Metellus, fearing the great force of the beasts, by a great stroke of strategy first drove them either to flight or to death, and so easily overcame the force of the enemy, great as it was. In that battle 20,000 Carthaginians were slain; 26 elephants too were killed and 104 captured, and these, led through Italy, furnished a very great spectacle to the Italian peoples. Hasdrubal fled with a few men to Lilybaeum and was condemned to death in his absence by the Carthaginians.

> Latin: 15 sed Metellus uim magnam beluarum timens prius eas magno usus consilio uel in fugam uel in mortem egit et sic facile quamuis magnam uim hostium superauit: XX milia Carthaginiensium in eo proelio caesa sunt, elephanti quoque sex et uiginti interfecti centum et quattuor capti et per Italiam ducti maximum Italicis gentibus spectaculum praebuerunt. Hasdrubal cum paucis Lilybaeum profugit atque absens a Poenis capitis damnatus est.