| Keywords |
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| ID |
5822 |
| Text |
Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418) Orosius |
| Quotation |
1. Itaque nunc si placet hi, qui in Christum, quem nos iudicem saeculorum ostendimus, quantum in ipsis est sputa coniciunt, inter Sodomam et Romam discernant causas et conferant poenas; quae a me uel maxime ob hoc retractandae non sunt, quia omnibus notae sunt. 2 Et tamen quam libenter sententias eorum acciperem, si illi fideliter ita ut sentiunt faterentur. 3 Quamquam quia de temporibus Christianis rari et hoc in angulis murmurent, non usque adeo moleste accipiendum putem, cum totius populi Romani consona uoce parique iudicio sensus ac sermo sit cognitus. 4 Adeo autem paruo quodam et leui motu haesitasse erga se parumper consuetudinem uoluptatum indubitatissime contestatus est, ut libere conclamaret, Si reciperet circum, nihil esse sibi factum, hoc est, nihil egisse Romae Gothorum enses, si concedatur Romanis spectare circenses. 5 Nisi forte, ut se habet apud plerosque hoc praecipue tempore, qui ex longa requie uel paruam obortam sollicitudinem intolerabilem laborem putant, hasce clementissimas admonitiones quibus omnes aliquando perstringimur aliorum punitionibus auditis lectisque praeponunt. 6 Quos saltem de hoc ipso exitu Sodomorum et Gomorraeorum moneo, ut discere atque intellegere queant, qualiter Deus peccatores punierit, qualiter punire possit, qualiter puniturus sit. |
| Translation |
1. And so, if it pleases those who spew forth at Christ, Whom we are showing
to be the Judge of Ages, all the spittle they have in them, let them look at the
crimes and punishment of Sodom and Rome respectively – things which I
ought not to set forth again for the simple reason that they are well-known
to all. 2. How happily would I accept their judgement, if they truthfully
admitted to what they see to be the case. 3. For although a few scattered men
mutter complaints about these Christian times in odd corners, I do not think
that this ought to cause any great annoyance, since the opinion and views of
the entire Roman people are clear from the unanimous judgement that they
delivered with one voice. 4. For they gave unassailable evidence that their
customary pleasures which had ceased for a short time did so for trivial,
inconsequential reasons, when they cried out of their own accord, ‘If the
circus is brought back, nothing has happened to us’ – that is to say they felt
the swords of the Goths had done nothing to Rome, as long as the Romans
were allowed to watch their circuses. 5. But, of course, a view held by
many people, especially at the present, and after a long period of ease, is
that any small trouble which arises is an unbearable burden and so they rank
these most merciful warnings by which we are all at some time or other
admonished, higher than all the punishments of other peoples about which
they have heard or read. 6. Taking the demise of Sodom and Gomorrah as
my example, I warn them that they can learn and understand in what ways
God has punished sinners, in what ways He can punish them, and in what
ways He will punish them. |
| Quotation source |
Lib 1, Cap. 6, 1-6 (pp. 47-8, trans. Fear, p. 51) |
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