Stelle 8 Itaque ineffabili iudicio Dei fac...; (Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418), Lib. 7, Cap. 37, 8-11 (Vol. III, pp. 108-110, trans. Fear, pp. 397-8)) [5463]

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ID 5463
Text Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418) Orosius
Quotation 8 Itaque ineffabili iudicio Dei factum est, uti, quoniam in permixto populo piis gratia, poena impiis debebatur oportebatque permitti hostes, qui insuadibilem in plurimis et contradicentem ciuitatem seuerioribus solito flagris coarguerent, non tamen eos, qui indiscrete cunctos intemperata caede delerent - duo tunc Gothorum populi cum duobus potentissimis regibus suis per Romanas prouincias bacchabantur: 9 quorum unus Christianus propiorque Romano et, ut res docuit, timore Dei mitis in caede, alius paganus barbarus et uere Scytha, qui non tantum gloriam aut praedam quantum inexsaturabili crudelitate ipsam caedem amaret in caede, et hic iam sinu receptus Italiae Romam e proximo trementem terrore quassabat. itaque si huic ultionis potestas permitteretur, quem Romani ob hoc praecipue timendum arbitrabantur, quia fauorem deorum sacrificiorum obsequiis inuitaret, et immoderatior caedes sine fructu emendationis arsisset et error nouissimus peior priore creuisset; quandoquidem in pagani et idololatrae manus incidisse, non solum paganis residuis de instaurando cultu idolorum esset indubitata persuasio sed etiam Christianis periculosa confusio, cum et hi terrerentur praeiudicio et illi confirmarentur exemplo. 11 quamobrem iustus dispensator humani generis Deus perire paganum hostem uoluit et Christianum praeualere permisit, ut pagani blasphemantesque Romani et illo confunderentur perdito et hoc punirentur immisso; maxime cum imperatoris Honorii admiranda in rege continentia et sanctissima fides non parum diuinae misericordiae mereretur.
Translation 8 Since in a mixed people the pious deserve grace and the impious punishment, according to God's inscrutable judgment, it was deemed just to allow such enemies to chastise the altogether stubborn and refractory City with a scourge of unusual severity, but not to permit them to destroy everything indiscriminately. At that time there were roaming wildly through the Roman provinces two Gothic peoples, led by two powerful kings. 9 One of these kings was a Christian and more like a Roman, a man, who, through the fear of God, as the event showed, inclined to spare men's lives. The other was a pagan, barbarian, and true Scythian, who in his insatiable cruelty loved not so much the fame or the rewards of butchery as he did slaughter itself. And this man had already reached the heart of Italy and was causing nearby Rome to shake with fright. 10. Now if the power of exacting vengeance had been given to this man whom Rome thought especially dangerous because he had courted the favour of the gods by sacrificing to them, the slaughter would have been all the worse, leaving no chance for repentance, and error would have taken root anew, worse than before. For had they fallen into the hands of a pagan idolator, not only would those pagans who survived indubitably have been convinced to renew the cult of idols, but Christians too would have become dangerously confused, since they would have been terrified by this judgment, while the pagans would have been strengthened in their faith by what had happened. 11. Therefore, God, the Just Director of the human race, willed the pagan enemy to perish, but allowed the Christian one to triumph so that the pagans and the blasphemous Romans might both be confounded by the destruc‑tion of the former and be punished by the onset of the latter. Moreover, the moderation and devout faith, so admirable in a king, of the emperor Honorius earned no small measure of Divine mercy.
Quotation source Lib. 7, Cap. 37, 8-11 (Vol. III, pp. 108-110, trans. Fear, pp. 397-8)
Temporal Coverage 402 - 406
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Spatial Coverage Objects
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