| Keywords |
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| ID |
5828 |
| Text |
Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418) Orosius |
| Quotation |
2 Ita Babylon post annos MCLX et propemodum quattuor, quam condita erat, a Medis et [ab] Arbato, rege eorum, praefecto autem suo, spoliata opibus et regno atque ipso rege priuata est: ipsa tamen postea aliquamdiu mansit incolumis. 3 Similiter et Roma post annos totidem, hoc est MCLX et [fere] quattuor, a Gothis et Alaricho rege eorum, comite autem suo, inrupta et opibus spoliata non regno, manet adhuc et regnat incolumis, 4 Quamuis in tantum arcanis statutis inter utramque urbem conuenientiae totius ordo seruatus sit, ut et ibi praefectus eius Arbatus regnum inuaserit et hic praefectus huius Attalus regnare temptarit; tametsi apud hanc solam merito Christiani imperatoris adtemptatio profana uacuata sit.
5 Itaque haec ob hoc praecipue commemoranda credidi, ut tanto ineffabilium iudiciorum Dei ex parte patefacto intellegant hi, qui insipienter utique de temporibus Christianis murmurant, unum Deum disposuisse tempora et in principio Babyloniis et in fine Romanis, illius clementiae esse, quod uiuimus, quod autem misere uiuimus, intemperantiae nostrae. 6 Ecce similis Babyloniae ortus et Romae, similis potentia, similis magnitudo, similia tempora, similia bona, similia mala; tam en non similis exitus similisue defectus. illa enim regnum amisit, haec retinet; illa interfectione regis orbata, haec incolumi imperatore secura est. 7 Et hoc quare? quoniam ibi in rege libidinum turpitudo punita, hic Christianae religionis continentissima aequitas in rege seruata est; ibi absque religionis reuerentia auiditatem uoluptatis licentia furoris impleuit, hic et Christiani fuere, qui parcerent, et Christiani, quibus parcerent, et Christiani, propter quorum memoriam et in quorum memoria parceretur. 8 Quapropter desinant religionem lacerare et lacessere patientiam Dei propter quam habent, uti et hoc quoque inpunitum habeant, si aliquando desistant. 9 Recolant sane mecum maiorum suorum tempora, bellis inquietissima, sceleribus exsecrabilia, dissensionibus foeda, miseriis continuatissima, quae et merito possunt horrere, quia fuerunt, et necessario debent rogare, ne sint: 10 Eum sane rogare solum Deum, qui et tunc occulta iustitia permisit, ut fierent, et nunc aperta misericordia praestat, ut non sint. quae modo a me plenius ab ipso Urbis exordio, reuolutis per ordinem historiis, proferentur. |
| Translation |
2. Almost 1,164 years after its foundation, Babylon was stripped of its
wealth, and had its kingdom and its own king taken from it by the Medes
and Arbatus, who was king of the Medes and also the governor of Babylon.
Nevertheless, the city itself remained unscathed for sometime after this.
3. Similarly, Rome after the same number of years, namely almost 1,164,
was stormed by the Goths and Alaric who was their king and a Count of
the City. She was stripped of her wealth, but not her kingdom – for she still
remains and rules in safety. 4. Nevertheless, the order of all these parallels
between the two cities, which was brought about by mystic decree, has been
kept to this degree: that there the prefect Arbatus invaded the kingdom, and
here the City’s prefect, Attalus, tried to become its ruler, but here, unlike
at Babylon, because of the merits of our Christian ruler, Attalus’s attempt
was made in vain and came to nothing.
5. I thought that these things deserved recording in order that, above all,
those who bicker foolishly about these Christian times might learn from this
partial revelation of the great mystery of the ineffable judgments of God that
the One God has ordained these events – for the Babylonians at the beginning
of the cycle and now for the Romans at its end – and might learn that
it is through His clemency that we are alive and that our life is wretched
through our own excesses.
6. Behold, how Babylon and Rome had a similar beginning, similar
power, a similar size, a similar age, similar goods, and similar evils, but their
ends and decline are not similar. Babylon lost her kingdom; Rome retains
hers. Babylon was left an orphan on the death of her king, Rome is secure
and her emperor safe. 7. And why has this happened? Because there punishment
for its disgraceful lusts was visited upon the person of the king, but
here the restrained moderation of the Christian Religion was preserved in
the person of the king.21 There, where there was no reverence for religion,
licentious frenzy eagerly took its fill of desires; here there were Christians
who gave pardon, Christians who were pardoned, and Christians through
whose memory and in whose memory pardon was given.
8. Therefore let them cease to execrate Religion and exasperate the
patience of God through which they have the chance of going unpunished
for this vice too, if they were ever to stop their sinning. 9. Let them recall,
along with me, the times of their ancestors, times troubled by wars, cursed
by their crimes, soiled by dissension, and continually miserable – times at
which they can rightly tremble, because they were so and ought of necessity
to ask that they should be so no more: 10. they surely need to ask the One
Sole God, Who, through His hidden justice, once allowed these things to
come to pass, but now has revealed His mercy and vouches that they shall
be no more.
I shall now set down these past times more fully, starting from the birth
of the City and going through its history in order. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 2, Cap. 3, 2-10 (pp. 88-90, trans. Fear, pp. 76-7) |
| Temporal Coverage |
-539 - -539 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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