| Keywords |
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| ID |
5873 |
| Text |
Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII (417 - 418) Orosius |
| Quotation |
13 Itaque quinto decimo imperii sui anno lacrimabile illud bellum in Thracia cum Gothis iam tunc exercitatione uirium rerumque abundantia instructissimis gessit. ubi primo statim impetu Gothorum perturbatae Romanorum equitum turmae nuda peditum deseruere praesidia. 14 Mox legiones peditum undique equitatu hostium cinctae ac primum nubibus sagittarum obrutae, deinde, cum amentes metu sparsim per deuia cogerentur, funditus caesae gladiis insequentum contisque perierunt. 15 Ipse imperator cum sagitta saucius uersusque in fugam aegre in cuiusdam uillulae casam deportatus lateret, ab insequentibus hostibus deprehensus, subiecto igne consumptus est et, quo magis testimonium punitionis eius et diuinae indignationis terribili posteris esset exemplo, etiam communi caruit sepultura.
16 Consoletur se, sed in hoc solo, peruicacia miseriaque gentilium, quia temporibus et regibus Christianis tantae simul congestae clades pressam reipublicae onerauere ceruicem: euersae prouinciae, deletus exercitus, imperator incensus. magnum reuera hoc est ad nostrum dolorem magisque miserum quo magis nouum. 17 Sed quid hoc ad consolationem proficit paganorum, qui palam peruident et in his quoque persecutorem ecclesiarum fuisse punitum ? unus Deus unam fidem tradidit, unam ecclesiam toto orbe diffudit: hanc aspicit, hanc diligit, hanc defendit; quolibet se quisquis nomine tegat, si huic non sociatur, alienus, si hanc inpugnat, inimicus est. 18 Consolentur se gentiles, in quantum uolunt, Iudaeorum haereticorumque suppliciis, tantum et unum Deum esse et eundem personarum acceptorem non esse uel ex hac potissimum Valentis extincti probatione fateantur. 19 Gothi antea per legatos supplices poposcerunt, ut illis episcopi, a quibus regulam Christianae fidei discerent, mitterentur. Valens imperator exitiabili prauitate doctores Arriani dogmatis misit. Gothi primae fidei rudimento quod accepere tenuerunt. itaque iusto iudicio Dei ipsi eum uiuum incenderunt, qui propter eum etiam mortui uitio erroris arsuri sunt. |
| Translation |
13. So in the 15th year of his reign, Valens waged a war full of tears
in Thrace against the Goths who were now well prepared with a trained
army and an abundance of resources. The Romans’ cavalry squadrons were
routed by the Goths’ first charge and fled, leaving the infantry exposed. 14.
Soon these infantry legions were hemmed in on all sides by the enemies’
cavalry. They were first overwhelmed by clouds of arrows, and then, as
they fled in scattered groups and out of their minds with fear across the
pathless countryside, they were wiped out by the swords and lances of their
pursuers.
15. The emperor himself was wounded by an arrow and turned to flee.
He was carried with some difficulty to an outhouse on a small farm to hide,
but was found by the pursuing enemy who killed him by burning it down.
So that his punishment should bear even greater witness to, and provide an
even more terrible example of, Divine Wrath for future generations, he did
not even have a common grave.
16. The gentiles’ stubbornness and misery can take this, but this alone,
for its consolation – that in Christian times and under Christian kings such
a great mountain of disasters were heaped all at one time on the republic’s
neck with provinces turned upside down, armies destroyed, and an emperor
burned alive. This, it is true, caused us sorrow and all the more so because
it had never happened before. 17. But how does this help to console the
pagans, as they can clearly see that here too a persecutor of the Church was
being punished? One God gave One Faith, and spread one Church over all
the earth. It is this Church that He watches over, cherishes, and defends.
Whosoever hides under whatever name, if he does not associate with this
Church, he is a stranger to it, and if he attacks it, he is its enemy. 18. Let
the gentiles takes as much consolation as they please in the punishment
of the Jews and heretics, but let them confess that there is One, Sole God
Who is not made up of separate ‘persons’ – the greatest proof of which is
the demise of Valens. 19. Prior to this, the Goths had sent envoys, humbly
asking that bishops be sent who could teach them the principles of the
Christian faith. In his cursèd wickedness, the emperor Valens sent them
teachers of Arrius’s dogma and the Goths clung to the rudiments of this, the
first faith they had received. So it was by the righteous judgment of God
that they burnt alive the man because of whom they would burn when dead
for the error of heresy. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 7, Cap. 33, 13-19 (Vol. III, pp. 91-2, trans. Fear, pp. |
| Temporal Coverage |
378 - 383 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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