| Keywords |
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| ID |
5851 |
| Text |
Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418) Orosius |
| Quotation |
9 At uero, cum alii Romanorum propter perpetuam Romae securitatem delendam esse decernerent, alii uero propter perpetuam Romanae uirtutis curam, quam sibi semper ex suspicione aemulae urbis inpenderent, ne uigor Romanus bellis semper exercitus in languidam segnitiem securitate atque otio solueretur, incolumem Carthaginem statui suo permittendam esse censerent: causam non ex iniuria lacessentum Carthaginiensium sed ex inconstantia torpescentium Romanorum ortam inuenio. 10 Quod cum ita sit, cur Christianis temporibus imputant hebetationem ac robiginem suam, qua foris crassi, intus exesi sunt? qui porro ante sescentos fere annos, sicut sui prudentes timentesque praedixerant, cotem illam magnam splendoris et acuminis sui Carthaginem perdiderunt.
11 Itaque finem uolumini faciam, ne forsitan conlidendo uehementius discussa ad tempus robigine ubi necessarium acumen elicere non possum, superuacuam asperitatem inueniam. quamquam obuiantem asperitatem nequaquam expauescerem, si interioris spem acuminis inuenirem. |
| Translation |
9. But while some of the Romans proposed that Carthage had to be
destroyed in order to safeguard Rome’s continuing security, others declared
that Carthage ought to be allowed to exist in safety as she was in order
to ensure the continuing existence of Roman martial prowess, something
which had always been fostered by the suspicion that another city was her
rival, and in order that Roman vigour, which had always been schooled in
war, should not dissolve into feeble idleness, if Rome obtained her security
effortlessly. I think, therefore, that the cause stemmed not from an injury
done to them by the Carthaginians, but from the inconstancy of the Romans
as they began to decline into idleness. 10. If this is the case, why do
they blame on these Christian times their sluggishness and decay which
leaves them bloated on the outside and eaten away within? They are the
men who lost almost 600 years ago, as their wiser and more fearful compa-
triots predicted, that great whetstone of their splendour and glory, namely
Carthage.
11. And so I shall put an end to this volume, in case it should turn out that
while arguing too fiercely about this matter, I should remove my opponents’
sluggishness for a moment, but then encounter mindless hostility where I
am unable to draw forth from them the insight which they need – though I
would be in no way afraid of confronting such hostility, if I could find some
hope of creating that deeper insight. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 4, Cap. 23, 9-11 (Vol. II, pp. 74-5, trans. Fear, p. 205) |
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