| Keywords |
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| ID |
5835 |
| Text |
Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418) Orosius |
| Quotation |
12 En tempora, quorum conparatione praesentia ponderantur; en, de quibus recordatio suspirat; en, quae incutiunt de electa uel potius de neglecta religione paenitentiam. 13 Reuera pares sunt et conferuntur inter se hae duae captiuitates: illa sex mensibus desaeuiens et tribus diebus ista transcurrens; Galli exstincto populo urbe deleta ipsum quoque Romae nomen in extremis cineribus persequentes et Gothi relicta intentione praedandi ad confugia salutis, hoc est sanctorum locorum, agmina ignara cogentes; ibi uix quemquam inuentum senatorem, qui uel absens euaserit, hic uix quemquam requiri, qui forte ut latens perierit. 14 Recte sane conpararim, hunc fuisse ibi seruatorum numerum, qui hic fuerit perditorum. plane, quod re proditur, et fatendum est: in hac clade praesenti plus Deum saeuisse, homines minus, cum, peragendo ipse quod illi non inpleuissent, cur eos miserit demonstrauit. 15 Quippe cum supra humanas uires esset, incendere aeneas trabes et subruere magnarum moles structurarum, ictu fulminum forum cum imaginibus uanis, quae superstitione miserabili uel deum uel hominem mentiuntur, abiectum est, horumque omnium abominamentorum, quod inmissa per hostem flamma non adiit, missus e caelo ignis euertit. |
| Translation |
12. Behold the times to which the present is compared! Behold the times
for which nostalgia sighs! Behold the times that demand penance for the
religion that had been selected, or rather neglected! 13. In truth, these
two sacks of Rome are alike and can be compared with one another. One
raged on for six months, the other ran its course in three days. The Gauls
exterminated the people, destroyed the City, and pursued the very name of
Rome down to its uttermost ashes. The Goths abandoned their intention to
plunder and drove columns of confused citizens to safe havens – namely the
Holy Places of the City. In the first sack scarcely a senator, even out of those
who fled, was to be found alive, in the second scarcely one could be found
who had perished, save for some who done so by accident while hiding. 14.
I could safely say that the number that were saved in the first incident was
the same as the number who died in the last.
Plainly, as the facts show, and as ought to be stated, during the present
disaster God was more enraged than the men involved, for He Himself
carried out what the Goths could not have done and so showed why He had
sent them. 15. For since it is beyond human powers to burn up bronze beams
and overturn the mass of great edifices, the forum with its empty idols,
whose wretched superstition lies about what is God and what is mortal, was
cast down by a thunderbolt and all those abominations which the enemy’s
fire did not reach were overturned by fire sent from heaven. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 2, Cap. 19, 12-15 (pp. 126-7, trans. Fear, p. 108) |
| Temporal Coverage |
-387 - -390 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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