---
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: 77 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/77/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 77. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/77/"
---

# 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.

## 77. Book 4 · Chapter 12

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/77/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/77/#p-N

[¶0] In the same year the Cisalpine Gauls arose as new enemies. Against them the war was waged with varying fortune: for in the first clash, under the consul Valerius, 3,500 Romans fell; in the second, 14,000 Gauls were slain and 2,000 captured; but because of the earlier disaster a triumph was refused to the consul.

> Latin: 1 eodem anno Galli Cisalpini noui exstitere hostes. aduersum quos uaria sorte bellatum est; nam in primo conflictu Valerio consule tria milia quingenti cecidere Romani, secundo quattuordecim milia Gallorum caesa, duo milia capta sunt, sed ob priorem cladem triumphus consuli denegatus est.

[¶1] In the consulship of Titus Manlius Torquatus and Gaius Atilius Bubulcus, the island of Sardinia rebelled at the instigation of the Carthaginians. The Sardinians were therefore soon subdued and crushed; and it was decreed that war be made on the Carthaginians, as violators of the peace which they themselves had asked for.

> Latin: 2 T. Manlio Torquato C. Atilio Bubulco consulibus Sardinia insula rebellauit auctoribus Poenis. unde mox Sardi subacti et oppressi sunt; Carthaginiensibus autem uiolatoribus pacis, quam ipsi poposcissent, inferri bellum decretum est.

*Note: The consul of 235 BC was Gaius Atilius Bulbus; Orosius writes Bubulcus.*

[¶2] The Carthaginians, for their part, begged for peace as suppliants; and when they had achieved nothing by twice sending envoys, and afterwards did not obtain it even when ten of their chief men had twice made supplication in the same way, at last they won it through the speech of Hanno, the least regarded of the men among the envoys.

> Latin: 3 contra Carthaginienses pacem suppliciter poposcerunt et cum bis missis legatis nihil profecissent, post etiam decem principibus bis aeque supplicantibus nec impetrarent, nouissime Hannonis, minimi hominis inter legatos, oratione meruerunt.

[¶3] In this year the gate of Janus Geminus was closed, because in that year there was war nowhere — something which had happened only under King Numa Pompilius.

> Latin: 4 hoc anno porta Iani Gemini clausa est, quia nusquam eodem anno bellum erat; quod sub Numa solum Pompilio rege prouenerat.

[¶4] Here at last we must keep silence, and it is expedient to pass over in silence times with which ours can in no way be compared, lest by this clamour we should rather rouse those who disparage the days of their own lives to taunt us.

> Latin: 5 Hic demum nobis tacendum est et tempora, quibus conferri nostra nullo modo possunt, silentio transmitti expedit, ne obtrectatores dierum uitae suae ad insultandum potius sibi hoc strepitu suscitemus.

[¶5] Behold, the gates of Janus were closed; there was no war of the Romans abroad; Rome, holding all her offspring at rest in her bosom, did not sigh.

> Latin: 6 ecce portae Iani clausae fuerunt, foris bellum Romanorum non fuit, omnem subolem suam in gremio suo conquiescentem Roma continens non suspirauit.

[¶6] And when was this? After the First Punic War. After how long a time? After 440 years. For how long? For one year. And what followed in the next? To say nothing of the rest: the Gallic war, and Hannibal with the Second Punic War.

> Latin: 7 et hoc quando? post primum Punicum bellum; post quantum temporis? post annos CCCCXL; quamdiu? anno uno; et quid altero subsecutum est? ut de ceteris taceam, bellum Gallicum et Hannibal cum bello Punico secundo.

[¶7] Ah me, how ashamed I am even to have learned these things and laid them bare! Was that peace of a single year, or rather that shadow of peace, a soothing of miseries or an incitement to evils? Did that drop of oil falling into the midst of a great flame extinguish the fuel of so great a fire, or feed it? Did a little cold water, drunk in the most burning fevers, heal the sick man, or rather inflame him?

> Latin: 8 ei mihi, cognouisse haec et denudasse quam etiam me pudet! pax ista unius anni uel magis umbra pacis lenimentum miseriarum an incentiuum malorum fuit? stilicidium istud olei in medium magnae flammae cadens extinxit fomitem tanti ignis an aluit? parum aquae frigidae ardentissimis haustum in febribus sanauit aegrotum an potius incendit?

[¶8] For nearly seven hundred years, that is, from Tullus Hostilius to Caesar Augustus, only for a single summer did the Roman vitals not sweat blood; and among the very many ages of great centuries, the wretched city, truly a wretched mother, scarcely once found rest from the fear of mourning, not to say from mourning itself.

> Latin: 9 per annos prope septingentos, id est ab Hostilio Tullo usque ad Caesarem Augustum, una tantummodo aestate Romana sanguinem uiscera non sudarunt, et inter plurimas magnorum saeculorum aetates misera ciuitas, uere misera mater, uix uno tempore a timore luctuum, ut non dicam ab ipsis luctibus, conquieuit.

[¶9] If any man had had so little quiet in his life, would he even be said to have lived? Or if someone were driven through a whole year by pains and torments, but in the middle of that same year passed a single day in tranquillity and free from struggles, would he take relief from his evils on that account, and not count the whole year as given over to miseries?

> Latin: 10 hoc, si quisquam hominum tam parum in uita sua quietis habuisset, numquid uel uixisse diceretur? aut, si quisquam per totum annum doloribus et cruciatibus agatur, medio autem anni ipsius spatio unum tantum diem tranquillum et sine conflictationibus transigat, numquid ex eo leuamentum malorum accipiet ac non totum annum miseriis deputabit?

[¶10] “But they,” someone says, “set this year as a glorious sign of untiring valour.” And would that they had passed it over, so that the unbroken calamity might be forgotten!

> Latin: 11 sed illi, inquit, hunc annum pro glorioso signo infatigabilis uirtutis conlocauerunt. atque utinam pro obliuione calamitatis continuae praeterissent.

[¶11] For just as in the human body leprosy is recognized only when a different colour appears here and there among the healthy parts of the skin, whereas if it spreads itself everywhere so as to make everything of one colour, however false, that distinction perishes: so, if unbroken toil had flowed on with equal endurance, without any longing for a breathing space, it would be called a purpose of the will and a choice of custom.

> Latin: 12 nam sicut in corpore hominis ita demum lepra dinoscitur, si uariatim inter sanas cutis partes color diuersus appareat, at si ita se ubique diffundat, ut omnia unius coloris quamuis adulteri faciat, perit illa discretio: ita si continuus labor aequali tolerantia sine respirandi appetitu perfluxisset, intentio uoluntatis et electio consuetudinis diceretur.

[¶12] But when the joys of the elders and the enthusiasms of the young lean so heavily upon this tiny bit of leisure, it is surely made plain both what sweetness this brevity held and what bitterness that long duration held — that is, both how welcome that quiet would have been, had it remained lasting, and how much this incessant misery would have deserved to be avoided, had it been possible to avoid it in any way.

> Latin: 13 cum autem in hoc pausillulum otii tantopere uel maiorum gaudia uel minorum studia reclinantur, profecto discernitur, et quam iucunditatem habuerit haec breuitas et quam amaritudinem illa prolixitas, hoc est, et quies illa quam grata fuisset, si diuturna mansisset, et haec incessabilis miseria quam etiam uitanda fuerit, si uitari quacumque potuisset.