---
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: 94 of 177
url: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/94/
cite: "Paulus Orosius, tr. S. Alexander Laurent (AI-assisted, 2026), Seven Books of History against the Pagans, section 94. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/94/"
---

# 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.

## 94. Book 5 · Chapter 6

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/94/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/orosius-historiae/94/#p-N

[¶0] In the consulship of Servius Fulvius Flaccus and Quintus Calpurnius Piso, a boy was born at Rome to a slave-woman with four feet and four hands, four eyes and as many ears, and doubled in his male nature.

> Latin: 1 Seruio Fuluio Flacco Q. Calpurnio Pisone consulibus Romae puer ex ancilla natus quadripes quadrimanus, oculis quattuor, auribus totidem, natura uirili duplex.

[¶1] In Sicily Mount Etna belched out and poured forth vast fires, which, rushing headlong like torrents down the slopes, burned up everything nearby with devouring flames, while they scorched more distant places with hot ashes flying far and wide amid heavy vapour: a kind of portent always native to Sicily, which is wont not to foretell evil but to bring it. In the territory of Bononia crops sprang up on trees.

> Latin: 2 in Sicilia mons Aetna uastos ignes eructauit ac fudit, qui torrentum modo per prona praecipites proxima quaeque corripientibus exussere flammis, longinquiora autem fauillis calidis cum uapore graui late uolitantibus torruerunt: quod Siciliae semper uernaculum genus monstri non portendere malum adsolet sed inferre. in Bononiensi agro fruges in arboribus enatae sunt.

[¶2] And so a servile war arose in Sicily, which was so grave and fierce in the multitude of its slaves, the equipment of its forces, and the greatness of its strength,

> Latin: 3 igitur in Sicilia bellum seruile ortum est, quod adeo graue et atrox multitudine seruorum, instructu copiarum, magnitudine uirium fuit,

[¶3] that it terrified — I will not say the Roman praetors, whom it utterly routed — but the consuls as well. For seventy thousand slaves are reported to have then conspired in arms, apart from the city of Messana, which kept its slaves, whom it had treated generously, at peace.

> Latin: 4 ut, non dicam praetores Romanos, quos penitus profligauit, sed consules quoque terruerit. nam LXX milia seruorum tunc in arma conspirantium fuisse referuntur, excepta urbe Messana, quae seruos liberaliter habitos in pace continuit.

[¶4] Sicily, moreover, was the more wretched in this respect too, because, being an island and never possessed of a sound legal condition, she was subject now to tyrants, now to slaves — the former exacting servitude through wicked domination, the latter exchanging it for liberty through perverse presumption — and above all because, shut in on every side by the sea, she cannot easily cast out an evil within.

> Latin: 5 ceterum Sicilia in hoc quoque miserior, quia insula et numquam erga statum suum iuris idonei nunc tyrannis subiecta nunc seruis, uel illis dominatu improbo exigentibus seruitutem uel istis praesumptione peruersa conmutantibus libertatem, maxime quia clausa undique mari egerere foras non facile potest intestinum malum.

[¶5] For she nourished to her own destruction a viperous brood, increased by her own lust and destined to live by her death. In this respect, moreover, the stirring up of a servile tumult is the more savage the rarer it is than others, because a free multitude is roused with the intent of enlarging its fatherland, a servile one with the intent of destroying it.

> Latin: 6 uiperinam quippe conceptionem perditioni suae aluit sua libidine auctam, sua morte uicturam. in hoc autem seruilis tumultus excitatio quanto rarior ceteris tanto truculentior est, quia intentione commouetur libera multitudo ut patriam augeat, seruilis ut perdat.