Orosius: HISTORIARUM ADVERSUM PAGANOS LIBRI VII

[1] Sufficientia ut arbitror documenta collecta sunt, quibus absque ullo arcano, quod paucorum fidelium est, probari de medio queat, unum illum et uerum Deum, quem Christiana fides praedicat, et condidisse mundum creaturamque eius, cum uoluit, et disposuisse per multa, cum per multa ignoraretur, et confirmasse ad unum, cum per unicum declaratus est, simulque potentiam patientiamque eius multimodis argumentis eluxisse.² in quo quidem angustas deiectasque mentes offendi paulisper intellego, quod tantae potentiae patientia tanta miscetur. si enim potens erat, inquiunt, creare mundum, componere pacem mundi, insinuare mundo cultum ac notitiam sui, quid opus fuit tanta uel, ut ipsi sentiunt, tam perniciosa patientia, ut in ultimo erroribus cladibus laboribusque hominum fieret, quod a principio uirtute eius, quem praedicas, Dei sic potius coepisse potuisset?

[1] Sufficient, as I judge, proofs have been collected, by which, without any arcane secret, which belongs to a few of the faithful, it can be proved openly that that One and true God, whom the Christian faith proclaims, both created the world and its creation when he willed, and disposed things through many stages, while for many ages he was unknown, and consolidated things to one, when through the Unique One he was declared; and at the same time both his power and his patience have shone forth by arguments of many kinds.² in which matter indeed I understand that I for a little offend narrow and downcast minds, because so great a patience is mingled with so great a power. For if he was powerful, they say, to create the world, to compose the peace of the world, to insinuate into the world the cult and knowledge of himself, what need was there of such—or, as they themselves feel, so pernicious—a patience, that in the end, through the errors, disasters, and labors of men there should come to pass what from the beginning, by the power of the God whom you proclaim, could rather have begun thus?

³ quibus quidem ueraciter respondere possem, ad hoc ab initio creatum et institutum humanum genus, ut sub religione cum pace sine labore uiuens fructu oboedientiae aeternitatem promereretur, sed abusum bonitate creatoris libertatem indulgentis in contumaciam uertisse licentiam atque ex contemptu in obliuionem defluxisse, ⁴ iustamque nunc esse patientiam Dei et iustam in utramque partem, ut nec contemptus disperdat in totum cui misereri uelit et affici laboribus dum uelit sinat contemptus potens; deinde subsequens esse, iuste semper adhibere quamuis ignoranti gubernationem, cui aliquando pie restituturus sit paenitenti antiquae gratiae facultatem. ⁵ sed haec quoniam, etsi uerissime fortissimeque dicuntur, fidelem tamen atque oboedientem requirunt, mihi autem, uidero an aliquando credituris, certe nunc cum incredulis actio est, promptius ea proferam, quae ipsi etsi probare noluerint, inprobare non possint.

³ to which indeed I could answer truthfully, that the human race was created and established from the beginning for this: that, living under religion with peace and without labor, it might merit eternity by the fruit of obedience; but that it abused the goodness of the creator, turning the liberty of an indulgent one into contumacy as license, and from contempt it flowed down into oblivion; ⁴ and that now the patience of God is just—and just in a twofold way—so that neither does contempt utterly destroy him upon whom he wills to have mercy, and, powerful though despised, while he wills he permits to be afflicted with labors; then, following on, that he always applies governance justly even to one who is ignorant, to whom at some time he will piously restore, when repentant, the capacity of ancient grace. ⁵ but since these things, although said most truly and most strongly, nevertheless require a faithful and obedient person, whereas my engagement is, I will see whether ever with those going to believe, certainly now with unbelievers, I will more readily bring forth those things which they, even if they are unwilling to approve, are not able to disprove.

⁶ Itaque, quantum ad conscientiam humanarum mentium pertinet, utrique sub reuerentia religionis et confessione cultuque supernae potentiae uiuimus, distante dumtaxat fide; quia nostrum est, fateri ex uno et per unum Deum constare omnia, illorum, tam multos deos putare quam multa sunt. ⁷ si potentiae Dei, inquiunt, quem praedicatis, fuit, ut Romanum imperium tam amplum ac tam sublime fieret, cur igitur patientia eiusdem obfuit, ut ante non fieret? quibus sub eodem uerbo respondebitur: si potentiae deorum, quos praedicatis, fuit, ut Romanum imperium tam amplum ac tam sublime fieret, cur igitur patientia eorundem obfuit, ut ante non fieret?

⁶ And so, as far as pertains to the conscience of human minds, we both live under the reverence of religion and the confession and cult of supernal potency, differing only in faith; for it is ours to confess that all things consist from one and through one God, theirs, to suppose as many gods as there are many things. ⁷ “If it was by the potency of the God whom you proclaim,” they say, “that the Roman empire became so ample and so sublime, why then did his patience hinder, so that it did not come about earlier?” To whom, in the same terms, it will be answered: “If it was by the potency of the gods whom you proclaim that the Roman empire became so ample and so sublime, why then did the patience of those same gods hinder, so that it did not come about earlier?”

⁸ an ipsi dii nondum erant? an adhuc Roma ipsa non erat? an illi non colebantur?

⁸ Or were the gods themselves not yet in existence? Or was Rome herself not yet in existence? Or were they not being worshiped?

an haec necdum idonea imperio uidebatur? si non dum erant dii, cessat intentio; in quid enim iam ibi eorum discutio moram, ubi ne ipsam quidem inuenio naturam ? si autem erant dii, aut potentia eorum, ut ipsi iudicant, aut patientia in culpa est: uel patientia, si fuit, uel potentia, si defuit. ⁹ aut, si magis suadibile uidetur fuisse tunc quidem deos, qui prouehere potuissent, sed nondum exstitisse Romanos, qui prouehi iure possent, nos auctorem rerum potentiam, non artificem scientiam quaerimus.

or did this not yet seem fit for empire? if the gods were not yet, the contention ceases; for why should I now there scrutinize their delay, where I do not find even the nature itself? but if there were gods, either their power, as they themselves judge, or their patience is at fault: either patience, if it was present, or power, if it was lacking. ⁹ or, if it seems more persuadable that there were then indeed gods who could have borne them forward, but that the Romans had not yet existed who could by right be borne forward, we seek the power of the author of things, not the knowledge of an artificer.

de diis quippe, ut putant, magnis, non de fabris uilissimis quaestio est, quibus nisi materia accedat, ars cessat. ¹⁰ si enim praescisse illis ac uoluisse praesto semper fuit, immo etiam subiacente praescientia, quia apud omnipotentiam de operibus dumtaxat suis hoc est praescire quod uelle quodcumque illud praesciebatur, cui uoluntas adstipularetur, non exspectari oportuit sed creari; maxime cum et Iouem illum suum aceruos formicarum in populos hominum ludo uertere solitum ferant. ¹¹ porro autem de cura caerimoniarum nec recensendum arbitror, quoniam inter sacra continua incessabilibus cladibus nullus finis ac nulla requies fuit, nisi cum saluator mundi Christus inluxit: cuius aduentui praedestinatam fuisse imperii Romani pacem, etsi iam sufficienter ostendisse me arbitror, tamen paucis adhuc supplere conabor.

for indeed the inquiry is about the gods, as they suppose, great, not about the most worthless craftsmen, for whom, unless material is supplied, the art ceases. ¹⁰ for if to have foreknown and to have willed was always ready at hand for them—nay rather, with prescience underlying, since with omnipotence, concerning its own works at least, to foreknow is the same as to will—whatever it was that was foreknown, to which the will gave assent, ought not to have been waited for but to have been created; especially since they report that their Jupiter was accustomed in sport to turn heaps of ants into peoples of men. ¹¹ furthermore, as to the carefulness of the ceremonies, I do not even think it needs to be recounted, since amid continuous sacred rites there was no end and no rest from incessant disasters, unless when Christ, the savior of the world, shone forth: for whose advent the peace of the Roman Empire had been predestined—although I judge that I have already shown this sufficiently, yet I will still try to supplement it with a few things.

[2] Principio secundi libelli cum tempora Romanae conditionis stili tenore perstringerem, multa conuenienter inter Babylonam urbem Assyrriorum tunc principem gentium et Romam aeque nunc gentibus dominantem conpacta conscripsi:² fuisse illud primum, hoc ultimum imperium; illud paulatim cedens, at istud sensim conualescens; defluxisse illi sub uno tempore nouissimum regem, cum isti primum fuisse; illam deinde tunc inuadente Cyro captam uelut in mortem concidisse, cum istam fiducialiter adsurgentem post expulsos reges liberis uti coepisse consiliis; ³ praecipue cum, uindicante libertatem suam Roma, tunc quoque Iudaeorum populus, qui apud Babylonam sub regibus seruiebat, in sanctam Hierusalem recepta libertate redierit templumque Domini, sicut a prophetis praedictum fuerat, reformarit. ⁴ praeterea intercessisse dixeram inter Babylonium regnum, quod ab oriente fuerat, et Romanum, quod ab occidente consurgens hereditati orientis enutriebatur, Macedonicum Africanumque regnum, hoc est quasi a meridie ac septentrione breuibus uicibus partes tutoris curatorisque tenuisse. ⁵ orientis et occidentis regnum Babylonium et Romanum iure uocitari, neminem umquam dubitasse scio; Macedonicum regnum sub septentrione cum ipsa caeli plaga tum Alexandri Magni arae positae usque ad nunc sub Riphaeis montibus docent; ⁶ Carthaginem uero uniuersae praecelluisse Africae et non solum in Siciliam Sardiniam ceterasque adiacentes insulas sed etiam in Hispaniam regni terminos tetendisse, historiarum simul monumenta urbiumque declarant.

[2] At the beginning of the second little book, when by the tenor of my stylus I was sketching the times of Rome’s founding, I wrote many things, fittingly compacted, between Babylon, the city of the Assyrians, then the chief of the nations, and Rome, equally now ruling over the peoples:² that that was the first, this the last empire; that one gradually yielding, but this one little by little growing strong; that to that one its last king ebbed away at one and the same time when to this one there was the first; that one then, with Cyrus invading, having been captured, collapsed as it were into death, while this one, rising confidently after the expulsion of the kings, began to make use of free counsels; ³ especially since, with Rome vindicating her liberty, then also the people of the Jews, who at Babylon were serving under kings, with liberty recovered, returned into holy Jerusalem and refashioned the Temple of the Lord, as had been foretold by the prophets. ⁴ Moreover, I had said that between the Babylonian kingdom, which had been from the east, and the Roman, which, rising from the west, was being nurtured for the inheritance of the east, the Macedonian and the African kingdom intervened, that is, as it were from south and north, in brief turns held the parts of a tutor and curator. ⁵ That the rule of the East and of the West is rightly called Babylonian and Roman, I know no one ever to have doubted; that the Macedonian kingdom is under the North both the very quarter of the sky and the altars of Alexander the Great, set up even to now beneath the Riphaean mountains, show; ⁶ while that Carthage excelled all Africa and stretched the borders of its reign not only into Sicily, Sardinia, and the other adjacent islands, but even into Spain, the monuments of histories together with those of cities declare.

⁷ dictum est etiam, uastatae per Medos Babyloniae et inruptae per Gothos Romae pares admodum annorum numeros cucurrisse.

⁷ it has also been said that, from the devastation of Babylonia by the Medes and the irruption into Rome by the Goths, quite equal numbers of years have run.

⁸ Nunc autem his illud adicio, quo magis clareat unum esse arbitrum saeculorum regnorum locorumque omnium Deum. ⁹ regnum Carthaginiense a conditione usque ad euersionem eius, paulo amplius quam septingentis annis stetit, aeque regnum Macedonicum a Carano usque ad Persen paulo minus quam septingentis; utrumque tamen septenarius ille numerus, quo iudicantur omnia, terminauit. ¹⁰ Roma ipsa etiam, quamuis ad aduentum Domini Iesu Christi perfecto proueheretur imperio, tamen paululum et ipsa in occursu numeri huius offendit.

⁸ Now, however, to these I add this, whereby it may be made more clear that the one arbiter of the ages, of the kingdoms, and of all places is God. ⁹ The Carthaginian kingdom, from its foundation up to its overthrow, stood for a little more than seven hundred years; likewise the Macedonian kingdom, from Caranus to Perseus, for a little less than seven hundred; yet that septenary number, by which all things are judged, brought both to their terminus. ¹⁰ Rome herself also, although she was being advanced to a perfected imperium until the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, nevertheless she too stumbled a little in the encounter with this number.

¹¹ nam septingentesimo conditionis suae anno quattuordecim uicos eius incertum unde consurgens flamma consumpsit, nec umquam, ut ait Liuius, maiore incendio uastata est; adeo, ut post aliquot annos Caesar Augustus ad reparationem eorum, quae tunc exusta erant, magnam uim pecuniae ex aerario publico largitus sit. ¹² poteram quoque ostendere eundem duplicatum numerum mansisse Babyloniae, quae post mille quadringentos et quod excurrit annos ultime a Cyro rege capta est, nisi praesentium contemplatione reuocarer. ¹³ illud sane libenter adicio, quia primi illius regum omnium Nini - quamuis et pater eius Belus obscure primus regnasse referatur - illius ergo Nini anno, postquam regnare coeperat, quadragensimo tertio natus est sanctus ille Abraham, cui dictae sunt repromissiones, ex cuius semine promissus est Christus; ¹⁴ deinde nunc primi istius imperatorum omnium Augusti Caesaris - quamuis et pater eius Caesar metator imperii potius quam imperator exstiterit - istius ergo Caesaris, posteaquam imperare coepit, emenso propemodum anno quadragensimo secundo natus est Christus, qui Abrahae sub Nino primo rege fuerat repromissus.

¹¹ for in the 700th year of its founding, a flame rising from an uncertain source consumed 14 of its districts, nor ever, as Livy says, was it laid waste by a greater conflagration; to such a degree that after some years Caesar Augustus, for the restoration of those things which were then burned up, bestowed a great sum of money from the public treasury. ¹² I could also show that the same doubled number held for Babylonia, which after 1,400 and a little over years was finally taken by King Cyrus, did not contemplation of present matters call me back. ¹³ This indeed I gladly add: that in the 43rd year after that first of all kings, Ninus—although his father Belus also is obscurely reported to have reigned first—had begun to reign, that holy Abraham was born, to whom the promises were spoken, from whose seed Christ was promised; ¹⁴ then now, under this first of all emperors, Caesar Augustus—although his father Caesar proved rather a surveyor of the empire than an emperor—under this Caesar, then, after he had begun to rule, with almost the 42nd year elapsed, Christ was born, who had been promised to Abraham under Ninus, the first king.

¹⁵ natus est autem VIII kalendas Ianuarias, cum primum incrementa omnia anni uenientis incipiunt. ita factum est, ut, cum Abraham quadragensimo tertio anno natus sit, sub fine quadragensimi secundi natiuitas Christi conueniret, ut iam non ipse in parte tertii anni sed in ipso potius tertius annus oreretur. ¹⁶ qui annus quantis, quam nouis quamque inusitatis bonis abundauerit, satis etiam me non proferente compertum haberi arbitror: toto terrarum orbe una pax omnium non cessatione sed abolitione bellorum, clausae Iani gemini portae extirpatis bellorum radicibus non repressis census ille primus et maximus, cum in hoc unum Caesaris nomen uniuersa magnarum gentium creatura iurauit simulque per communionem census unius societatis effecta est.

¹⁵ He was born, moreover, on the 8th day before the Kalends of January, when first all the increments of the coming year begin. Thus it came about that, since Abraham was born in the 43rd year, the Nativity of Christ fell at the close of the 42nd, so that now not he would be in a part of the third year, but rather the third year itself would arise at that very point. ¹⁶ Which year—with how great, how new, and how unaccustomed goods it abounded—I judge to be sufficiently known even without my stating it: throughout the whole orb of the lands a single peace of all, not by a cessation but by an abolition of wars; the twin gates of Janus closed, the roots of wars extirpated, not merely repressed; that first and greatest census, when upon this one name of Caesar the entire population of the great nations swore, and at the same time through the communion of one census a single society was effected.

[3] Igitur anno ab urbe condita DCCLII natus est Christus salutarem mundo adferens fidem, uere petra medio rerum posita, ubi comminueretur qui offenderet, qui crederet saluaretur; uere ignis ardens, quem qui sequitur inluminatur, qui temptat exuritur;² ipse est Christus, Christianorum caput, saluator bonorum, malorum punitor, iudex omnium, qui formam subsecuturis uerbo et opere statuens, quo magis doceret patientes in persecutionibus, quas pro uita aeterna exciperent, esse oportere, mox ut uirginis partu editus mundo apparuit, de passionibus suis coepit. namque eum rex Iudaeae Herodes simul ut natum conperit, necare decreuit plurimosque tunc paruulos, dum unum insectatur, occidit. ³ hinc malignis inprobe incurrentibus digna punitio est; hinc, in quantum tranquille agitur mundus, credentium gratia, in quantum perniciose inquietatur, blasphemantium poena est, securis per omnia fidelibus Christianis, quibus aut aeternae uitae requies in tuto aut etiam huius in lucro est.

[3] Therefore, in the year 752 from the founding of the City, Christ was born, bringing to the world a salvific faith, truly a rock placed in the midst of things, where he who stumbles would be shattered, he who believes would be saved; truly a burning fire, whom he who follows is illumined, he who attempts him is burned up;² he himself is Christ, the head of the Christians, the savior of the good, the punisher of the evil, the judge of all, who, setting a pattern for those to follow in word and deed, in order the more to teach that it is necessary to be patient in the persecutions which they would undergo for eternal life, as soon as, brought forth by a virgin in birth, he appeared to the world, began his sufferings. For the king of Judea, Herod, as soon as he learned that he had been born, decreed to kill him, and then, while he hunted one, he slew very many little children. ³ Hence, for the malicious who rush in impiously there is a worthy punishment; hence, insofar as the world is conducted tranquilly, it is the grace of believers; insofar as it is perniciously disturbed, it is the penalty of blasphemers; things are secure through all for faithful Christians, for whom either the rest of eternal life is in safekeeping, or even that of this life is to their profit.

quod promptius cum per ordinem referam, ipsis rebus ostendam. ⁴ postquam redemptor mundi, Dominus Iesus Christus, uenit in terras et Caesaris censu ciuis Romanus adscriptus est, dum per duodecim, ut dixi, annos clausae belli portae beatissima pacis tranquillitate cohibentur, Gaium nepotem suum Caesar Augustus ad ordinandas Aegypti Syriaeque prouincias misit. ⁵ qui praeteriens ab Aegypto fines Palaestinae, apud Hierosolymam in templo Dei tunc sancto et celebri adorare contempsit, sicut Suetonius Tranquillus refert.

which I will more readily show, as I recount in order, by the very facts. ⁴ After the Redeemer of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to earth and, by Caesar’s census, was enrolled as a Roman citizen, while for twelve years, as I said, the gates of war, being closed, were restrained by the tranquility of most blessed peace, Caesar Augustus sent his nephew Gaius to arrange the provinces of Egypt and Syria. ⁵ He, passing by from Egypt along the borders of Palestine, at Jerusalem in the then holy and renowned temple of God, disdained to adore, as Suetonius Tranquillus reports.

quod Augustus ubi per eum conperit, prauo usus iudicio prudenter fecisse laudauit. ⁶ itaque anno imperii Caesaris quadragesimo octauo adeo dira Romanos fames consecuta est, ut Caesar lanistarum familias omnesque peregrinos, seruorum quoque maximas copias, exceptis medicis et praeceptoribus, trudi urbe praeceperit. ita peccante principe in sanctum Dei et correpto per famem populo quantitatem offensionis qualitas ultionis ostendit.

when Augustus learned this through him, he praised that, though employing a perverse judgment, he had acted prudently. ⁶ And so, in the 48th year of Caesar’s rule, so dire a famine followed upon the Romans that Caesar ordered the families of the lanistae and all foreigners, and very great numbers of slaves as well, excepting physicians and preceptors, to be thrust out of the city. Thus, with the prince sinning against the Holy Thing of God and the people chastised through famine, the quality of the retribution showed the magnitude of the offense.

⁷ deinde, ut uerbis Corneli Taciti loquar, sene Augusto Ianus patefactus, dum apud extremos terrarum terminos nouae gentes saepe ex usu et aliquando cum damno quaeruntur, usque ad Vespasiani durauit imperium. hucusque Cornelius. ⁸ ceterum et tunc capta euersaque urbe Hierosolymorum, sicut prophetae praenuntiauerunt, extinctisque Iudaeis Titus, qui ad uindicandum Domini Iesu Christi sanguinem iudicio Dei fuerat ordinatus, uictor triumphans cum Vespasiano patre Ianum clausit. ⁹ igitur etsi sub extremis Caesaris temporibus apertus est Ianus, tamen per multa ex eo tempora, quamuis in procinctu esset exercitus, nulla bella sonuerunt.

⁷ then, to speak in the words of Cornelius Tacitus, with Augustus an old man, Janus was laid open; while at the farthest boundaries of the lands new peoples are sought, often to advantage and sometimes with loss, it lasted down to the rule of Vespasian. thus far Cornelius. ⁸ moreover, then, with the city of Jerusalem captured and overthrown, as the prophets foretold, and the Jews extinguished, Titus—who by the judgment of God had been ordained to avenge the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ—victor and triumphing, closed Janus together with his father Vespasian. ⁹ therefore, although under Caesar’s last times Janus was opened, yet through many times thereafter, although the army was in battle-array, no wars resounded.

¹⁰ unde etiam Dominus ipse Iesus Christus in Euangeliis, cum temporibus illis in summa tranquillitate uniuersus mundus ageret cunctasque gentes pax una uelaret et a discipulis suis interrogatus esset de conclusione temporum subsequentium, inter cetera sic ait: ¹¹ audituri autem estis proelia et opiniones proeliorum. uidete ne turbemini; oportet enim haec fieri, sed nondum est finis. consurget enim gens in gentem et regnum in regnum et erunt pestilentiae et fames et terrae motus per loca.

¹⁰ whence also the Lord himself Jesus Christ in the Gospels, when in those times the whole world was proceeding in highest tranquillity and one peace was veiling all the nations, and he was asked by his disciples about the conclusion of the times to follow, among other things thus he said: ¹¹ but you will hear wars and rumors of wars. see that you be not troubled; for it is necessary that these things happen, but the end is not yet. for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in places.

haec autem omnia initia sunt dolorum. tunc tradent uos in tribulationem et occident uos, et eritis odio omnibus gentibus propter nomen meum. ¹² hoc autem diuina prouidentia docens et credentes praemonendo firmauit et incredulos praedicendo confudit.

but all these are the beginnings of sorrows. then they will deliver you into tribulation and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. ¹² however, by teaching this, divine providence strengthened the believers by forewarning and confounded the unbelievers by foretelling.

[4] Anno ab urbe condita DCCLXVII post mortem Augusti Caesaris Tiberius Caesar imperium adeptus est mansitque in eo annis uiginti et tribus.² hic per semet ipsum nulla bella gessit, sed ne per legatos quidem aliqua grauia, nisi quod tantum aliquantis in locis praecogniti cito gentium tumores conprimebantur. ³ sane quarto imperii eius anno Germanicus Drusi filius Caligulae pater de Germanis, ad quos ab Augusto sene missus fuerat, triumphavit.

[4] In the year 767 from the founding of the city, after the death of Augustus Caesar, Tiberius Caesar obtained the imperium and remained in it for 23 years.² He by himself waged no wars, nor even through legates any serious ones, except that only in some places the pre-known swellings of nations were quickly suppressed. ³ Indeed, in the 4th year of his rule, Germanicus, the son of Drusus, father of Caligula, triumphed over the Germans, to whom he had been sent by Augustus in his old age.

⁴ ipse autem Tiberius plurima imperii sui parte cum magna et graui modestia reipublicae praefuit, adeo ut quibusdam praesidibus augenda prouinciis tributa suadentibus scripserit boni pastoris esse tondere pecus, non deglubere. ⁵ at postquam passus est Dominus Christus atque a mortuis resurrexit et discipulos suos ad praedicandum dimisit, Pilatus, praeses Palaestinae prouinciae, ad Tiberium imperatorem atque ad senatum rettulit de passione et resurrectione Christi consequentibusque uirtutibus, quae uel per ipsum palam factae fuerant uel per discipulos ipsius in nomine eius fiebant, et de eo, quod certatim crescente plurimorum fide deus crederetur. ⁶ Tiberius cum suffragio magni fauoris rettulit ad senatum, ut Christus deus haberetur.

⁴ But Tiberius himself, for the greater part of his imperium, presided over the Republic with great and grave moderation, to such a degree that, when certain governors were recommending that the tributes be increased for the provinces, he wrote that it is the part of a good shepherd to shear the flock, not to flay it. ⁵ But after the Lord Christ suffered and rose from the dead and sent forth his disciples to preach, Pilate, the praeses of the province of Palestine, reported to the emperor Tiberius and to the senate about the Passion and Resurrection of Christ and the subsequent powers, which had been done openly either through him himself or were being done through his disciples in his name, and about the fact that, with the faith of very many increasing in eager rivalry, he was believed to be God. ⁶ Tiberius, with a vote of great favor, referred it to the senate that Christ be regarded as God.

senatus indignatione motus, cur non sibi prius secundum morem delatum esset, ut de suscipiendo cultu prius ipse decerneret, consecrationem Christi recusavit edictoque constituit, exterminandos esse urbe Christianos; praecipue cum et Seianus praefectus Tiberii suscipiendae religioni obstinatissime contradiceret. ⁷ Tiberius tamen edicto accusatoribus Christianorum mortem comminatus est. itaque paulatim immutata est illa Tiberii Caesaris laudatissima modestia in poenam contradictoris senatus; nam regi, quaecumque uoluntate faciebat, uoluptas erat, atque ex mansuetissimo principe saeuissima bestia exarsit.

the senate, moved by indignation because it had not first, according to custom, had the matter referred to itself, so that it might itself first decree about the taking up of the cult, refused the consecration of Christ and by edict established that the Christians were to be banished from the city; especially since Sejanus too, the prefect of Tiberius, most obstinately contradicted the religion to be adopted. ⁷ nevertheless Tiberius, by edict, threatened death to the accusers of the Christians. and so little by little that most-lauded modesty of Tiberius Caesar was changed into a punishment upon the gainsaying senate; for to a king, whatever he did by his will, was a pleasure, and from a most gentle prince there blazed forth a most savage beast.

⁸ nam plurimos senatorum proscripsit et ad mortem coegit; uiginti sibi patricios uiros consilii causa legerat: horum uix duos incolumes reliquit, ceteros diuersis causis necavit; Seianum praefectum suum res nouas molientem interfecit; ⁹ filios suos Drusum et Germanicum, quorum Drusus naturalis, Germanicus adoptiuus erat, manifestis ueneni signis perdidit; filios Germanici filii sui interfecit. ¹⁰ referre singillatim facta eius horret pudetque; tanta libidinis et crudelitatis rabie efferavit, ut, qui spreuerant Christo rege saluari, rege Caesare punirentur. ¹¹ huius tamen imperii anno duodecimo noua et incredibilis clades apud Fidenatium urbem accidit: amphitheatri cauea populo gladiatorium munus spectante conlapsa est et plus quam uiginti milia hominum occidit.

⁸ for he proscribed very many of the senators and drove them to death; he had chosen 20 patrician men for the sake of counsel: of these he left scarcely two unharmed, the rest he killed for diverse causes; he killed Sejanus, his prefect, attempting revolutionary measures; ⁹ his own sons Drusus and Germanicus—of whom Drusus was natural, Germanicus adoptive—he destroyed with manifest signs of poison; he killed the sons of his son Germanicus. ¹⁰ to recount his deeds one by one makes one shudder and be ashamed; he was brutalized by so great a frenzy of libido and cruelty, that they who had scorned to be saved by King Christ were punished by King Caesar. ¹¹ nevertheless, in the twelfth year of this reign, a new and incredible disaster happened at the city of the Fidenates: the seating of the amphitheater, while the people were watching a gladiatorial munus, collapsed and killed more than twenty thousand people.

¹² dignum sane posteris tantae correptionis exemplum, tunc ad spectandas hominum mortes auidos homines conuenisse, quando pro salute hominum prouidenda Deus homo esse uoluisset. ¹³ deinde anno eiusdem septimo decimo cum Dominus Iesus Christus uoluntarie quidem se tradidit passioni, sed impie a Iudaeis apprehensus et patibulo suffixus est, maximo terrae motu per orbem facto saxa in montibus scissa, maximarumque urbium plurimae partes plus solita concussione ceciderunt. ¹⁴ eadem quoque die ad horam diei sextam sol in totum obscuratus tetraque nox subito obducta terris est et, sicut dictum est,
Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
¹⁵ usque adeo autem neque lunam lumini solis neque nubes obstitisse manifestum est, ut quartam decimam ea die lunam, tota caeli regione interiecta, longissime a conspectu solis afuisse et stellas tunc diurnis horis uel potius in illa horrenda nocte toto caelo fulsisse referatur.

¹² a lesson indeed worthy for posterity, an example of so great a correction: that men eager to behold the deaths of men had assembled then, when, for the salvation of men to be provided, God had willed to be man. ¹³ then, in the 17th year of the same, when the Lord Jesus Christ indeed voluntarily handed himself over to the Passion, but was impiously apprehended by the Jews and affixed to the cross, a very great earthquake having occurred throughout the world, rocks on the mountains were split, and in the greatest cities very many parts fell by a shaking beyond the usual. ¹⁴ on the same day also, at the sixth hour of the day, the sun was utterly darkened and a grim night was suddenly drawn over the lands, and, as it has been said,
And the impious ages feared an eternal night.
¹⁵ moreover, it is manifest to such an extent that neither the moon obstructed the sun’s light nor the clouds, that on that day the 14th-day moon, with the entire region of the sky interposed, was very far from the sight of the sun, and that the stars then in the daylight hours—or rather, in that horrendous night—shone across the whole sky.

quod non solum sanctorum Euangeliorum fides, sed etiam aliquanti Graecorum libri adtestantur. ¹⁶ iam hinc post passionem Domini, quem Iudaei quantum in ipsis fuit persecuti sunt, continuae clades Iudaeorum, donec exinaniti dispersique deficiant, incessabiliter strepunt. ¹⁷ Tiberius siquidem iuuentutem eorum per speciem sacramenti in prouincias grauioris caeli relegavit, reliquos gentis eiusdem uel similia sectantes urbe submovit sub poena perpetuae servitutis, nisi obtemperassent.

which not only the faith of the holy Gospels, but also some books of the Greeks attest. ¹⁶ Now from here, after the Passion of the Lord, whom the Jews persecuted as far as lay in them, continual disasters of the Jews, until they, emptied and scattered, should fail, resound incessantly. ¹⁷ For Tiberius, indeed, banished their youth, under the pretext of a sacrament, to provinces of a harsher climate; he removed from the city the rest of that nation, or those pursuing similar things, under the penalty of perpetual servitude, unless they complied.

¹⁸ sane Asiae ciuitates illo terrae motu dirutas tributo dimisso propria etiam liberalitate donauit. hic ambiguis signis ueneni obiit.

¹⁸ Indeed, he remitted the tribute to the cities of Asia that had been destroyed by that earthquake, and also by his own liberality donated benefits. He died with ambiguous signs of poison.

[5] Anno ab urbe condita DCCXC tertius ab Augusto Gaius Caligula regnare coepit mansitque in imperio annis non plenis quattuor, homo omnium ante se flagitiosissimus et qui uere dignus Romanis blasphemantibus et Iudaeis persecutoribus punitor adhibitus uideretur.² hic, ut breuiter magnitudinem crudelitatis eius expromam, exclamasse fertur: utinam populus Romanus unam ceruicem haberet. saepe etiam de condicione temporum suorum conquestus est, quod nullis calamitatibus publicis insignirentur.

[5] In the year from the founding of the city 790, Gaius Caligula, third from Augustus, began to reign and remained in power for not quite four years, a man the most flagitious of all before him and one who would truly seem to have been appointed as a punisher worthy for the blaspheming Romans and the Jews the persecutors.² he, to express briefly the magnitude of his cruelty, is said to have exclaimed: would that the Roman people had one neck. He often also complained about the condition of his times, because they were not marked by any public calamities.

³ O beata germina temporis Christiani, quantum praeualuistis in rebus humanis, ut etiam crudelitas hominis magis potuerit clades desiderare quam inuenire! ecce de tranquillitate generali feritas ieiuna conqueritur;
furor impius intus
Saeua sedens super arma et centum uinctus aenis
Post tergum nodis fremit horridus ore cruento.
⁴ serui rebelles et fugitiui gladiatores perterruere Romam, euertere Italiam, Siciliam deleuerunt, iam paene uniuerso humano generi toto orbe metuendi; in diebus autem salutis, hoc est temporibus Christianis, conuellere quietem non potest uel Caesar infestus. ⁵ hic siquidem magno et incredibili apparatu profectus quaerere hostem uiribus otiosis, Germaniam Galliamque percurrens, in ora Oceani circa prospectum Britanniae restitit.

³ O blessed seedlings of the Christian time, how greatly you have prevailed in human affairs, such that even a man’s cruelty has been able rather to desire disasters than to find them! Behold, about the general tranquility a famished ferocity complains;
impious frenzy within,
savage, sitting upon arms, and bound with a hundred bronze
knots behind his back, roars, dreadful with a bloodied mouth.
⁴ rebellious slaves and fugitive gladiators terrified Rome, overturned Italy, destroyed Sicily, by now almost to be feared by the whole human race throughout the world; but in the days of salvation, that is, in Christian times, not even a hostile Caesar can wrench away the peace. ⁵ indeed this man, with great and incredible display having set out to seek an enemy with idle forces, traversing Germany and Gaul, stopped on the shore of the Ocean near the prospect of Britain.

cumque ibi Minocynobelinum Britannorum regis filium, qui a patre pulsus cum paucis oberrabat, in deditionem recepisset, deficiente belli materia Romam rediit. ⁶ isdem autem diebus Iudaei, qui iam tunc ob passionem Christi meritis ubique cladibus exagitabantur, apud Alexandriam seditione excitata, profligati caede atque urbe propulsi, expromendarum querellarum causa Philonem quendam, uirum sane in primis eruditum, legatum ad Caesarem miserant. ⁷ sed Caligula cum omnibus hominibus tum praecipue Iudaeis infestissimus, spreta legatione Philonis omnes Iudaeorum sacras sedes atque in primis antiquum illud in Hierosolymis sacrarium profanari sacrificiis gentilium ac repleri statuis simulacrisque imperauit seque ibi ut deum coli praecepit.

and when there he had received into surrender Minocynobelinum, the son of the king of the Britons, who, driven out by his father, was wandering with a few, with the material for war failing he returned to Rome. ⁶ In those same days the Jews, who already then, on account of the Passion of Christ, by their deserts were everywhere harried with disasters, at Alexandria, a sedition having been stirred up, were routed by slaughter and driven from the city; for the purpose of expressing their complaints they had sent to Caesar as legate a certain Philo, a man truly among the foremost in learning. ⁷ But Caligula, most hostile to all men and especially to the Jews, having spurned Philo’s embassy, ordered that all the sacred seats of the Jews, and especially that ancient sanctuary in Jerusalem, be profaned by the sacrifices of the gentiles and be filled with statues and images, and he commanded that he himself be worshiped there as a god.

⁸ Pilatus autem praeses, qui sententiam damnationis in Christum dixerat, postquam plurimas seditiones in Hierosolymis excepit ac fecit, tantis inrogante Gaio angoribus coartatus est, ut sua se transuerberans manu malorum conpendium mortis celeritate quaesierit. ⁹ Gaius Caligula libidinibus suis etiam illud sceleris adiecit, ut sorores suas primum stupro pollueret, deinde exilio damnaret. qui post omnes simul exules iussit occidi.

⁸ But Pilate the governor, who had pronounced the sentence of condemnation against Christ, after he both encountered and caused very many seditions in Jerusalem, was so constrained by such anguishes, with Gaius imposing them, that, piercing himself through with his own hand, he sought a compendium of his evils by the swiftness of death. ⁹ Gaius Caligula added even this crime to his lusts, that he first defiled his own sisters by rape, then condemned them to exile; afterward he ordered all the exiles, together, to be killed.

ipse autem a suis protectoribus occisus est. ¹⁰ duo libelli in secretis eius reperti sunt, quorum alteri pugio, alteri gladius pro signo nominis adscriptum erat: ambo lectissimorum uirorum utriusque ordinis, senatorii et equestris, nomina et notas continebant morti destinatorum. inuenta est et arca ingens uariorum uenenorum, quibus mox Claudio Caesare iubente demersis infecta maria traduntur non sine magno piscium exitio, quos enecatos per proxima litora passim aestus eiecit.

but he himself was slain by his own protectors. ¹⁰ Two little books were found in his secret chambers, to one of which a dagger, to the other a sword had been inscribed as the sign of its title: both contained the names and notes of the most select men of both orders, senatorial and equestrian, destined for death. A huge chest also was found, of various poisons, which, soon, by order of Claudius Caesar, when they were sunk, the seas are reported to have been infected, not without great destruction of fish, which, killed, the tide cast up everywhere along the nearby shores.

¹¹ Magnum reuera indicium miserentis Dei propter suffragium gratiae in populum continuo ex parte crediturum et propter irae temperamentum in populum tunc infideliter obstinatum, ut quanta multitudo hominum praeparatam mortem euaserit, ex multitudine interfectorum piscium disceretur omnibusque notesceret, quid tanta ueneni moles arte aucta agere in misera ciuitate potuisset, quae neglegenter effusa etiam maria corrupit.

¹¹ A great truly indication of a merciful God—on account of the suffrage of grace toward a people who would soon in part believe, and on account of the tempering of wrath toward a people then unbelievingly obstinate—so that how great a multitude of men escaped a prepared death might be learned from the multitude of fish slain and might be made known to all, and what such a mass of poison, augmented by art, could have done in the wretched city, which, when carelessly poured out, even corrupted the seas.

[6] Anno ab urbe condita DCCXCV Tiberius Claudius ab Augusto quartus regnum adeptus est mansitque in eo annis quattuordecim.² exordio regni eius Petrus, apostolus Domini Iesu Christi, Romam uenit et salutarem cunctis credentibus fidem fideli uerbo docuit potentissimisque uirtutibus approbauit; atque exim Christiani Romae esse coeperunt. ³ sensit hoc conlatum fidei suae Roma beneficium.

[6] In the year from the founding of the City 795, Tiberius Claudius, the fourth after Augustus, obtained the rule and remained in it for fourteen years.² At the beginning of his reign Peter, the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, came to Rome and taught the saving faith to all believers by a faithful word and confirmed it by most mighty miracles; and then Christians began to be at Rome. ³ Rome perceived this benefaction conferred upon her faith.

nam cum interfecto Caligula multa de abrogando imperio ac republica in antiquum ordinem restituenda euerrendaque penitus Caesarum uniuersa familia senatus et consules decreuissent, ⁴ Claudius mox ut confirmauit imperium, magna atque adhuc Romae incognita usus clementia, ne in tantam nobilium multitudinem ultio, si esset coepta, saeuiret, biduum illud, quo de reipublicae statu infeliciter consultatum actumque fuerat, memoriae exemit omniumque factorum dictorumue in eo ueniam et obliuionem in perpetuum sanxit. ⁵ ita illam praeclaram et famosam Atheniensium amnestiam, quam quidem Romae inducere Iulio Caesare interfecto senatus Cicerone suadente temptauerat, sed Antonio et Octauiano propter ultionem extincti Caesaris inrumpentibus in inritum cesserat: hanc Claudius, quamuis multo truculentiore causa in caedem conspiratorum stimularetur, ultronea clementia nullo expetente firmauit. ⁶ accidit etiam eodem tempore praesentis gratiae Dei grande miraculum: siquidem Furius Camillus Scribonianus, Dalmatiae legatus, bellum ciuile molitus legiones multas fortissimasque ad sacramenti mutationem pellexerat.

for when, with Caligula slain, the senate and the consuls had decreed many things about abrogating the imperium and restoring the Republic into its ancient order and thoroughly sweeping away the entire family of the Caesars, ⁴ Claudius, as soon as he confirmed the imperial power, employed a great clemency hitherto unknown at Rome, lest vengeance, if once begun, should rage against so great a multitude of nobles; he removed from memory those two days, during which about the state of the Republic there had been ill-starred deliberation and action, and he sanctioned in perpetuity pardon and oblivion of all deeds and words in it. ⁵ thus that illustrious and renowned amnesty of the Athenians, which indeed the senate, with Julius Caesar slain, had attempted to introduce at Rome at Cicero’s urging, but, with Antony and Octavian breaking in on account of vengeance for the slain Caesar, had fallen to nothing: this Claudius, although by a much more truculent cause he was being goaded to the slaughter of the conspirators, confirmed by unsolicited clemency, with no one demanding it. ⁶ there also happened at the same time a great miracle of the present grace of God: since Furius Camillus Scribonianus, legate of Dalmatia, having set on foot a civil war, had lured many and very brave legions to a change of oath.

⁷ itaque die dato, ut in unum undique ad nouum imperatorem conueniretur, neque aquilae ornari neque conuelli quoquo modo signa moueriue potuerunt. exercitus tanta et tam inusitata miraculi fide motus et conuersus in paenitentiam Scribonianum quinta statim die destitutum interfecit seseque sacramento prioris militiae continuit. ⁸ tristius ac perniciosius urbi Romae nihil umquam fuisse quam bella ciuilia satis notum est.

⁷ therefore, a day having been given, that from everywhere all should convene to the new emperor in one place, neither could the eagles be adorned nor the standards, in any way whatsoever, be torn up, moved, or set in motion. The army, stirred by so great and so unprecedented a credence of the miracle, and turned to penitence, slew Scribonianus—left destitute—immediately on the fifth day, and kept itself within the oath of its former soldiery. ⁸ It is quite well known that nothing has ever been more sad and more pernicious to the city of Rome than civil wars.

itaque propter aduentum apostoli Petri et tenera Christianorum germina uixdum adhuc pauca ad sanctae fidei professionem erumpentia hanc exorientem tyrannidem et consurgens istud ciuile bellum neget quisquam diuinitus esse conpressum. qui praeteritis temporibus de conpressione bellorum ciuilium simile probarit exemplum.

And so, on account of the arrival of the apostle Peter and the tender sprouts of the Christians, scarcely yet a few, bursting forth to the profession of the holy faith, let no one deny that this nascent tyranny and that rising civil war were divinely suppressed. Who in past times has proved a similar example of the suppression of civil wars?

⁹ Claudius quarto imperii sui anno, cupiens utilem reipublicae ostentare se principem, bellum ubique et uictoriam undecumque quaesiuit. itaque expeditionem in Britanniam mouit, quae excitata in tumultum propter non redhibitos transfugas uidebatur: transuectus in insulam est, quam neque ante Iulium Caesarem neque post eum quisquam adire ausus fuerat, ¹⁰ ibique - ut uerbis Suetoni Tranquilli loquar - sine ullo proelio ac sanguine intra paucissimos dies plurimam insulae partem in deditionem recepit. Orcadas etiam insulas ultra Britanniam in Oceano positas Romano adiecit imperio ac sexto quam profectus erat mense Romam rediit.

⁹ Claudius, in the fourth year of his rule, wishing to display himself as a princeps useful to the republic, sought war everywhere and victory from wherever. And so he set an expedition in motion into Britain, which seemed to have been stirred into tumult because defectors had not been returned: he was conveyed across into the island, which neither before Julius Caesar nor after him had anyone dared to approach, ¹⁰ and there — to speak in the words of Suetonius Tranquillus — without any battle or bloodshed, within a very few days he received a very great part of the island into surrender. He also added the Orkney islands, placed beyond Britain in the Ocean, to the Roman imperium, and in the sixth month from when he had set out he returned to Rome.

¹¹ Conferatur nunc, si cuiquam placet, sub una insula tempus et tempus, bellum et bellum, Caesar et Caesar - nam de fine nil confero, quoniam hoc felicissima uictoria, illud acerbissima clades fuit - et sic demum Roma cognoscat, per eius latentem prouidentiam in agendis rebus antea se partem felicitatis habuisse, cuius agnitione suscepta plenissima felicitate perfruitur, in quantum non tamen blasphemiarum offendiculis deprauatur.

¹¹ Let there now be compared, if it pleases anyone, in the case of one and the same island, time with time, war with war, Caesar with Caesar - for as to the outcome I make no comparison, since this was a most happy victory, that a most bitter disaster - and thus at last let Rome recognize that through his hidden providence in the conducting of affairs it had formerly had a portion of felicity, upon the recognition of which having been embraced it now enjoys most full felicity, in so far as it is not, however, depraved by the stumbling-blocks of blasphemies.

¹² Eodem anno imperii eius fames grauissima per Syriam facta est, quam etiam prophetae praenuntiauerant; sed Christianorum necessitatibus apud Hierosolymam conuectis ab Aegypto frumentis Helena Adiabenorum regina conuersa ad fidem Christi largissime ministrauit.

¹² In the same year of his reign a most grievous famine arose throughout Syria, which even the prophets had foretold; but for the necessities of the Christians at Jerusalem, with grain conveyed from Egypt, Helena, queen of the Adiabeni, converted to the faith of Christ, ministered most generously.

¹³ Anno imperii eius quinto inter Theram et Therasiam insula de profundo emicuit triginta stadiorum spatio extenta.

¹³ In the fifth year of his reign, between Thera and Therasia, an island sprang forth from the deep, stretching to an extent of thirty stadia.

¹⁴ Anno eius septimo sub procuratore Iudaeae Cumano in Hierosolymis tanta seditio in diebus azymorum exorta est, ut in portarum exitu populo coartato triginta milia Iudaeorum caede prostrata et conpressione suffocata referantur.

¹⁴ In his seventh year, under the procurator of Judaea, Cumanus, in Jerusalem so great a sedition arose in the days of unleavened bread that, at the exit of the gates, with the people constrained, thirty thousand Jews are reported to have been laid low by slaughter and suffocated by compression.

¹⁵ Anno eiusdem nono expulsos per Claudium urbe Iudaeos Iosephus refert. sed me magis Suetonius mouet, qui ait hoc modo: Claudius Iudaeos inpulsore Christo adsidue tumultuantes Roma expulit; ¹⁶ quod, utrum contra Christum tumultuantes Iudaeos coherceri et conprimi iusserit, an etiam Christianos simul uelut cognatae religionis homines uoluerit expelli, nequaquam discernitur.

¹⁵ In his ninth year, Josephus reports that the Jews were expelled from the city by Claudius. But Suetonius moves me more, who says in this manner: Claudius expelled from Rome the Jews, continually rioting at the instigation of Christ; ¹⁶ as to which, whether he ordered the Jews rioting against Christ to be restrained and suppressed, or also wished the Christians likewise, as men of a cognate religion, to be expelled, is by no means discerned.

¹⁷ Verumtamen sequenti anno tanta fames Romae fuit, ut medio foro imperator correptus a populo conuiciis et fragminibus panis turpissime infestatus, aegre per pseudothyrum in Palatium refugiens furorem excitatae plebis euaserit.

¹⁷ Nevertheless, in the following year so great a famine was at Rome, that in the middle of the Forum the emperor, assailed by the people with insults and fragments of bread and most disgracefully harried, scarcely, fleeing through a pseudothyrum into the Palatium, escaped the fury of the roused plebs.

¹⁸ Paruo autem intercedente tempore triginta et quinque senatores et trecentos simul equites Romanos minimis causis interfecit; ipse autem manifestis ueneni signis est mortuus.

¹⁸ However, with a short time intervening, he killed 35 senators and, at the same time, 300 Roman equestrians for the slightest causes; but he himself died with manifest signs of poison.

[7] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCVIII Nero Caesar ab Augusto quintus principatum adeptus est mansitque in eo annis non plenis quattuordecim. Gai Caligulae auunculi sui erga omnia uitia ac scelera sectator immo transgressor, petulantiam libidinem luxuriam auaritiam crudelitatem nullo non scelere exercuit; siquidem petulantia percitus omnia paene Italiae ac Graeciae theatra perlustrans, adsumpto etiam uarii uestitus dedecore cerycas citharistas tragoedos et aurigas saepe sibi superasse uisus est.² libidinibus porro tantis exagitatus est, ut ne a matre quidem uel sorore ullaue consanguinitatis reuerentia abstinuisse referatur, uirum in uxorem duxerit, ipse a uiro ut uxor acceptus sit.

[7] In the year from the founding of the City 808 Nero Caesar, fifth from Augustus, obtained the principate and remained in it for not full fourteen years. A follower—nay, a transgressor—of Gaius Caligula, his maternal uncle, with respect to every vice and crime, he exercised petulance, libido, luxury, avarice, and cruelty with no crime left uncommitted; indeed, impelled by petulance, traversing almost all the theaters of Italy and Greece, and with the disgrace of assorted attire assumed, he often seemed to have surpassed heralds, citharists, tragedians, and charioteers.² Furthermore, he was harried by lusts so great that he is reported to have abstained neither out of reverence for mother or sister nor for any tie of consanguinity, to have taken a man as a wife, and himself to have been received by a man as a wife.

³ luxuriae uero tam effrenatae fuit, ut retibus aureis piscaretur, quae purpureis funibus extrahebantur, frigidis et calidis lauaret unguentis. qui etiam numquam minus mille carrucis confecisse iter traditur. ⁴ denique urbis Romae incendium uoluptatis suae spectaculum fecit; per sex dies septemque noctes ardens ciuitas regios pauit aspectus; ⁵ horrea quadro structa lapide magnaeque illae ueterum insulae, quas discurrens adire flamma non poterat, magnis machinis quondam ad externa bella praeparatis labefactatae atque inflammatae sunt, ad monumentorum bustorumque deuersoria infelici plebe conpulsa.

³ he was of a luxury truly so unbridled that he would fish with golden nets, which were hauled out by purple cords, and he would bathe in cold and hot unguents. He also is reported to have completed a journey with never fewer than a thousand carriages. ⁴ finally, he made the conflagration of the city of Rome a spectacle of his own pleasure; for six days and seven nights the burning city fed regal gazes; ⁵ the granaries built of squared stone and those great insulae of the ancients, which the roaming flame could not approach, were shaken and ignited by great machines once prepared for foreign wars, with the unlucky plebs driven to the lodgings of monuments and of tombs.

⁶ quod ipse ex altissima illa Maecenatiana turre prospectans laetusque flammae ut aiebat pulchritudine tragico habitu Iliadam decantabat. ⁷ auaritiae autem tam praeruptae exstitit, ut post hoc incendium urbis, quam se Augustus ex latericia marmoream reddidisse iactauerat, neminem ad reliquias rerum suarum adire permiserit; cuncta, quae flammae quoquo modo superfuerant, ipse abstulit; ⁸ centies centena milia sestertium annua ad expensas a senatu conferri sibi imperauit; plurimos senatorum nulla exstante causa bonis priuauit; negotiatorum omnium sub una die, tormentis quoque adhibitis, omnem penitus censum abstersit. ⁹ crudelitatis autem rabie ita efferatus est, ut plurimam senatus partem interfecerit, equestrem ordinem paene destituerit.

⁶ which he himself, looking out from that most lofty Maecenatian tower, and delighted at the beauty of the flame, as he was saying, in tragic attire was chanting the Iliad. ⁷ moreover he showed an avarice so precipitous, that after this conflagration of the city, which Augustus had boasted he had rendered from brick into marble, he allowed no one to approach the remnants of their own goods; everything that had in any way survived the flames, he himself carried off; ⁸ he ordered that 10,000,000 sesterces annually be contributed by the senate for expenses; he deprived very many of the senators of their goods with no cause existing; of all the merchants, in a single day, torture also being applied, he utterly wiped out their entire assessment. ⁹ and by a rabies of cruelty he was so maddened, that he killed a very great part of the senate, and almost left the equestrian order destitute.

sed ne parricidiis quidem abstinuit, matrem fratrem sororem uxorem ceterosque omnes cognatos et propinquos sine haesitatione prostrauit. ¹⁰ auxit hanc molem facinorum eius temeritas impietatis in Deum. nam primus Romae Christianos suppliciis et mortibus affecit ac per omnes prouincias pari persecutione excruciari imperauit ipsumque nomen exstirpare conatus beatissimos Christi apostolos Petrum cruce, Paulum gladio occidit.

but he did not abstain even from parricides: his mother, brother, sister, wife, and all the rest of his cognates and near relations he struck down without hesitation. ¹⁰ the temerity of his impiety toward God augmented this mass of crimes; for he was the first at Rome to visit Christians with punishments and deaths, and he ordered that throughout all the provinces they be tortured by an equal persecution; and, attempting to extirpate the very name, he slew the most blessed apostles of Christ—Peter by the cross, Paul by the sword.

¹¹ mox aceruatim miseram ciuitatem obortae undique oppressere clades. nam subsequente autumno tanta urbi pestilentia incubuit, ut triginta milia funerum in rationem Libitinae uenirent. Britannica deinde clades e uestigio accidit, qua duo praecipua oppida magna ciuium sociorumque clade et caede direpta sunt.

¹¹ soon thereafter, piled-up calamities arising from every side crushed the wretched city. for, with the following autumn, so great a pestilence settled upon the city that thirty thousand funerals came into the account of Libitina. then, on the instant, a British calamity befell, in which two chief towns were sacked with great disaster and slaughter of citizens and allies.

¹² praeterea in oriente magnis Armeniae prouinciis amissis Romanae legiones sub iugum Parthicum missae, aegreque Syria retenta est. in Asia tres urbes, hoc est Laodicia Hierapolis Colossae, terrae motu conciderunt. ¹³ at uero Nero postquam Galbam in Hispania imperatorem creatum ab exercitu cognouit, totus animo ac spe concidit.

¹² moreover, in the East, with the great provinces of Armenia lost, Roman legions were sent under the Parthian yoke, and Syria was scarcely retained. In Asia three cities, that is Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colossae, collapsed by an earthquake. ¹³ but indeed Nero, after he learned that Galba in Spain had been created emperor by the army, utterly collapsed in spirit and in hope.

cumque incredibilia perturbandae, immo subruendae reipublicae mala moliretur, hostis a senatu pronuntiatus et ignominiosissime fugiens, ad quartum ab urbe lapidem sese ipse interfecit, atque in eo omnis Caesarum familia consumpta est.

and when he was contriving incredible evils for disturbing—nay, for undermining—the republic, declared an enemy by the senate and fleeing most ignominiously, at the fourth milestone from the city he slew himself, and therein the whole family of the Caesars was consumed.

[8] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCXXIIII Galba apud Hispanias usurpauit imperium. qui mox, ut Neronis mortem conperit, Romam uenit; cumque omnes auaritia saeuitia segnitiaque offenderet, Pisonem sibi nobilem industriumque adulescentem in filium atque in regnum adoptauit: cum quo septimo mense imperii sui ab Othone iugulatus est.

[8] In the year from the founding of the City 824, Galba in the Spains usurped the imperial power. Who soon, as soon as he learned of Nero’s death, came to Rome; and since he offended all by avarice, savagery, and sluggishness, he adopted Piso, a noble and industrious adolescent, as his son and to the kingship: with whom, in the seventh month of his own rule, he was slaughtered by Otho.

² Luit Roma caedibus principum excitatisque ciuilibus bellis recentes Christianae religionis iniurias, et signa illa legionum, quae sub aduentu in urbem Petri apostoli diuinitus cohercita conuelli nullo modo ad excitandum ciuile bellum ualuerant, quod per Scribonianum parabatur, Petro in urbe interfecto et Christianis poenarum diuersitate laniatis toto se orbe soluerunt. ³ de Hispania siquidem ilico Galba surrexerat; quo mox oppresso Otho Romae, Vitellius in Germania, Vespasianus in Syria imperia simul atque arma rapuerunt. ⁴ probent sane etiam inuiti potentiam simul et clementiam Dei, qui Christianis temporibus offenduntur: quanta celeritate tantorum incendia bellorum et excitata sunt et repressa, cum et antea minimis causis magnae ac diuturnae clades agitarentur et nunc maximi undique concrepantes magnorum malorum fragores minimo negotio sopirentur.

² Rome paid for the slaughters of princes and the stirred-up civil wars the recent injuries done to the Christian religion, and those standards of the legions, which under the arrival into the city of the apostle Peter, divinely restrained, had in no way been able to be torn up for the arousing of civil war—which was being prepared by Scribonianus—Peter having been slain in the city and the Christians mangled by a diversity of punishments, loosed themselves throughout the whole world. ³ From Spain, immediately, Galba had arisen; he being soon put down, Otho at Rome, Vitellius in Germany, Vespasian in Syria seized empires and arms at once. ⁴ Let those who are offended at Christian times acknowledge, indeed even unwillingly, both the potency and the clemency of God: with what swiftness the conflagrations of such great wars were both kindled and repressed, since formerly for the slightest causes great and long-lasting disasters were set in motion, and now the greatest, resounding on all sides—the crashes of great evils—were lulled to sleep with the least trouble.

⁵ iam enim erat Romae quamuis persecutione uexata Ecclesia, quae iudici omnium Christo etiam pro inimicis et persecutoribus supplicaret. ⁶ igitur Otho cum, Galba et Pisone Romae interfectis, inter tumultus caedesque inuasisset imperium ac mox creatum imperatorem in Gallia per Germanicas legiones Vitellium conperisset, bellum ciuile molitus tribus primum leuibus proeliis, hoc est uno apud Alpes, alio circa Placentiam, tertio circa locum, quem Castores uocant, contra Vitellianos duces congressus uictor exstitisset, quarto apud Bedriacum proelio cum animaduertisset suos uinci, mense tertio quam imperare coeperat sese interfecit. ⁷ Vitellius uictor Romam uenit: ubi cum multa crudeliter ac nequiter ageret, incredibili etiam uoracitatis appetitu humanam uitam probris adgrauaret, postquam de Vespasiano comperit, primum deponere molitus imperium, post a quibusdam animatus Sabinum Vespasiani fratrem, nihil tum mali suspicantem, cum ceteris Flauianis in Capitolium compulit succensoque templo et mixta simul flamma ruinaque omnes in unum pariter interitum ac tumulum dedit.

⁵ For already there was at Rome, although harried by persecution, the Church, which would supplicate Christ, the judge of all, even on behalf of enemies and persecutors. ⁶ Therefore Otho, when, with Galba and Piso slain at Rome, he had seized the empire amid tumults and slaughters and soon learned that Vitellius had been created emperor in Gaul by the German legions, setting a civil war on foot, after he had engaged the Vitellian commanders in three light skirmishes—one at the Alps, another around Placentia, a third around the place which they call the Castores—had come out victor; in the fourth battle at Bedriacum, when he noticed his own being defeated, in the third month from when he began to rule he killed himself. ⁷ Vitellius, victor, came to Rome: where, since he did many things cruelly and wickedly, and with an appetite of incredible voracity burdened human life with reproaches, after he learned about Vespasian he first attempted to lay down the imperial power; afterwards, encouraged by certain persons, he drove Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, then suspecting nothing evil, with the other Flavians into the Capitol; and, the temple having been set on fire, and flame and ruin mingled together, he gave all alike into one single destruction and tomb.

⁸ post deficiente in Vespasiani nomen exercitu suo destitutus adpropinquantibusque iam hostibus trepidus cum se in quandam proximam Palatio cellulam contrusisset, turpissime inde protractus cum per uiam Sacram nudus duceretur, passim fimum in os eius coniectantibus in forum deductus, octauo quam regnum praesumpserat mense apud Gemonias scalas minutissimorum ictuum crebris conpunctionibus excarnificatus atque inde unco tractus et in Tiberim mersus etiam communi caruit sepultura. ⁹ multis autem et nefariis modis per complures dies a Vespasiani militibus aduersum senatum populumque Romanum indiscreta caede saeuitum est.

⁸ after his own army having defected to Vespasian’s name left him deserted, and with the enemies now approaching, in alarm, when he had crammed himself into a certain little room near the Palace, he was from there dragged out most shamefully; as he was led naked along the Sacred Way, with people everywhere throwing dung into his mouth, he was brought down into the forum; in the eighth month from when he had assumed the reign, at the Gemonian stairs, he was defleshed by frequent punctures of the tiniest blows, and from there dragged by a hook and plunged into the Tiber, and he even lacked common burial. ⁹ moreover, in many and nefarious ways, for several days, by the soldiers of Vespasian, against the Senate and the Roman People, there raged indiscriminate slaughter.

[9] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCXXV, breui illa quidem sed turbida tyrannorum tempestate discussa, tranquilla sub Vespasiano duce serenitas rediit.² namque, ut paulo altius repetam, Iudaei post passionem Christi destituti in totum gratia Dei cum omnibus undique malis circumuenirentur, quibusdam in Carmelo monte seducti sortibus, quae portenderent exortos a Iudaea duces rerum potituros fore, praedictumque ad se trahentes in rebellionem exarserunt extinctisque Romanis praesidiis legatum quoque Syriae suppetias ferentem rapta aquila et caesis copiis fugauerunt. ³ ad hos Vespasianus a Nerone missus Titum filium suum maiorem inter legatos habuit; nam multas et ualidas legiones secum in Syriam traiecit.

[9] In the year from the founding of the City 825, with that tempest of tyrants—brief indeed, but turbulent—dispelled, a tranquil serenity returned under Vespasian as leader.² For indeed, to recount a little further back, the Jews, after the Passion of Christ, wholly forsaken of the grace of God, when they were being surrounded on all sides by every evil, having been seduced by certain lots on Mount Carmel, which portended that leaders arisen from Judaea would obtain possession of affairs, and drawing the prediction to themselves, flared up into rebellion; and with the Roman garrisons extinguished, they also put to flight the legate of Syria bringing help, the eagle seized and his forces cut down. ³ Against these, Vespasian, sent by Nero, had Titus, his elder son, among the legates; for he conveyed many and strong legions with him into Syria.

itaque cum Iudaeos multis eorum oppidis captis in urbem Hierosolymorum praecipue ob diem festum congregatos obsidione clausisset, cognita Neronis morte hortatu plurimorum regum et ducum - maxime Iosephi Iudaeorum ducis sententia, qui captus cum in uincla coiceretur, constantissime dixerat, sicut Suetonius refert, continuo se ab eodem sed imperatore soluendum - imperium adeptus est, relictoque in castris ad procurationem obsidionis Hierosolymorum filio Tito, per Alexandriam profectus est Romam; sed cognita interfectione Vitelli paulisper Alexandriae substitit. ⁴ Titus uero magna ac diuturna obsidione Iudaeos premens, machinis cunctisque bellicis molibus non sine multo suorum sanguine tandem muros ciuitatis inrupit. sed ad expugnandam interiorem templi munitionem, quam reclusa multitudo sacerdotum ac principum tuebatur, maiore ui et mora opus fuit.

and so, when he had shut the Jews—many of their towns having been captured—within the city of Jerusalem by a siege, especially as they had been congregated on account of the feast day, with the death of Nero learned, by the urging of many kings and leaders—most of all by the opinion of Josephus, leader of the Jews, who, captured and when he was being cast into chains, said most steadfastly, as Suetonius reports, that he would immediately be released by this same man, but as emperor—he obtained the imperium; and, leaving in the camp his son Titus for the management of the siege of Jerusalem, he set out to Rome through Alexandria; but, the killing of Vitellius having been learned, he halted for a little at Alexandria. ⁴ Titus, indeed, pressing the Jews with a great and long-lasting siege, with machines and all warlike works, not without much blood of his own men at last broke into the walls of the city. But for storming the inner fortification of the temple, which a shut-in multitude of priests and chiefs was defending, there was need of greater force and delay.

⁵ quod tamen postquam in potestatem redactum opere atque antiquitate suspexit, diu deliberauit utrum tamquam incitamentum hostium incenderet an in testimonium uictoriae reseruaret. sed Ecclesia Dei iam per totum orbem uberrime germinante, hoc tam quam effetum ac uacuum nullique usui bono commodum arbitrio Dei auferendum fuit. ⁶ itaque Titus, imperator ab exercitu pronuntiatus, templum in Hierosolymis incendit ac diruit, quod a die conditionis primae usque ad diem euersionis ultimae manserat annis mille centum et duobus.

⁵ Yet after, once it had been reduced into his power, he admired it for its workmanship and antiquity, he long deliberated whether he should burn it as an incitement of enemies or reserve it as a testimony of victory. But with the Church of God by now most abundantly germinating through the whole orb, this, as something spent and void and suited to no good use, had, by the decision of God, to be taken away. ⁶ And so Titus, proclaimed emperor by the army, set the temple in Jerusalem ablaze and demolished it, which from the day of its first founding down to the day of its final overthrow had stood for 1,102 years.

muros urbis uniuersos solo adaequauit. ⁷ sexcenta milia Iudaeorum eo bello interfecta Cornelius et Suetonius referunt; Iosephus uero Iudaeus, qui ei tunc bello praefuit et apud Vespasianum propter praedictum imperium ueniam gratiamque meruerat, scribit undecies centena milia gladio et fame perisse, reliquias uero Iudaeorum diuersis actas condicionibus toto orbe dispersas: quarum numerus ad nonaginta milia hominum fuisse narratur. ⁸ Vespasianus et Titus imperatores magnificum agentes de Iudaeis triumphum urbem ingressi sunt.

He leveled all the walls of the city to the ground. ⁷ Cornelius and Suetonius report that 600,000 Jews were slain in that war; but Josephus the Jew, who at that time had been in command in that war and had earned pardon and favor with Vespasian because of the foretold emperorship, writes that 1,100,000 perished by sword and famine, while the remnants of the Jews, driven into diverse conditions, were scattered through the whole world: their number is told to have been about 90,000 persons. ⁸ Vespasian and Titus, emperors, entered the city conducting a magnificent triumph over the Jews.

pulchrum et ignotum antea cunctis mortalibus inter trecentos uiginti triumphos, qui a conditione urbis usque in id tempus acti erant, hoc spectaculum fuit, patrem et filium uno triumphali curru uectos gloriosissimam ab his, qui Patrem et Filium offenderant, uictoriam reportasse. ⁹ qui continuo omnibus bellis ac tumultibus domi forisque conpressis pacem totius orbis pronuntiauerunt et Ianum geminum obseratis cohiberi claustris sexto demum ipsi post urbem conditam censuerunt. iure enim idem honos ultioni passionis Domini inpensus est, qui etiam natiuitati fuerat adtributus.

a spectacle fair and previously unknown to all mortals, among three hundred and twenty triumphs which had been celebrated from the founding of the city up to that time, was this: that father and son, borne in one triumphal chariot, had carried back the most glorious victory over those who had offended the Father and the Son. ⁹ they immediately, with all wars and tumults crushed at home and abroad, proclaimed the peace of the whole world, and they themselves finally judged that the twin Janus, with its bars fast shut, should be confined for the sixth time since the city was founded. for rightly the same honor was expended upon the avenging of the Lord’s Passion as had also been attributed to His Nativity.

¹⁰ tunc deinde sine ullis bellorum tumultibus in inmensum respublica Romana prouehitur: siquidem Achaia Lycia Rhodus Byzantium Samus Thracia Cilicia Commagene tunc primum redactae in prouincias Romanis iudicibus legibusque paruerunt.

¹⁰ then thereafter, without any tumults of wars, the Roman commonwealth is borne forward to an immense extent: since Achaia, Lycia, Rhodes, Byzantium, Samos, Thrace, Cilicia, [and] Commagene, then for the first time reduced into provinces, obeyed Roman judges and laws.

¹¹ Nono autem imperii eius anno tres ciuitates Cypri terrae motu corruerunt et Romae magna pestilentia fuit. ¹² Vespasianus autem in uilla propria circa Sabinos nono anno principatus sui profluuio uentris est mortuus.

¹¹ In the ninth year of his rule, three cities of Cyprus collapsed by an earthquake, and at Rome there was a great pestilence. ¹² But Vespasian, in his own villa near the Sabines, in the ninth year of his principate, died of a flux of the belly.

¹³ Anno ab urbe condita DCCCXXVIII Titus, segregatis a numero principum Othone et Vitellio ab Augusto octauus, biennio post Vespasianum regnauit. cuius tanta tranquillitas in imperio fuit, ut nullius omnino sanguinem in republica administranda fudisse referatur. ¹⁴ et tamen tunc Romae orto repente incendio plurimae aedes publicae concrematae sunt.

¹³ In the year from the founding of the City 828, Titus—Otho and Vitellius segregated from the number of the princes—was the eighth from Augustus; he reigned for a biennium after Vespasian. whose tranquillity in rule was so great that he is reported to have shed no blood at all in administering the commonwealth. ¹⁴ and yet then at Rome, a conflagration having suddenly arisen, very many public buildings were burned down.

abruptum tunc etiam Bebii montis uerticem magna profudisse incendia ferunt torrentibusque flammarum uicina regionis cum urbibus hominibusque delesse. ¹⁵ Titus cum ingenti omnium luctu in eadem uilla, qua pater eius, morbo absumptus est.

they report that then also the precipitous summit of Mount Bebius poured forth great conflagrations, and that torrents of flames destroyed the neighboring parts of the region together with cities and people. ¹⁵ Titus, with the immense mourning of all, in the same villa as his father, was consumed by disease.

[10] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCXXX Domitianus Titi frater, ab Augusto nonus, fratri successit in regnum. qui per annos XV ad hoc paulatim per omnes scelerum gradus creuit, ut confirmatissimam toto orbe Christi Ecclesiam datis ubique crudelissimae persecutionis edictis conuellere auderet.² is in tantam superbiam prolapsus fuit, ut dominum sese ac deum uocari scribi colique iusserit.

[10] In the year from the founding of the city 830, Domitian, brother of Titus, the ninth from Augustus, succeeded his brother in rule. who over 15 years, gradually through all the degrees of crimes, advanced to this point: that he dared to tear asunder the most firmly established Church of Christ in the whole world by edicts of a most cruel persecution issued everywhere.² he had fallen into such arrogance that he ordered himself to be called, written, and worshiped as lord and god.

nobilissimos e senatu inuidiae simul ac praedae causa alios palam interfecit, alios in exilium trusit ibique trucidari imperauit. libidinis intemperantia quidquid cogitari potest, fecit. plurimas urbis aedes destructis populi Romani rebus extruxit.

He openly killed the most noble men from the Senate, for the sake of envy as well as of plunder; others he thrust into exile and there ordered to be butchered. In an intemperance of lust he did whatever can be conceived. He erected very many edifices of the city, with the fortunes of the Roman people destroyed.

³ bellum aduersum Germanos et Dacos per legatos gessit pari reipublicae pernicie, cum et in urbe ipse senatum populumque laniaret et foris male circumactum exercitum adsidua hostes caede conficerent. ⁴ nam quanta fuerint Diurpanei Dacorum regis cum Fusco duce proelia quantaeque Romanorum clades, longo textu euoluerem, nisi Cornelius Tacitus, qui hanc historiam diligentissime contexuit, de reticendo interfectorum numero et Sallustium Crispum et alios auctores quamplurimos sanxisse et se ipsum idem potissimum elegisse dixisset. Domitianus tamen prauissima elatus iactantia, sub nomine superatorum hostium de extinctis legionibus triumphauit.

³ he waged war against the Germans and the Dacians through legates, with equal perdition to the commonwealth, since both in the city he himself was tearing the senate and the people to pieces, and outside the enemies were finishing off the badly-handled army with incessant slaughter. ⁴ for how great were the battles of Diurpaneus, king of the Dacians, with the general Fuscus, and how great the disasters of the Romans, I would unroll in a long web of text, unless Cornelius Tacitus, who most diligently interwove this history, had said that as to the reticence about the number of the slain, both Sallustius Crispus and very many other authors had sanctioned it, and that he himself had especially chosen the same. Domitian, however, puffed up by most depraved vaunting, under the name of vanquished enemies triumphed over annihilated legions.

⁵ idemque efferatus superbia, qua se deum coli uellet, persecutionem in Christianos agi secundus a Nerone imperauit. quo tempore etiam beatissimus Iohannes apostolus in Patmum insulam relegatus fuit. ⁶ inter Iudaeos quoque acerbitate tormentorum et cruentissimae quaestionis exquiri genus Dauid atque interfici praeceptum est, dum prophetis sanctis et inuidetur et creditur, quasi adhuc futurus esset ex semine Dauid, qui regnum possit adipisci.

⁵ and the same man, maddened by superbia, by which he wished himself to be worshiped as a god, commanded that a persecution be conducted against the Christians, the second after Nero. At which time also the most blessed apostle John was relegated to the island of Patmos. ⁶ among the Jews likewise it was ordered that the lineage of David be sought out by the harshness of tortures and of a most bloodstained inquisition, and be slain, while the holy prophets are both envied and believed, as though there were still going to be, from the seed of David, someone who could acquire the kingdom.

⁷ continuo tamen Domitianus crudeliter in Palatio a suis interfectus est: cuius cadauer populari sandapila per uespillones exportatum atque ignominiosissime sepultum est.

⁷ nevertheless, immediately Domitian was cruelly slain in the Palace by his own; whose cadaver, on a common sandapila, was carried out by corpse-bearers and was buried most ignominiously.

[11] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCXLVI - quamuis Eutropius quinquagesimum hunc esse annum scripserit - Nerua admodum senex a Petronio praefecto praetorio et Parthenio spadone, interfectore Domitiani, imperator decimus ab Augusto creatus Traianum in regnum adoptauit, per quem reuera adflictae reipublicae diuina prouisione consuluit.² hic primo edicto suo cunctos exules reuocauit - unde et Iohannes apostolus hac generali indulgentia liberatus Ephesum rediit - emensoque anno imperii sui Nerua confectus morbo diem obiit.

[11] In the year from the founding of the city 846 - although Eutropius has written that this was the fiftieth year - Nerva, a very aged man, created as the tenth emperor from Augustus by Petronius, the praetorian prefect, and by Parthenius the eunuch, the killer of Domitian, adopted Trajan into the imperial rule, through whom he truly, by divine provision, took thought for the afflicted commonwealth.² he, in his first edict, recalled all exiles - whence also John the apostle, freed by this general indulgence, returned to Ephesus - and, a year of his rule having elapsed, Nerva, worn out by illness, passed away.

[12] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCXLVII Traianus, genere Hispanus, undecimus ab Augusto reipublicae gubernacula Nerua tradente suscepit ac per annos decem et nouem tenuit.² apud Agrippinam Galliae urbem insignia sumpsit imperii; mox Germaniam trans Rhenum in pristinum statum reduxit; trans Danuuium multas gentes subegit; regiones autem trans Euphraten et Tigrin sitas prouincias fecit; Seleuciam et Ctesiphontem et Babylonem occupauit. ³ in persequendis sane Christianis errore deceptus tertius a Nerone, cum passim repertos cogi ad sacrificandum idolis ac detrectantes interfici praecepisset plurimique interficerentur, Plinii Secundi, qui inter ceteros iudices persecutor datus fuerat, relatu admonitus, eos homines praeter confessionem Christi honestaque conuenticula nihil contrarium Romanis legibus facere, fiducia sane innocentis confessionis nemini mortem grauem ac formidulosam uideri, rescriptis ilico lenioribus temperauit edictum.

[12] In the year from the founding of the city 847, Trajan, by race a Spaniard, the eleventh from Augustus, received the helm of the commonwealth with Nerva handing it over and held it for 19 years.² At Agrippina, a city of Gaul, he took up the insignia of empire; soon he restored Germany beyond the Rhine to its former state; beyond the Danube he subdued many peoples; moreover, he made the regions situated across the Euphrates and the Tigris into provinces; he occupied Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Babylon. ³ In persecuting Christians, to be sure, deceived by an error, the third after Nero, when he had ordered that those found everywhere be compelled to sacrifice to idols and that those refusing be executed, and very many were being executed, warned by the report of Pliny the Second—who among the other judges had been appointed as a persecutor—that those men, apart from the confession of Christ and respectable assemblies, do nothing contrary to the Roman laws, and that, with the confidence of an innocent confession, death seems to no one grievous and fear-inspiring, he immediately, by more lenient rescripts, tempered the edict.

⁴ uerumtamen continuo Romae aurea domus, a Nerone totis priuatis publicisque rebus inpensis condita, repentino conflagrauit incendio, ut intellegeretur missa etiam ab alio persecutio in ipsius potissime monumentis, a quo primum exorta esset, atque in ipso auctore puniri. ⁵ terrae motu quattuor urbes Asiae subuersae, Elaea Myrina Pitane Cyme, et Graeciae ciuitates duae, Opuntiorum et Oritorum; tres Galatiae ciuitates eodem terrae motu dirutae; Pantheum Romae fulmine concrematum; terrae motus in Antiochia paene totam subruit ciuitatem. ⁶ incredibili deinde motu sub uno tempore Iudaei quasi rabie efferati per diuersas terrarum partes exarserunt.

⁴ Nevertheless, immediately at Rome the Golden House, founded by Nero with expenditures of all private and public resources, was consumed by a sudden conflagration, so that it might be understood that the persecution, even if sent by another, was being punished especially in the monuments of the very man from whom it had first arisen, and in the author himself. ⁵ By an earthquake four cities of Asia were overthrown, Elaea, Myrina, Pitane, Cyme, and two cities of Greece, of the Opuntians and of the Oritians; three cities of Galatia were demolished by the same earthquake; the Pantheon at Rome was burnt up by lightning; an earthquake at Antioch nearly threw down the whole city. ⁶ Then, with incredible commotion, at one and the same time the Jews, as if made wild by rabies, flared up through diverse parts of the earth.

nam et per totam Libyam aduersus incolas atrocissima bella gesserunt: quae adeo tunc interfectis cultoribus desolata est, ut, nisi postea Hadrianus imperator collectas illuc aliunde colonias deduxisset, uacua penitus terra abraso habitatore mansisset. ⁷ Aegyptum uero totam et Cyrenen et Thebaidam cruentis seditionibus turbauerunt. in Alexandria autem commisso proelio uicti et adtriti sunt.

for even throughout all Libya they waged the most atrocious wars against the inhabitants: which was then so desolated, the cultivators having been slain, that, unless afterward Emperor Hadrian had led colonies gathered from elsewhere to that place, the land would have remained utterly empty, with its inhabitant scraped away. ⁷ indeed Egypt as a whole and Cyrene and the Thebaid they threw into turmoil with bloody seditions. but in Alexandria, however, with battle joined, they were conquered and worn down.

in Mesopotamia quoque rebellantibus iussu imperatoris bellum inlatum est. itaque multa milia eorum uasta caede deleta sunt. ⁸ sane Salaminam urbem Cypri interfectis omnibus accolis deleuerunt.

in Mesopotamia likewise, with them rebelling, war was brought against them by the order of the emperor. and so many thousands of them were destroyed in a vast slaughter. ⁸ indeed, they annihilated the city of Salamis in Cyprus, with all the inhabitants slain.

Traianus, ut quidam ferunt, apud Seleuciam Isauriae urbem profluuio uentris extinctus est.

Trajan, as some say, at Seleucia, a city of Isauria, perished by a flux of the belly.

[13] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCLXVII Hadrianus, consobrinae Traiani filius, duodecimus ab Augusto principatum adeptus, uno et uiginti annis imperauit.² hic per Quadratum discipulum apostolorum et Aristidem Atheniensem, uirum fide sapientiaque plenum, et per Serenum Granium legatum libris de Christiana religione conpositis instructus atque eruditus, praecepit per epistulam ad Minucium Fundanum proconsule Asiae datam, ut nemini liceret Christianos sine obiectu criminis aut probatione damnare; ³ idemque continuo pater patriae in senatu ultra morem maiorum appellatur et uxor eius Augusta. Hadrianus rempublicam iustissimis legibus ordinauit; bellum contra Sauromatas gessit et uicit.

[13] In the year from the founding of the city 867, Hadrian, the son of Trajan’s cousin, the twelfth from Augustus, obtained the principate, and he ruled for 21 years.² He, through Quadratus, a disciple of the apostles, and Aristides the Athenian, a man full of faith and wisdom, and through Serenus Granianus, a legate, being instructed and educated by books composed on the Christian religion, ordered by an epistle given to Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia, that it should be permitted to no one to condemn Christians without the imputation of a crime or proof; ³ and the same man forthwith is called Father of the Fatherland in the senate beyond the custom of the ancestors, and his wife, Augusta. Hadrian ordered the republic with most just laws; he waged war against the Sarmatians and was victorious.

⁴ Iudaeos sane, perturbatione scelerum suorum exagitatos et Palaestinam prouinciam quondam suam depopulantes, ultima caede perdomuit, ultusque est Christianos, quos illi Cocheba duce, cur sibi aduersum Romanos non adsentarentur, excruciabant; ⁵ praecepitque, ne cui Iudaeo introeundi Hierosolymam esset licentia, Christianis tantum ciuitate permissa: quam ipse in optimum statum murorum exstructione reparauit et Aeliam uocari de praenomine suo praecepit.

⁴ The Jews, to be sure, harried by the perturbation of their own crimes and depopulating the province of Palestine, once their own, he thoroughly subdued by an ultimate slaughter; and he avenged the Christians, whom they, under the leader Cocheba, were torturing because they did not assent to them against the Romans. ⁵ And he ordered that to no Jew should there be license to enter Jerusalem, the city being permitted only to Christians: which he himself restored to an excellent state by the construction of walls and ordered to be called Aelia from his praenomen.

[14] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCLXXXVIII Antoninus cognomento Pius tertius decimus ab Augusto imperator creatus cum liberis suis Aurelio et Lucio uiginti et non plenis tribus annis rempublicam gubernauit adeo tranquille et sancte, ut merito Pius et pater patriae nominatus sit.² huius tamen temporibus Valentinus haeresiarches et Cerdo magister Marcionis Romam uenerunt. uerum Iustinus philosophus librum pro Christiana religione compositum Antonino tradidit benignumque eum erga Christianos homines fecit.

[14] In the year from the founding of the City 888, Antoninus, surnamed Pius, the 13th emperor from Augustus, was created; with his children Aurelius and Lucius he governed the commonwealth for twenty and not full three years so tranquilly and holily that he was deservedly named Pius and father of the fatherland.² Yet in his times the heresiarch Valentinus and Cerdo, the teacher of Marcion, came to Rome. But Justin the philosopher handed to Antoninus a book composed on behalf of the Christian religion and made him kindly disposed toward Christian men.

Antoninus ad duodecimum ab urbe lapidem morbo correptus interiit.

Antoninus, at the 12th milestone from the city, seized by illness, perished.

[15] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCXI Marcus Antoninus Verus quartus decimus ab Augusto regnum cum Aurelio Commodo fratre suscepit mansitque in eo annis decem et nouem. hi primi rempublicam aequo iure tutati sunt.² bellum deinde contra Parthos admirabili uirtute et felicitate gesserunt.

[15] In the year from the founding of the city 911 Marcus Antoninus Verus, the fourteenth from Augustus, assumed the rule with his brother Aurelius Commodus and remained in it for nineteen years. These were the first to protect the commonwealth with equal right.² Then they waged war against the Parthians with admirable virtue and felicity.

Annius Antoninus Verus ad id bellum profectus est. Vologesus enim, rex Parthorum, graui eruptione Armeniam Cappadociam Syriamque uastabat. ³ sed Antoninus, per strenuissimos duces magnis rebus gestis, Seleuciam Assyriae urbem super Hydaspen fluuium sitam cum quadringentis milibus hominum cepit et cum fratre de uictoria Parthica triumphauit; ac non multo post, dum cum fratre in uehiculo sedet, casu morbi, quem apoplexian Graeci uocant, suffocatus interiit.

Annius Antoninus Verus set out to that war. For Vologeses, king of the Parthians, with a grave eruption was ravaging Armenia, Cappadocia, and Syria. ³ But Antoninus, through most strenuous leaders, with great deeds accomplished, took Seleucia of Assyria, a city set upon the river Hydaspes, with four hundred thousand people, and he triumphed with his brother over the Parthian victory; and not long after, while he was sitting with his brother in a vehicle, by a mishap of a disease which the Greeks call apoplexy, suffocated, he perished.

⁴ Eo defuncto Marcus Antoninus solus reipublicae praefuit. sed in diebus Parthici belli persecutiones Christianorum quarta iam post Neronem uice in Asia et in Gallia graues praecepto eius exstiterunt multique sanctorum martyrio coronati sunt. ⁵ secuta est lues plurimis infusa prouinciis, totamque Italiam pestilentia tanta uastauit, ut passim uillae, agri atque oppida sine cultore atque habitatore deserta in ruinas siluasque concesserint.

⁴ With him deceased, Marcus Antoninus alone presided over the republic. But in the days of the Parthian war, persecutions of the Christians, for the fourth time already after Nero, arose in Asia and in Gaul, severe by his precept, and many of the saints were crowned with martyrdom. ⁵ There followed a plague poured into very many provinces, and so great a pestilence devastated all Italy that everywhere villas, fields, and towns, deserted without cultivator and inhabitant, collapsed into ruins and into woods.

⁶ exercitum uero Romanum cunctasque legiones per longinqua late hiberna dispositas ita consumptas ferunt, ut Marcomannicum bellum, quod continuo exortum est, non nisi nouo dilectu militum, quem triennio iugiter apud Carnuntium Marcus Antoninus habuit, gestum fuisse referatur. ⁷ hoc quidem bellum prouidentia Dei administratum esse cum plurimis argumentis tum praecipue epistula grauissimi ac modestissimi imperatoris apertissime declaratum est. ⁸ nam cum insurrexissent gentes inmanitate barbarae, multitudine innumerabiles, hoc est Marcomanni Quadi Vandali Sarmatae Suebi atque omnis paene Germania, et in Quadorum usque fines progressus exercitus circumuentusque ab hostibus propter aquarum penuriam praesentius sitis quam hostis periculum sustineret: ⁹ ad inuocationem nominis Christi, quam subito magna fidei constantia quidam milites effusi in preces palam fecerunt, tanta uis pluuiae effusa est, ut Romanos quidem largissime ac sine iniuria refecerit, barbaros autem crebris fulminum ictibus perterritos, praesertim cum plurimi eorum occiderentur, in fugam coegerit.

⁶ But they report that the Roman army and all the legions, disposed far and wide in distant winter-quarters, were so consumed that the Marcomannic war, which arose immediately thereafter, is said to have been waged only by a new levy of soldiers, which for three years continuously Marcus Antoninus held at Carnuntum. ⁷ That war indeed was administered by the providence of God has been made most plainly manifest both by very many arguments and especially by the epistle of the most weighty and most modest emperor. ⁸ For when nations barbarous in savagery, innumerable in multitude—namely the Marcomanni, Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Suebi, and almost all Germany—had risen up, and the army, having advanced even to the borders of the Quadi and surrounded by the enemies because of scarcity of waters, was sustaining a danger more present from thirst than from the foe: ⁹ at the invocation of the name of Christ, which certain soldiers, poured forth into prayers with sudden great constancy of faith, made openly, so great a force of rain was poured out that it refreshed the Romans most abundantly and without harm, but drove the barbarians, terrified by frequent strokes of lightning, especially since very many of them were being slain, into flight.

¹⁰ quorum terga Romani usque ad internecionem caedentes gloriosissimam uictoriam et omnibus paene antiquorum titulis praeferendam rudi paruoque militum numero sed potentissimo Christi auxilio reportarunt. ¹¹ exstare etiam nunc apud plerosque dicuntur litterae imperatoris Antonini, ubi inuocatione nominis Christi per milites Christianos et sitim illam depulsam et conlatam fatetur fuisse uictoriam. ¹² idemque Antoninus Commodum filium suum adsumpsit in regnum; praeteriti etiam temporis per omnes prouincias tributa donauit omniaque simul fiscalium negotiorum calumniosa monumenta congesta in foro iussit incendi seuerioresque leges nouis constitutionibus temperauit.

¹⁰ whose backs the Romans, cutting down even to extermination, brought back a most glorious victory, to be preferred to almost all the titles of the ancients, with a raw and small number of soldiers but by the most powerful aid of Christ. ¹¹ letters of the emperor Antoninus are said even now to exist among many, where he acknowledges that by the invocation of the name of Christ through Christian soldiers both that thirst was driven away and that victory was conferred. ¹² and the same Antoninus took up his son Commodus into the rule; he also remitted the tributes of past time throughout all the provinces, and at the same time ordered to be burned in the forum all the calumnious records of fiscal affairs that had been piled up, and he tempered the more severe laws by new constitutions.

postremo in Pannonia constitutus repentino morbo diem obiit.

at last, stationed in Pannonia, he died of a sudden disease.

[16] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCXXX Lucius Antoninus Commodus quintus decimus ab Augusto patri successit in regnum mansitque in eo annis XIII.² aduersus Germanos bellum feliciter gessit. ceterum per omnia luxuriae et obscenitatis dedecore deprauatus, gladiatoriis quoque armis saepissime in ludo depugnauit et in amphitheatro feris sese frequenter obiecit; interfecit etiam quamplurimos senatores, maxime quos animaduertit nobilitate industriaque excellere.

[16] In the year from the founding of the City 930, Lucius Antoninus Commodus, the fifteenth from Augustus, succeeded his father to the rule and remained in it for 13 years.² He waged war successfully against the Germans. But otherwise, depraved by every disgrace of luxury and obscenity, he very often fought with gladiatorial arms in the training-school and frequently exposed himself to wild beasts in the amphitheater; he also killed a great many senators, especially those whom he noticed to excel in nobility and industry.

³ flagitia regis poena urbis insequitur. nam fulmine Capitolium ictum, ex quo facta inflammatio bybliothecam illam, maiorum cura studioque compositam, aedesque alias iuxta sitas rapaci turbine concremauit. deinde aliud incendium postea Romae exortum aedem Vestae et Palatium plurimamque urbis partem solo coaequauit.

³ the king’s flagitious crimes are followed by the city’s penalty. for the Capitol was struck by lightning, from which a conflagration having arisen burned that library, composed by the care and zeal of the ancestors, and a rapacious whirlwind consumed other shrines set nearby. then another fire, later arising at Rome, leveled the temple of Vesta and the Palatium and a very great part of the city to the ground.

⁴ Commodus cunctis incommodus in domo Vestiliani strangulatus interisse fertur, hostis generis humani etiam uiuus iudicatus.

⁴ Commodus, incommodious to all, is reported to have perished, strangled, in the house of Vestilianus, judged an enemy of the human race even while alive.

⁵ Post hunc a senatu creatus est senex Heluius Pertinax sextus decimus ab Augusto. qui sexto mense quam regnare coeperat Iuliani iuris periti scelere in Palatio occisus est. ⁶ Iulianus interfecto Pertinace inuasit imperium sed mox a Seuero apud pontem Muluium bello ciuili uictus et interfectus est mense septimo postquam coeperat imperare.

⁵ After him the elderly man Helvius Pertinax, the sixteenth from Augustus, was created by the senate. He, in the sixth month from when he began to reign, was slain in the Palace through the crime of Julianus, skilled in law. ⁶ Julianus, Pertinax having been killed, seized the imperium; but soon, by Severus near the Milvian Bridge, in civil war, he was conquered and killed, in the seventh month after he had begun to rule.

ita inter Pertinacem et Iulianum unus annus absumptus est.

thus between Pertinax and Julianus one year was consumed.

[17] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCXLIIII Seuerus, genere Afer Tripolitanus ab oppido Lepti, qui se ex nomine imperatoris, quem occisum ultus fuerat, Pertinacem appellari voluit, septimus decimus ab Augusto destitutum adeptus imperium XVIII annis tenuit.² hic natura saeuus, multis semper bellis lacessitus, fortissime quidem rempublicam sed laboriosissime rexit. Pescennium Nigrum, qui in Aegypto et Syria ad tyrannidem adspirauerat, apud Cyzicum uicit et interfecit.

[17] In the year 944 from the founding of the City, Severus, by race an African, a Tripolitan from the town of Leptis, who wished to be called Pertinax from the name of the emperor whom he had avenged as slain, the seventeenth from Augustus, having obtained the abandoned empire, held power for 18 years.² He, savage by nature, always provoked by many wars, governed the commonwealth indeed most bravely but most laboriously. He defeated and killed Pescennius Niger, who had aspired to tyranny in Egypt and Syria, near Cyzicus.

³ Iudaeos et Samaritas rebellare conantes ferro cohercuit. Parthos Arabas Adiabenosque superauit. ⁴ quinta post Neronem persecutione Christianos excruciauit, plurimique sanctorum per diuersas prouincias martyrio coronati sunt.

³ He restrained by the sword the Jews and the Samaritans as they attempted to rebel. He overcame the Parthians, the Arabs, and the Adiabenes. ⁴ In the 5th persecution after Nero he excruciated the Christians, and very many of the saints throughout diverse provinces were crowned with martyrdom.

⁵ hanc profanam in Christianos et Ecclesiam Dei praesumptionem Seueri caelestis ultio e uestigio acta subsequitur. nam continuo rapitur uel potius retrahitur in Galliam Seuerus e Syria ad tertium ciuile bellum; ⁶ unum iam enim Romae aduersus Iulianum, aliud in Syria contra Pescennium gesserat, tertium Clodius Albinus, Iuliani in occidendo Pertinace socius, qui se in Gallia Caesarem fecerat, suscitabat; cuius bello multum utrimque Romani sanguinis fusum est. Albinus tamen apud Lugdunum oppressus et interfectus est.

⁵ This profane presumption against the Christians and the Church of God on the part of Severus is followed immediately by celestial vengeance. For at once Severus is seized—or rather drawn back—from Syria into Gaul to a third civil war; ⁶ for he had already waged one at Rome against Julianus, another in Syria against Pescennius; a third was being stirred up by Clodius Albinus, the associate of Julianus in the slaying of Pertinax, who had made himself Caesar in Gaul; in which war much Roman blood was poured out on both sides. Albinus, however, at Lugdunum was crushed and killed.

⁷ Seuerus uictor in Britannias defectu paene omnium sociorum trahitur, ubi magnis grauibusque proeliis saepe gestis receptam partem insulae a ceteris indomitis gentibus uallo distinguendam putauit. itaque magnam fossam firmissimumque uallum, crebris insuper turribus communitum, per centum triginta et duo milia passuum a mari ad mare duxit. ⁸ ibique apud Eboracum oppidum morbo obiit.

⁷ Severus, victorious, is drawn into Britain by the defection of almost all his allies, where, great and weighty battles having often been waged, he judged that the recovered part of the island should be distinguished from the other untamed gentes by a rampart. And so he drew a great ditch and a very strong rampart, reinforced moreover with frequent towers, from sea to sea for 132 miles. ⁸ And there at the town of Eboracum he died of disease.

reliquit duos filios, Bassianum et Getam: quorum Geta hostis publicus iudicatus interiit, Bassianus Antonini cognomine adsumpto regno potitus est.

he left two sons, Bassianus and Geta: of whom Geta, adjudged a public enemy, perished; Bassianus, having assumed the cognomen Antoninus, obtained the kingdom.

[18] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCLXII Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus idemque Caracalla octauus decimus ab Augusto principatum adeptus est mansitque in eo annis non plenis septem.² uixit patre asperior, omnibus autem hominibus libidine intemperantior, qui etiam nouercam suam Iuliam uxorem duxerit. hic contra Parthos bellum moliens, inter Edessam et Carras ab hostibus circumuentus occisus est.

[18] In the year from the founding of the city 962, Aurelius Antoninus Bassianus, the same also Caracalla, the eighteenth from Augustus, obtained the principate and remained in it for not quite seven years.² He lived harsher than his father, but more intemperate in libido than all men, who even took his stepmother Julia as his wife. This man, while contriving war against the Parthians, between Edessa and Carrhae, surrounded by the enemies, was slain.

³ Post hunc nonus decimus ab Augusto Ophilus Macrinus, qui praefectus praetorio erat, cum filio Diadumeno inuasit imperium sed emenso anno continuo apud Archelaidem militari tumultu occisus est.

³ After him, the 19th from Augustus, Ophilus Macrinus, who was prefect of the praetorium, with his son Diadumenus seized the imperium, but, the year having been completed, immediately at Archelais he was slain in a military tumult.

⁴ Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCLXX Marcus Aurelius Antoninus uicensimus ab Augusto imperium adeptus tenuit annis quattuor. ⁵ hic sacerdos Heliogabali templi nullam sui nisi stuprorum flagitiorum totiusque obscenitatis infamem satis memoriam reliquit. tumultu autem militari exorto, Romae cum matre interfectus est.

⁴ In the year from the founding of the City 970, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the twentieth from Augustus, obtained the imperium and held it for four years. ⁵ This man, a priest of the temple of Heliogabalus, left no memory of himself save one sufficiently infamous for debaucheries, flagitious deeds, and all obscenity. However, with a military tumult having arisen, at Rome he was slain together with his mother.

⁶ Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCLXXIIII Aurelius Alexander uicensimus primus ab Augusto senatus ac militum uoluntate imperator creatus tredecim annis digno aequitatis praeconio fuit; ⁷ cuius mater Mamea Christiana Origenem presbyterum audire curauit: nam statim expeditione in Persas facta Xerxen regem eorum maximo bello uictor oppressit. ⁸ Ulpiano usus adsessore summam sui moderationem reipublicae exhibuit; sed militari tumultu apud Mogontiacum interfectus est.

⁶ In the year from the founding of the city 974, Aurelius Alexander, the twenty-first from Augustus, created emperor by the will of the senate and the soldiers, for thirteen years enjoyed a worthy proclamation of equity; ⁷ whose mother Mamea, a Christian woman, took care to hear Origen the presbyter: for immediately, an expedition having been made against the Persians, he, as victor, oppressed Xerxes, their king, in a very great war. ⁸ Using Ulpian as assessor, he exhibited to the republic the utmost moderation of himself; but in a military tumult at Mogontiacum he was killed.

[19] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCLXXXVII Maximinus uicensimus secundus ab Augusto nulla senatus uoluntate imperator ab exercitu, postquam bellum in Germania prospere gesserat, creatus persecutionem in Christianos sextus a Nerone exercuit.² sed continuo, hoc est tertio quam regnabat anno, a Pupieno Aquileiae interfectus et persecutionis et uitae finem fecit. qui maxime propter Christianam Alexandri, cui successerat, et Mameae matris eius familiam persecutionem in sacerdotes et clericos, id est doctores, uel praecipue propter Origenem presbyterum miserat.

[19] In the year from the founding of the City 987, Maximinus, the 22nd from Augustus, with no will of the senate, was created emperor by the army, after he had successfully waged war in Germany, and he carried out a persecution against the Christians, the sixth after Nero.² But immediately— that is, in the third year that he was reigning— he was killed by Pupienus at Aquileia, and he put an end both to the persecution and to his life. He, especially on account of the Christian household of Alexander, whom he had succeeded, and of his mother Mamaea, had sent the persecution against the priests and the clerics, that is, teachers, or more particularly on account of Origen the presbyter.

³ Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCLXLI Gordianus uicensimus tertius ab Augusto imperator creatus est mansitque in eo annis sex. nam Pupienus, interfector Maximini, et frater eius Balbinus, qui usurpauerant imperium, in Palatio mox interfecti sunt. ⁴ Gordianus admodum puer in orientem ad bellum Parthicum profecturus, sicut Eutropius scribit, Iani portas aperuit: quas utrum post Vespasianum et Titum aliquis clauserit, neminem scripsisse memini, cum tamen eas ab ipso Vespasiano post annum apertas Cornelius Tacitus prodat.

³ In the year from the founding of the City 1011, Gordian, the 23rd from Augustus, was created emperor and remained in it for six years. For Pupienus, the slayer of Maximinus, and his brother Balbinus, who had usurped the empire, were soon killed in the Palace. ⁴ Gordian, a mere boy, about to set out to the East for the Parthian war, as Eutropius writes, opened the gates of Janus: which, whether anyone closed after Vespasian and Titus, I remember no one to have written, although Cornelius Tacitus relates that they were opened by Vespasian himself after a year.

⁵ igitur Gordianus ingentibus proeliis aduersum Parthos prospere gestis suorum fraude haud longe a Circesso super Euphraten interfectus est.

⁵ therefore Gordian, with immense battles against the Parthians successfully conducted, was killed by the fraud of his own men not far from Circesso on the Euphrates.

[20] Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCLXLVII Philippus uicensimus quartus ab Augusto imperator creatus Philippum filium suum consortem regni fecit mansitque in eo annis septem.² hic primus imperatorum omnium Christianus fuit ac post tertium imperii eius annum millesimus a conditione Romae annus impletus est. ita magnificis ludis augustissimus omnium praeteritorum hic natalis annus a Christiano imperatore celebratus est.

[20] In the year from the founding of the City 997 Philip, the twenty-fourth from Augustus, having been created emperor, made his son Philip a consort in the rule and he remained in it for seven years.² He was the first of all the emperors to be a Christian, and after the third year of his rule the 1,000th year from the founding of Rome was completed. Thus with magnificent games this natal year, the most august of all the past, was celebrated by a Christian emperor.

³ nec dubium est, quin Philippus huius tantae deuotionis gratiam et honorem ad Christum et Ecclesiam reportarit, quando uel ascensum fuisse in Capitolium immolatasque ex more hostias nullus auctor ostendit. ⁴ ambo tamen quamuis diuersis locis tumultu militari et Decii fraude interfecti sunt.

³ Nor is it doubtful that Philip carried back the grace and honor of so great a devotion to Christ and the Church, since no author shows either that there was an ascent into the Capitol or that the customary victims were immolated. ⁴ Both, however, although in different places, were slain in a military tumult and by the treachery of Decius.

[21] Anno ab urbe condita millesimo quarto Decius, ciuilis belli incentor et repressor, occisis Philippis uicensimus quintus ab Augusto inuasit imperium tenuitque annis tribus.² idem continuo, in quo se etiam ob hoc Philippum interfecisse docuit, ad persequendos interficiendosque Christianos septimus post Neronem feralia dispersit edicta plurimosque sanctorum ad coronas Christi de suis crucibus misit. ³ idemque filium suum Caesarem legit: cum quo simul continuo in medio barbarorum sinu interfectus est.

[21] In the 1004th year from the founding of the city, Decius, an inciter and repressor of civil war, with the Philips slain, as the 25th from Augustus, seized the imperium and held it for 3 years.² The same man immediately—thereby he also showed that for this very reason he had killed Philip—scattered funereal edicts, the 7th after Nero, for persecuting and killing Christians, and he sent very many of the saints from their own crosses to the crowns of Christ. ³ And he likewise chose his son as Caesar; together with whom at once he was slain in the very bosom of the barbarians.

⁴ Anno ab urbe condita millesimo septimo Gallus Hostilianus uicensimus sextus ab Augusto regnum adeptus uix duobus annis cum Volusiano filio obtinuit. ⁵ exeritur ultio uiolati nominis Christiani et usquequo ad profligandas ecclesias edicta Decii cucurrerunt, eatenus incredibilium morborum pestis extenditur: nulla fere prouincia Romana, nulla ciuitas, nulla domus fuit, quae non illa generali pestilentia correpta atque uacuata sit. ⁶ hac sola pernicie insignes Gallus et Volusianus dum contra Aemilianum nouis rebus studentem bellum ciuile moliuntur, occisi sunt.

⁴ In the year 1007 from the founding of the City, Gallus Hostilianus, the twenty-sixth from Augustus, having obtained the rule, held it scarcely for two years with his son Volusianus. ⁵ Retribution for the violated Christian name is brought forth, and just as far as the edicts of Decius ran to prostrate the churches, to that extent the plague of unbelievable diseases is extended: there was hardly any Roman province, any city, any household that was not seized and emptied by that general pestilence. ⁶ Marked by this ruin alone, Gallus and Volusianus, while they were contriving a civil war against Aemilianus, a man striving after novelties, were slain.

Aemilianus tamen tertio mense inuasae tyrannidis extinctus est.

Aemilianus, however, was extinguished in the third month of the tyranny he had seized.

[22] Anno ab urbe condita millesimo decimo duo imperatores uicensimo septimo post Augustum loco creati sunt: Valerianus in Raetia ab exercitu Augustus appellatus, Romae autem a senatu Gallienus Caesar creatus; mansitque Gallienus in regno infeliciter annis XV, respirante paulisper ab illa supra solitum iugi et graui pestilentia genere humano. prouocat poenam suam obliuiosa malitia. impietas enim flagella quidem excruciata sentit, sed a quo flagellatur, obdurata non sentit.

[22] In the one thousand and tenth year from the founding of the City, two emperors, in the twenty-seventh place after Augustus, were created: Valerian, in Raetia, was hailed Augustus by the army, but at Rome Gallienus was created Caesar by the senate; and Gallienus remained in the realm unhappily for 15 years, the human race drawing breath for a little while from that continual and heavy pestilence beyond the usual. Oblivious malice provokes its own penalty. For impiety indeed feels the scourges, tormented, but, hardened, it does not perceive by whom it is scourged.

² ut de superioribus taceam, facta a Decio Christianorum persecutione totum Romanum imperium pestilentia magna uexauit. mentita est iniquitas sibi, prauo in perniciem suam circumuenta iudicio, pestilentiam communis casus esse accidentemque ex morbis mortem naturae finem esse non poenam. ³ rursus igitur atque in breui iram Dei sceleratis actionibus prouocat exceptura plagam, cuius aliquandiu meminisse cogatur.

² To say nothing of earlier matters, when a persecution of the Christians was enacted by Decius, a great pestilence vexed the whole Roman empire. Iniquity deceived itself, being circumvented by a depraved judgment to its own perdition, that pestilence is a common casualty and that death arising from diseases is the end of nature, not a penalty. ³ Therefore again, and in a short time, it provokes the wrath of God by criminal actions, being about to receive a scourge which it is compelled for some time to remember.

Valerianus siquidem mox ut arripuit imperium octauus a Nerone, adigi per tormenta Christianos ad idololatriam abnegantesque interfici iussit, fuso per omnem Romani regni latitudinem sanctorum sanguine. ⁴ Valerianus ilico, nefarii auctor edicti, a Sapore Persarum rege captus, imperator populi Romani ignominiosissima apud Persas seruitute consenuit, hoc infamis officii continua, donec uixit, damnatione sortitus, ut ipse adclinis humi regem semper, ascensurum in equum, non manu sua sed dorso attolleret. ⁵ et Gallienus quidem tam claro Dei iudicio territus tamque misero collegae permotus exemplo pacem ecclesiis trepida satisfactione restituit.

Valerian, indeed, as soon as he seized the empire, the eighth after Nero, ordered that Christians be driven by torments to idolatry, and that those who refused be slain, the blood of the saints being poured out through the whole breadth of the Roman realm. ⁴ Valerian straightway, the nefarious author of the edict, was captured by Shapur, king of the Persians; the emperor of the Roman people grew old in the most ignominious servitude among the Persians, having incurred, continually so long as he lived, this condemnation of infamous office: that he himself, leaning to the ground, should always raise the king, about to mount a horse, not with his hand but with his back. ⁵ And Gallienus, indeed, terrified by so clear a judgment of God and moved by the wretched example of his colleague, restored peace to the churches with a trembling satisfaction.

sed non conpensat iniuriae ultionisque mensuram unius impii quamuis perpetua et super modum abominanda captiuitas contra tot milia excruciata sanctorum, iustorumque sanguis ad Deum clamans in eadem sese terra, ubi fusus est, uindicari rogat. ⁶ non enim de solo constitutore praecepti iusto supplicium iudicio flagitabatur sed etiam exsecutores delatores accusatores spectatores ac iudices, postremo omnes qui iniustissimae crudelitati uel tacita uoluntate adsentabantur - quia Deus secretorum cognitor est - quorum maxima per omnes prouincias pars hominum uersabatur, eadem ultionis plaga corripi iustum erat. soluuntur repente undique permissu Dei ad hoc circumpositae relictaeque gentes laxatisque habenis in omnes Romanorum fines inuehuntur.

but the captivity of one impious man, although perpetual and beyond measure abominable, does not compensate the measure of injury and vengeance against so many thousands of tortured saints, and the blood of the just, crying to God, asks to be vindicated in the same earth where it was poured out. ⁶ for punishment by a just judgment was demanded not of the sole establisher of the precept, but also of the executors, informers, accusers, spectators, and judges, finally of all who assented to the most unjust cruelty even by a silent will - because God is the knower of secrets - of whom the greatest part of mankind throughout all the provinces was engaged; it was just that they be seized by the same stroke of vengeance. suddenly, on every side, by God’s permission, the nations that had been set around and left for this are loosed, and, with the reins relaxed, are borne into all the borders of the Romans.

⁷ Germani Alpibus Raetia totaque Italia penetrata Rauennam usque perueniunt; Alamanni Gallias peruagantes etiam in Italiam transeunt; Graecia Macedonia Pontus Asia Gothorum inundatione deletur; nam Dacia trans Danuuium in perpetuum aufertur; Quadi et Sarmatae Pannonias depopulantur; Germani ulteriores abrasa potiuntur Hispania; Parthi Mesopotamiam auferunt Syriamque conradunt. ⁸ exstant adhuc per diuersas prouincias in magnarum urbium ruinis paruae et pauperes sedes, signa miseriarum et nominum indicia seruantes, ex quibus nos quoque in Hispania Tarraconem nostram ad consolationem miseriae recentis ostendimus. ⁹ et ne quid forte Romani corporis ab hac dilaceratione cessaret, conspirant intrinsecus tyranni, consurgunt bella ciuilia, funditur ubique plurimus sanguis Romanorum Romanis barbarisque saeuientibus; sed cito ira Dei in misericordiam uertitur et coeptae ultionis maior forma quam poena in mensuram plenitudinis reputatur.

⁷ The Germans, the Alps, Raetia, and all Italy having been penetrated, reach as far as Ravenna; the Alamanni, ranging through Gaul, also pass into Italy; Greece, Macedonia, Pontus, and Asia are blotted out by the inundation of the Goths; for Dacia beyond the Danube is taken away forever; the Quadi and Sarmatians lay waste the Pannonias; the farther Germans, Spain having been scraped bare, make themselves masters of it; the Parthians carry off Mesopotamia and harry Syria. ⁸ There still stand throughout diverse provinces, upon the ruins of great cities, small and poor dwellings, preserving the tokens of miseries and the indications of names, among which we too in Spain point out our Tarraco for the consolation of our recent misery. ⁹ And lest perchance anything of the Roman body should rest from this rending, tyrants conspire within, civil wars arise, everywhere a very great blood of Romans is poured out, with Romans and barbarians raging; but quickly the wrath of God is turned into mercy, and the greater form of the vengeance begun, rather than the penalty, is reckoned to the measure of fullness.

¹⁰ igitur primus Genuus, qui purpuram imperii sumpserat, apud Myrsam occiditur. Postumus in Gallia inuasit tyrannidem, multo quidem reipublicae commodo, nam per decem annos ingenti uirtute ac moderatione usus et dominantes hostes expulit et perditas prouincias in pristinam faciem reformauit; seditione tamen militum interfectus est. ¹¹ Aemilianus apud Mogontiacum cum res nouas moliretur oppressus est.

¹⁰ therefore first Genuus, who had assumed the purple of empire, is slain near Mursa. Postumus in Gaul seized tyranny—indeed with much advantage to the republic—for for 10 years, employing immense virtue and moderation, he both drove out the domineering enemies and refashioned the lost provinces into their pristine form; yet he was killed in a sedition of the soldiers. ¹¹ Aemilianus at Mogontiacum, when he was contriving new things, was crushed.

post mortem Postumi Marius ibidem inuasit imperium sed continuo interfectus est. deinde Victorinus a Gallis ultro creatus et post paululum occisus est. ¹² huic successit Tetricus, qui tunc Aquitanicae praesidatus administrabat officium.

after the death of Postumus, Marius in the same place seized the imperium but was immediately killed. then Victorinus, created by the Gauls unbidden, was after a little while slain. ¹² to him succeeded Tetricus, who was then administering the office of the praesidency of Aquitanica.

multas seditiones militum pertulit. at uero in oriente per Odenatum quendam collecta agresti manu uicti repulsique Persae, defensa Syria, recepta Mesopotamia est, et usque ad Ctesiphontem rusticani Syriae cum Odenato suo uincendo uenerunt. ¹³ Gallienus autem cum rempublicam deseruisset ac Mediolani libidinibus inseruiret, occisus est.

He endured many seditions of the soldiers. But indeed in the East, through a certain Odenatus, with a rustic band assembled, the Persians were conquered and driven back, Syria was defended, Mesopotamia was recovered, and as far as Ctesiphon the rustics of Syria came with their Odenatus, conquering. ¹³ Gallienus, however, when he had deserted the republic and was enslaved to lusts at Milan, was killed.

[23] Anno ab urbe condita MXXV Claudius uicesimus octauus uoluntate senatus sumpsit imperium statimque Gothos iam per annos quindecim Illyricum Macedoniamque uastantes bello adortus incredibili strage deleuit. cui a senatu clipeus aureus in curia et in Capitolio statua aeque aurea decreta est; sed continuo apud Sirmium, priusquam biennium in imperio expleret, morbo correptus interiit.

[23] In the year from the founding of the City 1025, Claudius, the twenty-eighth, by the will of the Senate assumed the imperium, and immediately, attacking in war the Goths who for 15 years had been devastating Illyricum and Macedonia, annihilated them with incredible slaughter. For him a golden shield in the Curia and an equally golden statue on the Capitol were decreed by the Senate; but straightway at Sirmium, before he completed 2 years in the imperium, seized by disease he perished.

² Claudio mortuo Quintillus frater eius ab exercitu imperator electus, uir quidem unicae moderationis et solus fratri praeferendus, septimo decimo die imperii interfectus est.

² With Claudius dead, Quintillus, his brother, chosen emperor by the army, a man indeed of singular moderation and alone to be preferred to his brother, was killed on the 17th day of his rule.

³ Anno ab urbe condita MXXVII Aurelianus uicesimus nonus imperium adeptus quinque annis ac sex mensibus tenuit, uir industria militari excellentissimus. ⁴ expeditione in Danuuium suscepta Gothos magnis proeliis profligauit dicionemque Romanam antiquis terminis statuit. inde in orientem conuersus Zenobiam, quae occiso Odenato marito suo Syriam receptam sibi uindicabat, magis proelii terrore quam proelio in potestatem redegit.

³ In the year from the founding of the City 1027 Aurelian, the twenty-ninth, having obtained the imperium, held it for five years and six months, a man most excellent in military industry. ⁴ Having undertaken an expedition to the Danube, he routed the Goths in great battles and set the Roman dominion at its ancient boundaries. Then, turning to the East, he brought Zenobia—who, after her husband Odenatus was slain, was claiming for herself the recovered Syria—into his power more by the terror of battle than by battle.

⁵ Tetricum, in Gallia minime sufficientem sustinere seditiones militum suorum scribentemque etiam:
Eripe me his, inuicte, malis
ac per hoc proditorem exercitus sui, sine labore superauit. sic orientis et aquilonis receptor magna gloria triumphauit. urbem Romam muris firmioribus cinxit.

⁵ He overcame Tetricus—who in Gaul was by no means sufficient to sustain the seditions of his soldiers, and who even wrote:
Deliver me from these evils, invincible one,
and by this [made himself] a traitor to his army—without effort. Thus, as the recoverer of the East and the North, he triumphed with great glory. He encircled the city of Rome with stronger walls.

⁶ nouissime cum persecutionem aduersus Christianos agi nonus a Nerone decerneret, fulmen ante eum magno pauore circumstantium ruit ac non multo post in itinere occisus est.

⁶ most recently, when he decreed that a persecution against the Christians be conducted, the 9th since Nero, a bolt of lightning fell before him, to the great fear of those standing around, and not long after he was slain on the journey.

[24] Anno ab urbe condita MXXXII Tacitus tricesimus adeptus imperium sexto mense occisus in Ponto est. post quem Florianus parem regni sortem ferens, tertio demum mense apud Tarsum interfectus est.

[24] In the year from the founding of the City 1032, Tacitus, the thirtieth, having obtained the empire, was slain in Pontus in the sixth month. After him Florianus, bearing an equal fate of rule, was at last, in the third month, killed at Tarsus.

² Anno ab urbe condita MXXXIII Probus tricesimus primus regnum sortitus obtinuit annis sex et mensibus quattuor. Gallias iam dudum a barbaris occupatas per multa et grauia proelia deletis tandem hostibus ad perfectum liberauit. ³ bella deinde ciuilia equidem plurimo sanguine duo gessit: unum in oriente, quo Saturninum tyrannide subnixum oppressit et cepit, aliud, quo Proculum et Bonosum apud Agrippinam magnis proeliis superatos interfecit.

² In the year from the founding of the city 1033 Probus, the thirty-first, having obtained the rule, held it for six years and four months. The Gauls, long since occupied by the barbarians, through many and grievous battles, with the enemies at last destroyed, he liberated to perfection. ³ Then indeed he waged two civil wars with very great bloodshed: one in the East, in which he oppressed and captured Saturninus, propped up by tyranny; the other, in which he killed Proculus and Bonosus, overcome in great battles at Agrippina.

ipse autem apud Sirmium in turre ferrata militari tumultu interfectus est.

but he himself at Sirmium, in an iron-clad tower, was killed in a military tumult.

⁴ Anno ab urbe condita MXXXVIIII Carus Narbonensis tricesimus secundus suscepit imperium ac biennio tenuit. qui cum filios suos Carinum et Numerianum consortes regni effecisset, bello Parthico postquam duas nobilissimas Parthorum urbes Cochem et Ctesiphontem cepit, super Tigridem in castris fulmine ictus interiit. Numerianus, qui cum patre fuerat, rediens fraude Apri soceri sui interfectus est.

⁴ In the year from the founding of the city 1039, Carus the Narbonensian, the thirty-second, assumed the imperium and held it for a biennium. who, when he had made his sons Carinus and Numerianus consorts of the rule, in the Parthian war, after he seized two most noble cities of the Parthians, Cochem and Ctesiphon, by the Tigris, in camp, struck by a thunderbolt, perished. Numerianus, who had been with his father, returning, was slain by the fraud of Aper, his father-in-law.

[25] Anno ab urbe condita MXLI Diocletianus tricesimus tertius ab exercitu imperator electus annis uiginti fuit; statimque ut potestatis copiam habuit, Aprum interfectorem Numeriani manu sua interfecit. Carinum deinde, quem Carus Caesarem in Dalmatia reliquerat, flagitiose uiuentem difficillimo bello et maximo labore superauit.² dehinc cum in Gallia Amandus et Aelianus collecta rusticanorum manu, quos Bacaudas uocabant, perniciosos tumultus excitauissent, Maximianum cognomento Herculium Caesarem fecit misitque in Gallias: qui facile agrestium hominum imperitam et confusam manum militari uirtute conposuit.

[25] In the year from the founding of the city 1041, Diocletian, the thirty-third, chosen emperor by the army, held power for twenty years; and immediately, as soon as he had the plenitude of power, he slew with his own hand Aper, the murderer of Numerian. Then Carinus, whom Carus had left as Caesar in Dalmatia, living scandalously, he overcame in a most difficult war and with the greatest labor.² thereafter, when in Gaul Amandus and Aelianus, having gathered a band of rustics, whom they called Bagaudae, had stirred up pernicious tumults, he made Maximian, by the cognomen Herculius, Caesar and sent him into the Gauls: who easily subdued the unskilled and disorderly band of country folk by military virtue.

³ deinde Carausius quidam, genere quidem infimus sed consilio et manu promptus, cum ad obseruanda Oceani litora, quae tunc Franci et Saxones infestabant, positus plus in perniciem quam in prouectum reipublicae ageret, ereptam praedonibus praedam nulla ex parte restituendo dominis sed sibi soli uindicando accendens suspicionem, quia ipsos quoque hostes ad incursandos fines artifici neglegentia permitteret, quamobrem a Maximiano iussus occidi purpuram sumpsit ac Britannias occupauit. ⁴ igitur per omnes Romani imperii fines subitarum turbationum fragores concrepuerunt, Carausio in Britanniis rebellante, Achilleo in Aegypto, cum et Africam Quinquegentiani infestarent, Narseus etiam rex Persarum orientem bello premeret. ⁵ hoc periculo Diocletianus permotus Maximianum Herculium ex Caesare fecit Augustum, Constantium uero et Maximianum Galerium Caesares legit.

³ then a certain Carausius, indeed of the lowest birth but prompt in counsel and hand, when he had been posted to watch the shores of the Ocean, which at that time the Franks and Saxons were infesting, was acting more to the perdition than to the advancement of the republic, by in no part restoring to the owners the booty snatched from the pirates but claiming it for himself alone—thereby inflaming suspicion—because he also, by artful negligence, was permitting the very enemies to raid the borders; wherefore, having been ordered by Maximian to be killed, he took the purple and seized the Britains. ⁴ therefore through all the boundaries of the Roman empire the crashes of sudden disturbances resounded, with Carausius rebelling in the Britains, Achilleus in Egypt, while also the Quinquegentiani were infesting Africa, and Narseus too, king of the Persians, was pressing the East with war. ⁵ Moved by this danger, Diocletian made Maximian Herculius from Caesar into Augustus, and chose Constantius and Maximian Galerius as Caesars.

Constantius Herculii Maximiani priuignam Theodoram accepit uxorem, ex qua sex filios fratres Constantini sustulit. ⁶ Carausius, Britannia sibi per septem annos fortissime uindicata ac retenta, tandem fraude Allecti socii sui interfectus est. Allectus postea ereptam Carausio insulam per triennium tenuit: quem Asclepiodotus praefectus praetorio oppressit Britanniamque post decem annos recepit.

Constantius accepted as wife Theodora, the stepdaughter of Maximianus Herculius, from whom he raised six sons, brothers of Constantine. ⁶ Carausius, having most bravely claimed and held Britannia for himself for seven years, was at last killed by the treachery of his associate Allectus. Allectus afterward held for three years the island snatched from Carausius: whom Asclepiodotus, praetorian prefect, crushed, and after ten years recovered Britannia.

⁷ Constantius uero Caesar in Gallia primo proelio ab Alamannis profligato exercitu suo, uix ipse subreptus est; secundo autem secuta est satis secunda uictoria: nam paucis horis sexaginta milia Alamannorum caesa referuntur. ⁸ at Maximianus Augustus Quinquegentianos in Africa domuit. porro autem Diocletianus Achilleum obsessum per octo menses apud Alexandriam cepit et interfecit.

⁷ Constantius, however, the Caesar, in Gaul, with his army routed by the Alamanni in the first battle, was scarcely himself snatched away; but in the second there followed a quite favorable victory: for in a few hours 60,000 Alamanni are reported to have been cut down. ⁸ But Maximian the Augustus subdued the Quinquegentiani in Africa. Furthermore Diocletian captured and killed Achilleus, besieged for eight months at Alexandria.

sed inmoderata uictoria usus Alexandriam direptioni dedit, Aegyptum totam proscriptionibus caedibusque foedauit. ⁹ praeterea Galerius Maximianus cum duobus iam proeliis aduersus Narseum conflixisset, tertio inter Gallinicum et Carras congressus et uictus, amissis copiis ad Diocletianum refugit: a quo arrogantissime exceptus, ita ut per aliquot milia passuum purpuratus ante uehiculum eius cucurrisse referatur, ¹⁰ uerumtamen hac contumelia quasi cote ad uirtutem usus est, per quam detrita regii fastus robigine aciem mentis expediit. itaque mox per Illyricum et Moesiam undique copias contraxit raptimque in hostem reuersus, Narseum magnis consiliis uiribusque superauit.

but making use of an immoderate victory he gave Alexandria over to plunder, and defiled all Egypt with proscriptions and slaughters. ⁹ moreover Galerius Maximianus, after he had already engaged in two battles against Narseus, in a third, having joined battle between Callinicum and Carrhae and being defeated, with his forces lost fled for refuge to Diocletian; by whom he was received with the utmost arrogance, so that he is reported to have run for several miles, clad in purple, before his vehicle. ¹⁰ nevertheless he used this contumely as a kind of whetstone to virtue, by which, the rust of royal haughtiness rubbed away, he freed the keenness of his mind. and so soon, through Illyricum and Moesia, from every side he drew together troops and, swiftly returning against the enemy, overcame Narseus by great counsels and forces.

¹¹ extinctis Persarum copiis ipsoque Narseo in fugam acto, castra eius inuasit, uxores sorores liberosque cepit, immensam uim gazae Persicae diripuit, captiuos quamplurimos Persarum nobilium abduxit. reuersus in Mesopotamiam a Diocletiano plurimo honore susceptus est. ¹² postea per eosdem duces strenue aduersus Carpos Basternasque pugnatum est.

¹¹ with the forces of the Persians extinguished and Narseus himself put to flight, he stormed his camp, seized wives, sisters, and children, plundered an immense mass of Persian treasure, and led away very many captives from among the Persian nobility. Returning into Mesopotamia, he was received by Diocletian with very great honor. ¹² afterwards, through the same leaders, it was fought strenuously against the Carpi and the Bastarnae.

Sarmatas deinde uicerunt: quorum copiosissimam captiuam multitudinem per Romanorum finium dispersere praesidia.

Then they conquered the Sarmatians: of whom a most copious captive multitude the garrisons dispersed throughout the boundaries of the Romans.

¹³ Interea Diocletianus in oriente, Maximianus Herculius in occidente uastari ecclesias, adfligi interficique Christianos decimo post Neronem loco praeceperunt: quae persecutio omnibus fere ante actis diuturnior atque immanior fuit, nam per decem annos incendiis ecclesiarum, proscriptionibus innocentum, caedibus martyrum incessabiliter acta est. ¹⁴ sequitur terrae motus in Syria, ex quo apud Tyrum et Sidonem passim labentibus tectis multa hominum milia prostrata sunt. secundo persecutionis anno Diocletianus ab inuito exegit Maximiano, ut simul purpuram imperiumque deponerent ac iunioribus in rempublicam substitutis ipsi in priuato otio consenescerent.

¹³ Meanwhile Diocletian in the East, Maximian Herculius in the West, commanded that the churches be ravaged, and that Christians be afflicted and killed, in the 10th place after Nero: which persecution was longer-lasting and more savage than almost all previously undertaken, for 10 years it was carried on incessantly with burnings of churches, proscriptions of the innocent, slaughters of martyrs. ¹⁴ There followed an earthquake in Syria, from which, with buildings collapsing everywhere at Tyre and Sidon, many thousands of people were laid low. In the 2nd year of the persecution Diocletian forced from an unwilling Maximian that they together should lay down the purple and the imperium, and, younger men having been substituted into the republic, they themselves should grow old in private leisure.

itaque sub una die Diocletianus apud Nicomediam, Maximianus apud Mediolanium potestatem imperii simul cultumque deposuerunt.

and so, on the same day, Diocletian at Nicomedia, and Maximian at Mediolanum, laid down the authority of the empire and at the same time the ceremonial attire.

¹⁵ Galerius et Constantius Augusti primi Romanum imperium in duas partes diuiserunt: Galerius Maximianus Illyricum Asiam et orientem, Constantius Italiam Africam et Gallias obtinuit; sed Constantius uir tranquillissimus, Gallia tantum [Hispaniaque] contentus, Galerio ceteris partibus cessit. ¹⁶ Galerius duos Caesares legit: Maximinum, quem in oriente constituit, et Seuerum, cui permisit Italiam, ipse in Illyrico constitutus. Constantius uero Augustus summae mansuetudinis et ciuilitatis in Britannia mortem obiit.

¹⁵ Galerius and Constantius, the first Augusti, divided the Roman empire into two parts: Galerius Maximianus obtained Illyricum, Asia, and the East; Constantius obtained Italy, Africa, and Gaul; but Constantius, a most tranquil man, content with Gaul only [and Spain], yielded the other parts to Galerius. ¹⁶ Galerius chose two Caesars: Maximinus, whom he established in the East, and Severus, to whom he permitted Italy, he himself being stationed in Illyricum. Constantius, however, an Augustus of the highest gentleness and civility, met his death in Britain.

qui Constantinum filium ex concubina Helena creatum imperatorem Galliarum reliquit.

who left his son Constantine, born from the concubine Helena, created emperor of the Gauls.

[26] Anno ab urbe condita MLXI Constantinus tricensimus quartus gubernacula imperii a Constantio patre suscepit, quae uno et triginta annis felicissime tenuit.

[26] In the year from the founding of the City 1061 Constantine the thirty-fourth assumed the helm of the empire from his father Constantius, which he held most successfully for 31 years.

² Occuritur mihi subito et tripudiis quibusdam insultatur: Eia, inquiunt, tandem in foueas nostras, diu expectate, uenisti. hic te decursurum opperiebamur, hic delapsum opprimimus, hic confusum tenemus. sustinuimus te hactenus, artificiose quodammodo et callide fortuitas temporum mutationes Christianorum ultionibus coaptantem.

² I am met suddenly, and with certain tripudiations they leap upon me: “Ha,” they say, “at last into our pits, long-awaited, you have come. Here we were awaiting you to run down; here, having slipped, we overwhelm you; here, confounded, we hold you. We have endured you thus far, you, after a certain manner artfully and cunningly coapting the fortuitous mutations of the times to the vengeances of the Christians.”

³ et interdum quidem uerisimilium specie permoti, utpote homines ignari diuinorum secretorum, timore palluimus, sed nunc euacuauit Maximianus noster omnem scaenam fabulae tuae nostraeque religionis antiquitatem columna inexpugnabilis fulsit. ⁴ per annos decem euersae sunt ecclesiae uestrae ut etiam tu fateris; dilacerati cruciatibus, exinaniti mortibus toto orbe Christiani. tenemus euidens testimonium tuum, nullam superiorem persecutionem adeo uel grauem uel diuturnam fuisse.

³ and at times indeed, moved by the appearance of things plausible, as men ignorant of divine secrets, we paled with fear; but now our Maximian has voided the whole stage of your fable, and an inexpugnable column has propped up the antiquity of our religion. ⁴ for ten years your churches were overthrown, as even you confess; Christians throughout the whole world were torn apart by torments, emptied out by deaths. we hold your evident testimony, that no prior persecution was so either grievous or long-lasting.

⁵ et tamen ecce inter tranquillissima temporum bona ipsorum quoque imperatorum, qui ista fecerunt, inusitata felicitas: nulla domi fames, nulla pestilentia, nullum foris bellum nisi uoluntarium, quo exerceri uires non periclitari queant; ⁶ res praeterea humano generi hucusque incognita: multorum simul regum patiens consortium et magna concordia potestasque communis, alias numquam, nunc in commune prospiciens. ⁷ deinde etiam, quod absque ulla hactenus mortalium notitia est, imperatores illi maximi quippe et persecutores, honore deposito et adsumpta quiete, priuati, quod beatissimum homines et summum bonum uitae bonae iudicant, et hoc tunc uelut praemii loco auctores persecutionis adepti sunt, quando accensa persecutio medio sui tempore toto orbe saeuiebat. ⁸ an etiam hanc beatitudinem illis temporibus poenaliter accidisse adseris et nos hinc quoque terrere moliris?

⁵ and yet, behold, amid the most tranquil goods of the times there was an unaccustomed felicity even for the emperors themselves who did these things: no famine at home, no pestilence, no war abroad except voluntary, by which the forces might be exercised and not imperiled; ⁶ moreover, a thing hitherto unknown to the human race: the patient consortium of many kings at once and great concord and a common power—never otherwise, now looking out for the common good. ⁷ then also, what up to now is without any notice among mortals, those emperors—greatest indeed, and persecutors—having laid down honor and taken up quiet, as private men, which humans judge most blessed and the highest good of a good life; and this, as though in the place of a reward, the authors of the persecution obtained then, when the persecution, kindled, was raging at mid‑course throughout the whole world. ⁸ or do you even assert that this beatitude too befell in those times by way of penalty, and are you trying to terrify us from this as well?

⁹ Quibus humiliter responderim, me plurima cura pietatis accinctum commonere de ueris, non terrere de falsis. decem persecutiones a Nerone usque ad Maximianum Ecclesia Christi passa est: nouem, ut ego dixi, ultiones, ut ipsi non negant, calamitates e uestigiis consecutae sunt. nec in uerbo premo, utrum debitae ultiones an fortuitae permutationes fuisse uideantur, quae tamen meo suoque testimonio clades fuerunt.

⁹ To these I would humbly answer, that I, girded with a very great care of piety, am admonishing about the true things, not terrifying about false things. The Church of Christ has suffered ten persecutions from Nero up to Maximian: nine, as I said, retributions, as they themselves do not deny, calamities followed on their heels. Nor do I press the word, whether they seem to have been due retributions or fortuitous permutations, which nevertheless, by my testimony and theirs, were disasters.

¹⁰ in decima haesitatum putant miseri et caeci, non uidentes tanto eam ipsis fuisse grauiorem quanto minus intellecta est. impius enim flagellatur et non sentit. [et] quod cum expositum fuerit, inuiti licet propter ipsam rerum fidem fatebuntur, quia ex illa Maximianae persecutionis maxima punitione ista sunt uulnera, quibus etiam nunc isti dolent et in tantum dolent, ut etiam clament nosque ad reclamandum lacessant: sollicitos fieri, qualiter conticescant.

¹⁰ in the tenth they think there was hesitation, the wretched and the blind, not seeing that it was the more grievous to them, the less it was understood. for the impious is scourged and does not feel. [and] when this shall have been set forth, they will confess, albeit unwilling, because of the very credit of the facts themselves, that from that very greatest punishment of the Maximian persecution these are the wounds, by which even now these men ache, and they ache to such a degree that they even cry out and provoke us to cry out in reply: to be made solicitous how they might fall silent.

[27] In primo libello expositum a nobis est, Pompeium Trogum et Cornelium Tacitum commemorasse non plene quidem, nostrum uero Moysen, etiam ipsorum testimonio fidelem, fideliter sufficienterque dixisse, Aegyptios et regem eorum, cum populum Dei seruire intentum et paratum Deo suo, impediendae deuotionis instinctu ad lutum paleasque reuocarent, decem acerbissimis plagis fuisse uexatos.² deinde uiolentia malorum edomitos non solum coegisse festinantem sed etiam propriis suis argenteis et aureis uasis accumulauisse. post, oblitos plagae suae et cupidos praedae indebitae, inuidos etiam religionis alienae, dum innocentes auide persequuntur, mari Rubro ultime receptos omnes funditus interisse.

[27] In the first little book it was set forth by us that Pompeius Trogus and Cornelius Tacitus mentioned it—not indeed fully—whereas our Moses, faithful even by their own testimony, said faithfully and sufficiently that the Egyptians and their king, when the people of God, intent on serving and prepared for their God, were being called back to mud and straw by an impulse to hinder devotion, were vexed by ten most bitter plagues.² then, the Egyptians, subdued by the violence of the evils, not only sped on the hastening people but even heaped them up with their own silver and gold vessels. afterward, forgetful of their plague and desirous of unowed booty, envious also of an alien religion, while they greedily pursue the innocent, having at last been taken in by the Red Sea, they all utterly perished.

quod ego nunc refero ac renuntio, etsi forte fide non acceptatum, exitu tamen probandum, quia haec in figura nostri facta sunt. ³ uterque populus unius Dei est, una populi utriusque causa. subdita fuit Israhelitarum synagoga Aegyptiis, subdita est Christianorum ecclesia Romanis.

what I now relate and report, even if perhaps not received in faith, is yet to be proved by the outcome, because these things were done in a figure of us. ³ both peoples are of one God, the cause of both peoples is one. the synagogue of the Israelites was subject to the Egyptians, the church of the Christians is subject to the Romans.

persecuti sunt Aegyptii, persecuti sunt et Romani. decem ibi contradictiones aduersus Moysen, decem hic edicta aduersus Christum; diuersae ibi plagae Aegyptiorum, diuersae hic calamitates Romanorum. ⁴ nam, ut etiam ipsas inter se plagas, in quantum tamen figura formae conparari potest, conferam, ibi prima correptio habuit sanguinem uulgo uel manasse de puteis uel in fluminibus cucurrisse: hic prima sub Nerone exegit plaga, ut ubique morientium sanguis esset uel morbis in urbe corruptus uel bellis in orbe profusus.

The Egyptians persecuted, and the Romans persecuted as well. Ten there contradictions against Moses, ten here edicts against Christ; there diverse plagues of the Egyptians, here diverse calamities of the Romans. ⁴ For, that I may also compare the plagues themselves with one another, in so far as the figure can be compared with the form, there the first chastisement entailed that blood, commonly, either had welled from the wells or had run in the rivers; here the first plague, under Nero, exacted that the blood of the dying was everywhere, either corrupted by diseases in the City or poured out by wars in the world.

⁵ ibi sequens plaga prodidit perstrepentes persultantesque in penetralibus ranas inediae propemodum causam habitatoribus atque exilii fuisse: hic sequens sub Domitiano poena similiter ostendit satellitum militumque eius improbis effrenatisque discursibus cruentissimi iussa principis exsequentum ad inopiam paene omnes ciues Romanos adactos exilioque dispersos. ⁶ ibi tertia uexatio habuit sciniphes, musculas scilicet paruissimas ac saeuissimas, quae mediis saepe aestibus per loca squalida coadunatim uibrando densatae tinnulo uolatu adlabi solent capillisque hominum ac pecudum saetis cum urente morsu interseri: hic itidem tertia sub Traiano plaga Iudaeos excitauit, qui cum antea ubique dispersi ita iam quasi non essent quiescerent, repentino omnes calore permoti, in ipsos, inter quos erant, toto orbe saeuierunt, absque magnis multarum urbium ruinis, quas crebri terrae motus isdem temporibus subruerunt. ⁷ ibi in quarta plaga muscae caninae fuerunt, reuera alumnae putredinis uermiumque matres: hic itidem quarta sub Marco Antonino plaga, lues plurimis infusa prouinciis Italiam quoque cum urbe Roma uniuersam exercitumque Romanum, per longinquos limites et diuersa hiberna dispersum, in mortem dissolutum putredini simul ac uermibus dedit.

⁵ there the following plague betrayed that frogs, resounding and leaping through the inner rooms, were almost the cause of starvation for the inhabitants and of exile: here the following penalty under Domitian similarly showed that by the wicked and unbridled coursings of his satellites and soldiers, executing the commands of a most blood-stained princeps, almost all Roman citizens were driven into want and scattered by exile. ⁶ there the third vexation had gnats—tiny yet most savage little flies—which, in midsummer heat, are wont in foul places to flock together, thickened by their vibrating, to glide in with a ringing flight, and, with a burning bite, to insert themselves into the hair of men and the bristles of cattle: here likewise the third plague under Trajan roused the Jews, who, though previously dispersed everywhere and thus resting as if they did not even exist, all suddenly moved by a heat, raged against those among whom they were throughout the whole world—besides the great ruins of many cities, which frequent earthquakes at the same times undermined. ⁷ there in the fourth plague were dog-flies, truly nurslings of putrefaction and mothers of worms: here likewise the fourth plague under Marcus Antoninus, a pestilence poured into very many provinces, consigned Italy also, with the city of Rome, and the entire Roman army, dispersed along far-flung frontiers and diverse winter-quarters, dissolved into death, to putrefaction together with worms.

⁸ ibi quinta correptio pecorum ac iumentorum repentino interitu expleta est: hic similiter quinta ultione sub Seuero persecutore creberrimis ciuilibus bellis propria uiscera et adiumenta reipublicae, hoc est plebes prouinciarum et legiones militum, comminutae sunt. ⁹ ibi sexta uexatio intulit uesicas efferuescentes ulceraque manantia: hic aeque sexta punitio, quae post Maximini persecutionem fuit, qui specialiter episcopos et clericos omissa turba populari, hoc est ecclesiarum primates, trucidari imperauerat, intumescens crebro ira atque inuidia non per uulgi caedem sed per uulnera mortesque principum ac potentium exhalata est. ¹⁰ ibi septima plaga numeratur coacto aere grando profusa, quae hominibus iumentis satisque exitio fuit: hic similiter septima sub Gallo et Volusiano, qui persecutori Decio mox interfecto successerant, plaga extitit corrupto aere pestis infusa, quae per omnia Romani regni ab oriente in occidentem spatia cum omne propemodum genus hominum et pecudum neci dedit tum etiam
Corrupitque lacus, infecit pabula tabo.
¹¹ ibi octauam Aegypti contritionem fecere excitatae undique lucustae, tenentes terentes tegentesque omnia: hic octauam aeque in subuersionem Romani orbis excitatae undique intulere gentes, quae caedibus atque incendiis cunctas prouincias deleuerunt.

⁸ there the fifth correction was accomplished by the sudden death of herds and draft-animals; here similarly, by the fifth vengeance under Severus the persecutor, through most frequent civil wars the very vitals and supports of the commonwealth, that is, the common folk of the provinces and the legions of soldiers, were shattered. ⁹ there the sixth vexation brought in effervescing blisters and oozing ulcers; here likewise the sixth punition, which was after the persecution of Maximinus—who had ordered to be slaughtered specifically the bishops and clerics, omitting the popular crowd, that is, the primates of the churches—swelling repeatedly with wrath and envy, was breathed out not through the slaughter of the common crowd but through the wounds and deaths of princes and the powerful. ¹⁰ there the seventh plague is counted: hail poured out from condensed air, which was destruction for men, draft-animals, and sown fields; here similarly the seventh, under Gallus and Volusianus, who had succeeded the persecutor Decius soon after he was killed, a plague arose, a pestilence infused by corrupted air, which through all the stretches of the Roman realm from east to west both gave almost every kind of men and cattle to death and also
And it corrupted the lakes, it infected the fodder with putrid gore.
¹¹ there the eighth crushing of Egypt was wrought by locusts roused from every side, seizing, grinding, and covering everything; here equally for the subversion of the Roman world, peoples roused from every side brought in an onslaught, who by slaughters and burnings destroyed all the provinces.

¹² ibi nona turbatio diuturnas crassas ac paene tractabiles tenebras habuit, plus omnino periculi comminata quam fecit: hic itidem nona correptio fuit, cum Aureliano persecutionem decernenti diris turbinibus terribile ac triste fulmen sub ipsis pedibus ruit ostendens, quid, cum ultio talis exigeret, tantus possit ultor, nisi et clemens esset et patiens; quamquam intra sex abhinc menses tres succidui imperatores, hoc est Aurelianus Tacitus et Florianus, diuersis causis interfecti sunt. ¹³ ibi postremo decima plaga, quae et nouissima omnium fuit, interfectio filiorum, quos primos quique genuerant: hic nihilo minus decima id est nouissima poena est omnium perditio idolorum, quae primitus facta in primis amabant.

¹² there the ninth disturbance had long-lasting, thick, and nearly tangible darkness, threatening altogether more danger than it wrought: here likewise the ninth correction was, when, as Aurelian was decreeing persecution, with dire whirlwinds a terrible and dreary thunderbolt rushed down beneath his very feet, showing what so great an avenger could do, when such retribution was demanding it, unless he were also clement and patient; although within six months thereafter three subsequent emperors, that is, Aurelian, Tacitus, and Florian, were slain for diverse causes. ¹³ there at last the tenth plague, which also was the last of all, was the killing of the sons, the firstborn whom each had begotten: here no less the tenth, that is the last, penalty is the perdition of all idols, which, made at the first, they loved first and foremost.

¹⁴ Ibi rex potentiam Dei sensit probauit et timuit ac per hoc populum Dei liberum abire permisit: hic rex potentiam Dei sensit probauit et credidit ac per hoc populum Dei liberum esse permisit. ibi numquam postea populus Dei ad seruitutem retractus: hic numquam postea populus Dei ad idololatriam coactus est. ibi Aegyptiorum uasa pretiosa Hebraeis tradita sunt: hic in ecclesias Christianorum praecipua paganorum templa cesserunt.

¹⁴ There the king sensed, proved, and feared the potency of God, and through this he permitted the people of God to depart free; here the king sensed, proved, and believed the potency of God, and through this he permitted the people of God to be free. there the people of God were never afterwards drawn back into servitude; here the people of God was never afterwards forced into idolatry. there the precious vessels of the Egyptians were handed over to the Hebrews; here the foremost temples of the pagans yielded into the churches of the Christians.

¹⁵ sane illud, ut dixi, denuntiandum puto, quia, sicut Aegyptiis post has decem plagas dimissos Hebraeos persequi molientibus inruit per superductum mare aeterna perditio, ita et nos quidem libere peregrinantes superuentura quandoque persecutio gentilium manet, donec mare Rubrum, hoc est ignem iudicii, ipso domino nostro Iesu Christo duce et iudice transeamus. ¹⁶ hi uero, in quos Aegyptiorum forma transfunditur, permissa ad tempus potestate saeuientes grauissimis quidem permissu Dei Christianos cruciatibus persequentur; uerumtamen idem omnes inimici Christi cum rege suo Antichristo accepti stagno ignis aeterni, quod magna impediente caligine dum non uidetur intratur, perpetuam perditionem immortalibus arsuri suppliciis sortientur.

¹⁵ indeed this, as I said, I think must be warned, because just as, when the Egyptians, attempting to pursue the Hebrews after these ten plagues had been dismissed, eternal perdition rushed in upon them through the sea drawn over them, so also for us, though freely peregrinating, a persecution of the gentiles that will at some time come over remains, until we pass through the Red Sea, that is, the fire of judgment, with our Lord Jesus Christ himself as leader and judge. ¹⁶ but those, into whom the form of the Egyptians is transfused, raging with a power permitted for a time, will indeed, by the permission of God, persecute Christians with most grievous torments; nevertheless these same, all the enemies of Christ with their king Antichrist, having been received into the lake of eternal fire—which, a great caliginous gloom hindering, while it is not seen, is entered—will draw as their lot perpetual perdition, to burn with immortal punishments.

[28] Igitur mortuo, ut dixi, Constantio in Britanniis Constantinus imperator creatus, primus imperatorum Christianus excepto Philippo, qui Christianus annis admodum paucissimis ad hoc tantum constitutus fuisse mihi uisus est, ut millesimus Romae annus Christo potius quam idolis dicaretur.² a Constantino autem omnes semper Christiani imperatores usque in hodiernum diem creati sunt excepto Iuliano, quem impia, ut aiunt, machinantem exitiabilis uita deseruit. ³ haec est lenta illa paganorum poena sed certa; hinc sani insaniunt, hinc non uulnerati conpunguntur, hinc ridentes gemunt, hinc uiuentes deficiunt, hinc secreto excruciantur, quos nemo persequitur, hinc iam paucissimi remanserunt, qui numquam aliquo persequente puniti sunt.

[28] Therefore, with Constantius dead, as I said, in the Britains Constantine was created emperor, the first of the emperors to be a Christian, except for Philip, who, a Christian for very few years, seemed to me to have been constituted for this purpose only: that the thousandth year of Rome might be dedicated to Christ rather than to idols.² From Constantine, moreover, all emperors have always been created Christians down to the present day, except Julian, whom, machinating impiety, as they say, a ruinous life deserted. ³ This is that slow yet certain punishment of the pagans; hence the sane go insane, hence the un-wounded are pierced with compunction, hence the laughing groan, hence the living fail, hence they are tortured in secret, whom no one persecutes; hence now very few have remained, who have never been punished by any persecutor.

⁴ uerumtamen qualis tunc persecutores illos, de quorum impunitate non solum gloriari sed etiam insultare conantur, finis mansit, expediam.

⁴ Nevertheless, I will expound what manner of end then remained for those persecutors, about whose impunity they endeavor not only to glory but even to insult.

⁵ Constantino in Galliis strenuissime rempublicam procurante praetoriani milites Romae Maxentium filium Herculii, qui priuatus in Lucania morabatur, Augustum nuncupauerunt. ⁶ Maximianus Herculius, iam ex Augusto priuatus et adhuc publicus persecutor, occasione filii sollicitatus, qui imperium abiecerat, arripuit tyrannidem. ⁷ Galerius Augustus Seuerum Caesarem aduersus Maxentium Romam cum exercitu misit.

⁵ While Constantine in Gaul was most strenuously administering the commonwealth, the Praetorian soldiers at Rome proclaimed Maxentius, the son of Herculius, who as a private citizen was staying in Lucania, Augustus. ⁶ Maximian Herculius, already from being Augustus made a private citizen and still a public persecutor, prompted by the occasion afforded by his son—he who had cast off the imperial power—seized tyranny. ⁷ Galerius Augustus sent Severus Caesar with an army against Maxentius to Rome.

⁸ Seuerus cum urbem obsideret, militum suorum scelere desertus et proditus atque ex eo fugiens Rauennae interfectus est. ⁹ Herculius Maximianus, persecutor et ex Augusto tyrannus, confirmatum iam in imperio filium ueste ac potestate regia spoliare conatus, conuiciis autem ac tulmultibus militum palam conterritus in Galliam profectus est, ut Constantino genero aeque dolis iunctus auferret imperium. ¹⁰ sed per filiam deprehensus et proditus, deinde in fugam uersus Massiliae oppressus et interfectus est.

⁸ Severus, while he was besieging the city, deserted and betrayed by the crime of his own soldiers and fleeing from that, was killed at Ravenna. ⁹ Maximianus Herculius, a persecutor and, from having been Augustus, a tyrant, having attempted to despoil his son, already confirmed in the imperium, of royal vesture and power, but openly cowed by the insults and tumults of the soldiers, set out into Gaul, so that, joined in equal wiles with his son-in-law Constantine, he might take away the imperium. ¹⁰ But, apprehended and betrayed through his daughter, then turned to flight, he was overtaken at Massilia and killed.

¹¹ porro Galerius occiso Seuero Licinium imperatorem creauit. ¹² cumque persecutionem a Diocletiano et Maximiano missam ipse atrocioribus edictis adcumulauisset ac postquam per annos decem omni genere hominum exhausit prouincias, putrefacto introrsum pectore et uitalibus dissolutis, cum ultra horrorem humanae miseriae etiam uermes eructaret neque medici ultra iam foetorem ferentes crebro iussu eius occiderentur: ¹³ a quodam medico constantiam ex desperatione sumente increpitus, iram Dei esse poenam suam atque ideo a medicis non posse curari, edictis late missis Christianos de exiliis reuocauit. ipse autem cruciatus non sustinens uim uitae suae adtulit.

¹¹ furthermore Galerius, Severus having been killed, made Licinius emperor. ¹² and when he himself had accumulated the persecution sent by Diocletian and Maximian with more atrocious edicts, and after for ten years he exhausted the provinces of men of every kind, with his breast putrefying inwardly and his vital parts dissolved, when, beyond the horror of human misery, he even belched forth worms, and the physicians, no longer bearing the stench, were frequently put to death at his order: ¹³ rebuked by a certain physician, who, taking constancy from desperation, declared that his punishment was the wrath of God and therefore could not be cured by doctors, with edicts sent far and wide he recalled the Christians from their exiles. but he himself, not enduring the torments, brought violence upon his own life.

¹⁴ ita respublica tunc sub nouis quattuor principibus fuit Constantino et Maxentio, filiis Augustorum, Licinio autem et Maximino, hominibus nouis. ¹⁵ Constantinus pacem ecclesiis post decem annos quam a persecutoribus uexabantur indulsit. ¹⁶ deinde inter Constantinum et Maxentium bellum ciuile exortum est.

¹⁴ Thus the commonwealth was then under four new princes, Constantine and Maxentius, sons of the Augusti, but Licinius and Maximinus, new men. ¹⁵ Constantine granted peace to the churches after 10 years during which they were vexed by persecutors. ¹⁶ Then a civil war arose between Constantine and Maxentius.

Maxentius, saepe multis proeliis fatigatus, ultime ad pontem Muluium uictus et interfectus est. ¹⁷ Maximinus, persecutionis Christianorum incentor exsecutorque infestissimus, apud Tharsum, dum ciuile bellum contra Licinium disponit, interiit. ¹⁸ Licinius, repentina rabie suscitatus, omnes Christianos e palatio suo iussit expelli.

Maxentius, often fatigued by many battles, at last at the Mulvian Bridge was vanquished and killed. ¹⁷ Maximinus, the instigator and most hostile executor of the persecution of the Christians, at Tarsus, while he was arranging a civil war against Licinius, perished. ¹⁸ Licinius, stirred by sudden fury, ordered all Christians to be expelled from his palace.

mox bellum inter ipsum Licinium et Constantinum efferbuit. ¹⁹ sed Constantinus Licinium, sororis suae uirum, in Pannonia primum uicit, deinde apud Cibalas oppressit uniuersaque Graecia potitus Licinium crebris bellis terra marique adsurgentem et repressum tandem ad deditionem coegit; ²⁰ sed Herculii Maximiani soceri sui motus exemplo, ne iterum depositam purpuram in perniciem reipublicae sumeret, priuatum iussit occidi; ²¹ quamuis omnibus iam ministris nefariae persecutionis extinctis hunc quoque in quantum exerere potuit persecutorem digna punitio flagitaret. ²² Constantini filii, Crispus et Constantinus et Licinius adulescens, Licini Augusti filius, Constantini autem ex sorore nepos, Caesares sunt creati.

soon war between Licinius himself and Constantine boiled over. ¹⁹ but Constantine first defeated Licinius, his sister’s husband, in Pannonia, then overwhelmed him at Cibalae, and, having gotten possession of all Greece, by frequent wars, by land and sea, forced Licinius—rising up and pressed back—to surrender at last; ²⁰ but, by the example of the revolt of Herculius Maximian, his father-in-law, lest he should again take up the laid-aside purple to the ruin of the commonwealth, he ordered him, as a private citizen, to be killed; ²¹ although, with all the ministers of the nefarious persecution now extinguished, a fitting punishment demanded that this man also—inasmuch as he had been able to exercise it, a persecutor—should be punished. ²² the sons of Constantine, Crispus and Constantine, and Licinius the youth, the son of Licinius Augustus, but the nephew of Constantine through his sister, were created Caesars.

²³ His diebus Arrius, Alexandrinae urbis presbyter, a ueritate fidei catholicae deuians, exitiabile plurimis dogma constituit. ²⁴ qui simul ut primum Alexandriae uel notus uel notatus inter confusos uulgo sectatores insectatoresque factus est, ab Alexandro, eiusdem tunc urbis episcopo, pulsus ecclesia est. ²⁵ cumque homines, quos in errorem seduxerat, etiam in seditionem excitaret, apud Nicaeam urbem Bithyniae conuentus trecentorum decem et octo episcoporum factus est, per quos Arrianum dogma exitiabile et miserum esse euidentissime deprehensum, palam proditum ac reprobatum est.

²³ In these days Arius, presbyter of the city of Alexandria, deviating from the truth of the catholic faith, established for very many a deadly dogma. ²⁴ Who, as soon as at Alexandria he was either known or denounced, having become amid the confused crowd of sectators and persecutors, was driven from the church by Alexander, then bishop of the same city. ²⁵ And when he was also exciting into sedition the men whom he had led into error, at Nicaea, a city of Bithynia, a convocation of 318 bishops was held, through whom the Arian dogma, most evidently detected to be deadly and wretched, was openly exposed and reprobated.

²⁶ sed inter haec latent causae, cur uindicem gladium et destinatam in impios punitionem Constantinus imperator etiam in proprios egit affectus. nam Crispum filium suum et Licinium sororis filium interfecit. praeterea multas gentes diuersis proeliis subegit.

²⁶ but amid these things the causes lie hidden, why Emperor Constantine even against his own dear ones directed the avenging sword and the punishment destined for the impious. for he killed his son Crispus and Licinius, his sister’s son. besides, he subdued many nations in diverse battles.

²⁷ urbem nominis sui Romanorum regum uel primus uel solus instituit. quae sola expers idolorum ad hoc breuissimo tempore condita a Christiano imperatore prouecta est, ut sola Romae, tot saeculis miseriisque prouectae, forma et potentia merito possit aequari. ²⁸ tum deinde primus Constantinus iusto ordine et pio uicem uertit: edicto siquidem statuit citra ullam hominum caedem paganorum templa claudi.

²⁷ he founded a city of his own name, either as the first or as the only one of the kings of the Romans. which alone, devoid of idols, having been founded in this most brief time by a Christian emperor, has been advanced to this point, that alone it can deservedly be equated to Rome, advanced through so many ages and miseries, in form and in power. ²⁸ then thereafter Constantine first, in just and pious order, reversed the course: by an edict, indeed, he decreed that, without any shedding of human blood, the temples of the pagans be closed.

²⁹ mox Gothorum fortissimas et copiosissimas gentes in ipso barbarici soli sinu, hoc est in Sarmatarum regione, deleuit. ³⁰ Calocaerum quendam in Cypro adspirantem nouis rebus oppressit. tricennalibus suis Dalmatium Caesarem legit.

²⁹ Soon he destroyed the very bravest and most copious peoples of the Goths in the very bosom of barbarian soil, that is, in the region of the Sarmatians. ³⁰ He crushed a certain Calocaerus in Cyprus, as he was aspiring to revolution. At his tricennial (thirtieth-year) celebrations he appointed Dalmatius as Caesar.

³¹ cumque bellum in Persas moliretur, in uilla publica iuxta Nicomediam, dispositam bene rempublicam filiis tradens, diem obiit.

³¹ and when he was setting in motion war against the Persians, in the public villa near Nicomedia, handing over the republic well ordered to his sons, he met his day.

[29] Anno ab urbe condita MXCII Constantius tricensimus quintus cum Constantino et Constante fratribus suis adeptus imperium uiginti et quattuor annis tenuit. fuit inter successores Constantini et Dalmatius Caesar fratris filius, sed continuo militari factione deceptus est.² interea maligna semper aduersus Deum uerum diaboli insectatio, quae ab initio mundi usque ad nunc a sincero fidei religionisque tramite offusis errorum nebulis lubrica hominum corda perturbat, postquam Christianis imperatoribus summam regiae potestatis in meliora uertentibus Ecclesiam Christi zelo idololatriae persequi destitit, aliud machinamentum, quo per eosdem Christianos imperatores Christi Ecclesiam uexaret, inuenit.

[29] In the year from the founding of the City 1092, Constantius, the thirty-fifth, along with his brothers Constantine and Constans, having obtained the imperium, held it for twenty-four years. Among the successors of Constantine there was also Dalmatius, the Caesar, his brother’s son, but he was immediately undone by a military faction.² Meanwhile the malign persecution of the devil, always adverse against the true God—which from the beginning of the world up to now, with the nebulous clouds of errors cast over the sincere path of faith and religion, perturbs the slippery hearts of men—after, with Christian emperors turning the summit of royal power to better things, it ceased to persecute the Church of Christ with zeal for idolatry, found another machination by which, through these same Christian emperors, it might vex the Church of Christ.

³ fit igitur Arrio, noui erroris auctori, ceterisque discipulis ipsius ad familliaritatem Constantii imperatoris promptus aditus et facilis uia. suadetur Constantio, ut quosdam in Deo gradus credat, et qui per ianuam ab errore idololatriae fuerat egressus, rursum in sinum eius, dum in Deo deos quaerit, tamquam per pseudothyrum inducitur. ⁴ peruerso igitur zelo potestas armatur inlusa et sub nomine pietatis uis persecutionis agitatur.

³ therefore for Arius, author of a new error, and for his other disciples, a prompt access and an easy way to the familiarity of Emperor Constantius is made. Constantius is persuaded to believe certain grades in God; and he who had gone out by the doorway from the error of idolatry is led back again into its bosom, while he seeks gods in God, as if through a pseudo-portal. ⁴ therefore with perverted zeal the authority, deluded, is armed, and under the name of piety the force of persecution is set in motion.

de noua nominis electione contenditur, ut Arrianorum potius ecclesiae quam catholicorum sint. ⁵ sequitur terrae motus horribilis, qui plurimas orientis urbes solo strauit. Constantinus dum Constantem fratrem bello insectatur, incauta petulantia periculis sese offerens, a ducibus eius occisus est.

there is contention over a new election of the name, that the churches be rather those of the Arians than of the Catholics. ⁵ There follows a horrible earthquake, which leveled very many cities of the East to the ground. Constantine, while he assails his brother Constans with war, offering himself to dangers with incautious petulance, was killed by his (Constans’s) generals.

⁶ Constans aduersus Persas et Saporem, qui Mesopotamiam uastauerat, nouem proeliis parum prospere decertauit. nouissime seditione atque intemperantia militum nocte adoriri pugnam coactus, patratam paene uictoriam insuper uictus amisit. ⁷ post cum se intolerandis uitiis dedisset ac poena prouincialium fauorem militum compararet, Magnentii dolis in oppido, cui Helena nomen est, in proximo Hispaniae interfectus est.

⁶ Constans, against the Persians and Sapor, who had laid waste Mesopotamia, fought it out in nine battles with little success. At last, compelled by a sedition and the intemperance of the soldiers to attack by night, a victory almost accomplished he nonetheless lost, being defeated besides. ⁷ Afterwards, when he had given himself over to intolerable vices and was procuring the soldiers’ favor by the punishment of the provincials, he was slain by the stratagems of Magnentius in a town whose name is Helena, in the neighborhood of Spain.

⁸ Magnentius enim apud Augustodunum arripuit imperium, quod continuo per Galliam Africam Italiamque porrexit. ⁹ in Illyrico autem Vetranionem, aetate grandaeuum, imperatorem sibi milites creauerunt, uirum natura simplicem cunctisque iucundum, sed qui ne prima quidem umquam litterarum elementa didicisset. ¹⁰ itaque cum primas litteras litterarumque syllabas imperator senex interdum inuitus meditaretur, a Constantio, qui tunc in Magnentium ultione fratris accensus bellum parabat, deponere iussus imperium, abiciens cum litteris purpuras contentusque priuatis feriis, palatium simul scholamque dimisit.

⁸ For Magnentius at Augustodunum seized the imperium, which immediately he extended through Gaul, Africa, and Italy. ⁹ In Illyricum, however, the soldiers created Vetranion, advanced in age, as emperor for themselves—a man simple by nature and agreeable to all, but who had never learned even the first elements of letters. ¹⁰ And so, while the elderly emperor would sometimes, unwilling, practice the first letters and the syllables of letters, he was ordered by Constantius—who then, inflamed for the avenging of his brother against Magnentius, was preparing war—to lay down the imperium; casting off the purples along with letters, and content with private leisure, he dismissed the palace and the school at the same time.

¹¹ Nepotianus deinde Romae, Constantini sororis filius, gladiatorum manu fretus inuasit imperium: qui deinde cum inprobus ac per hoc inuisus cunctis esset, a Magnentianis ducibus oppressus est. ¹² sequitur bellum illud horribile inter Constantium Magnentiumque apud Mursam urbem gestum, in quo multa Romanorum uirium profligatio etiam in posterum nocuit. ¹³ Magnentius tamen uictus aufugit ac non multo post apud Lugdunum propria se manu interfecit.

¹¹ Then Nepotianus at Rome, the son of Constantine’s sister, relying on a band of gladiators, seized the imperial power: who then, since he was wicked and through this hateful to all, was overwhelmed by the generals of Magnentius. ¹² There follows that horrible war between Constantius and Magnentius, waged at the city of Mursa, in which a great profligation of the forces of the Romans harmed even for the future. ¹³ Magnentius, however, defeated, fled, and not long after at Lugdunum killed himself by his own hand.

Decentius quoque frater eiusdem, quem Caesarem Galliis praefecerat, apud Senonas laqueo uitam finiuit. ¹⁴ continuo Constantius Gallum, patrui filium, Caesarem legit: quem rursus crudeliter ac tyrannice agentem paulo post quam crearat occidit. Siluanum quoque, per Gallias rebus nouis inhiantem, mature circumueniendum opprimendumque curauit.

Decentius also, his brother, whom he had appointed Caesar over the Gauls, ended his life by a noose at Senones. ¹⁴ immediately Constantius chose Gallus, his paternal uncle’s son, as Caesar: whom, acting again cruelly and tyrannically, he killed a little after he had created him. Silvanus also, hankering after revolution through the Gauls, he took care to have promptly circumvented and crushed.

¹⁵ igitur Siluano interfecto Iulianum patruelem suum, Galli fratrem, Caesarem creatum misit ad Gallias; itaque Iulianus Caesar euersas oppressasque ab hoste Gallias strenuissime in integrum restituit, Alamannorum paruis copiis magnam multitudinem fudit, Rheno Germanos reuinxit. ¹⁶ his elatus successibus fastigium usurpauit Augusti et mox Italiam Illyricumque peruadens Constantium Parthicis proeliis occupatum regni parte priuauit. ¹⁷ Constantius Iuliani scelere comperto dimissa expeditione Parthorum dum ad ciuile bellum reuertitur, in itinere inter Ciliciam Cappadociamque defunctus est.

¹⁵ therefore, with Silvanus slain, he sent Julian, his cousin, brother of Gallus, created Caesar, to the Gauls; and so Julian Caesar most strenuously restored to full integrity the Gauls overthrown and oppressed by the enemy, routed a great multitude of the Alamanni with small forces, and re-bound the Germans to the Rhine. ¹⁶ Elated by these successes he usurped the eminence of Augustus, and soon, pervading Italy and Illyricum, deprived Constantius, occupied with Parthian battles, of a part of the realm. ¹⁷ Constantius, the crime of Julian having been discovered, the Parthian expedition dismissed, while he was returning to a civil war, on the journey between Cilicia and Cappadocia died.

¹⁸ ita ille qui discissa pace et unitate fidei catholicae Christianos aduersum Christianos armans ciuili, ut ita dicam, bello Ecclesiae membra dilacerauerat, totum inquieti tempus imperii molestissimumque spatium uitae suae bellis ciuilibus etiam per propinquos et consanguineos excitatis exercuit exegit expendit.

¹⁸ thus he who, with the peace and the unity of the Catholic faith torn, arming Christians against Christians and, in a civil, so to speak, war, had lacerated the members of the Church, exercised, brought to an end, and expended the whole restless time of his rule and the most troublesome span of his life with civil wars, even stirred up through kinsmen and consanguine relatives.

[30] Anno ab urbe condita MCXVI Iulianus dudum Caesar, post autem tricesimus sextus ab Augusto rerum potitus anno uno et mensibus octo imperii summam solus obtinuit.² Christianam religionem arte potius quam potestate insectatus, ut negaretur fides Christi et idolorum cultus susciperetur, honoribus magis prouocare quam tormentis cogere studuit. ³ aperto tamen praecepit edicto, ne quis Christianus docendorum liberalium studiorum professor esset.

[30] In the year from the founding of the city 1116, Julian, formerly Caesar, but afterwards, the thirty-sixth after Augustus to gain control of affairs, held the summit of imperial power alone for one year and eight months.² Assailing the Christian religion by art rather than by power, to the end that the faith of Christ be denied and the worship of idols be taken up, he strove to provoke by honors rather than to compel by torments. ³ Nevertheless, he ordered by an open edict that no Christian should be a professor of the liberal studies to be taught.

sed tamen, sicut a maioribus nostris compertum habemus, omnes ubique propemodum praecepti condiciones amplexati officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt. ⁴ Iulianus autem bellum aduersum Parthos parans cum Romanas uires contractas undique ad destinatam secum traheret perditionem, Christianorum sanguinem dis suis uouit, palam persecuturus ecclesias, si uictoriam potuisset adipisci. ⁵ nam et amphitheatrum Hierosolymis extrui iussit, in quo reuersus a Parthis episcopos monachos omnesque eius loci sanctos bestiis etiam arte saeuioribus obiceret spectaretque laniandos.

but yet, as we have found from our elders, almost all everywhere, having embraced the conditions of the edict, preferred to desert office rather than faith. ⁴ Julian, however, preparing war against the Parthians, when he was dragging the Roman forces, gathered from every side, along with himself to a destined perdition, vowed to his own gods the blood of the Christians, about to persecute openly the churches, if he could have obtained victory. ⁵ for he even ordered an amphitheater to be built at Jerusalem, in which, on returning from the Parthians, he would expose the bishops, the monks, and all the holy men of that place to the beasts, and watch them being torn to pieces, by contrivances even more savage than the beasts.

⁶ itaque postquam a Ctesiphonte castra mouit, dolo cuiusdam transfugae in deserta perductus, cum ui sitis et ardore solis atque insuper labore harenarum confectus periret exercitus, imperator tanto rerum periculo anxius dum per uasta deserti incautius euagatur, ab obuio quodam hostium equite conto ictus interiit. sic misericors Deus impia consilia impii morte dissoluit.

⁶ and so, after he moved camp from Ctesiphon, led by the trick of a certain turncoat into the deserts, when the army, overcome by the violence of thirst and the ardor of the sun and, besides, the labor of the sands, was perishing, the emperor, anxious at such peril of affairs, while he roamed incautiously through the vastness of the desert, was struck by a spear by a certain enemy horseman who met him, and died. Thus the merciful God dissolved impious counsels by the death of the impious.

[31] Anno ab urbe condita MCXVII Iouianus tricesimus septimus imperator in summo rerum discrimine ab exercitu creatus cum et locorum iniquitate captus et hostibus circumsaeptus nullam euadendi facultatem nancisceretur, foedus cum Sapore Persarum rege, etsi parum ut putant dignum, satis tamen necessarium pepigit:² quippe, ut tutum et incolumem Romanum exercitum non solum ab incursu hostium uerum etiam a locorum periculo liberaret, Nisibi oppidum et partem superioris Mesopotamiae Persis concessit. ³ inde dum ad Illyricum rediens per Galatiam iter agit, cum in cubiculum quoddam nouum sese cubitum recepisset, calore prunarum et nidore parietum nuper calce inlitorum adgrauatus et suffocatus, octauo demum mense quam imperare coeperat uitam finiuit.

[31] In the year from the founding of the City 1117, Jovian, the 37th emperor, created by the army at the height of a crisis of affairs, since he, both trapped by the iniquity of the terrain and hemmed in by enemies, found no opportunity of escaping, entered into a treaty with Shapur, king of the Persians—although, as they think, not very worthy, yet sufficiently necessary:² indeed, in order to free the Roman army safe and unharmed not only from the incursion of enemies but even from the peril of the places, he conceded to the Persians the town of Nisibis and part of Upper Mesopotamia. ³ Thence, while making his march through Galatia as he returned to Illyricum, when he had withdrawn to lie down in a certain new bedchamber, weighed down by the heat of the coals and the reek of the walls newly smeared with lime and suffocated, at last, in the eighth month from when he had begun to rule, he ended his life.

[32] Anno ab urbe condita MCXVIII Valentinianus tricesimus octauus apud Nicaeam consensu militum imperator creatus est mansitque in eo annis undecim.² qui cum Christianus integra fide sacramentum militiae gereret sub Iuliano Augusto tribunus scutariorum, iussus ab imperatore sacrilego aut immolare idolis aut militia excedere, fideliter sciens et grauiora Dei esse iudicia et meliora promissa, sponte discessit. ³ ita parua interiecta mora Iuliano interfecto ac mox Iouiano mortuo qui pro nomine Christi amiserat tribunatum, retribuente Christo in locum persecutoris sui accepit imperium: ⁴ qui postea fratrem suum Valentem participem fecit imperii, Procopium tyrannum pluresque postea satellites eius occidit.

[32] In the year from the founding of the City 1118 Valentinian, the thirty-eighth emperor, at Nicaea by the consensus of the soldiers was created emperor and he remained in it for eleven years.² Who, though a Christian with integral faith was bearing the sacrament of military service, under Julian Augustus a tribune of the scutarii, ordered by the sacrilegious emperor either to immolate to idols or to leave the military service, faithfully, knowing both that the judgments of God are more weighty and the promises better, departed of his own accord. ³ Thus, a small delay having intervened—Julian having been slain and soon Jovian dead—he who for the name of Christ had lost the tribunate, with Christ rendering recompense, in the place of his persecutor received the imperium: ⁴ who afterwards made his brother Valens a participant in the empire, killed Procopius the tyrant, and later several of his satellites.

⁵ terrae motus per totum orbem factus ita turbatum quoque pelagus excussit, ut per uicinas terrarum campestrium partes refuso mari plurimae insularum urbes concussae et subrutae perisse referantur. ⁶ Valens ab Eudoxio episcopo, Arriani dogmatis assertore, et baptizatus et persuasus, in saeuissimam haeresim declinauit; sed malignam insectationem diu texit nec uoluntati potestatem admiscuit, quoad uiuentis fratris auctoritate conpressus est. ⁷ contemplabatur enim de eo, quantam uim in ulciscenda fide imperator posset exerere, qui tantam constantiam pro retinenda quondam miles habuisset.

⁵ an earthquake made through the whole orb so shook the likewise-turbulent deep, that, with the sea flowing back, through the neighboring parts of level lands very many cities of the islands are reported to have been shaken and undermined and to have perished. ⁶ Valens, by Eudoxius the bishop, an assertor of the Arian dogma, both baptized and persuaded, declined into a most savage heresy; but he long masked his malignant persecution and did not mix power with his will, until he was restrained by the authority of his living brother. ⁷ for he was contemplating concerning him how great a force in avenging the faith the emperor might exert, who once as a soldier had held such constancy for retaining it.

⁸ Horum anno imperii tertio Gratianus Valentiniani filius imperator est factus. eodem anno apud Atrebatas uera lana de nubibus pluuiae mixta defluxit.

⁸ In the third year of their reign, Gratian, the son of Valentinian, was made emperor. In the same year among the Atrebates, true wool, mixed with rain, flowed down from the clouds.

⁹ Praeterea Athanaricus rex Gothorum Christianos in gente sua crudelissime persecutus, plurimos barbarorum ob fidem interfectos ad coronam martyrii sublimauit, quorum tamen plurimi in Romanum solum non trepidi, uelut ad hostes, sed certi, quia ad fratres, pro Christi confessione fugerunt.

⁹ Moreover Athanaricus, king of the Goths, most cruelly persecuted the Christians in his own nation, and he exalted very many of the barbarians, slain on account of the faith, to the crown of martyrdom, of whom nevertheless very many fled to Roman soil not trembling, as though to enemies, but assured, since to brothers, for the confession of Christ.

¹⁰ Valentinianus Saxones, gentem in oceani litoribus et paludibus inuiis sitam, uirtute atque agilitate terribilem, periculosam Romanis finibus eruptionem magna mole meditantes in ipsis Francorum finibus oppressit. ¹¹ Burgundionum quoque nouorum hostium nouum nomen, qui plus quam octoginta milia, ut ferunt, armatorum ripae Rheni fluminis insederunt. ¹² hos quondam subacta interiore Germania a Druso et Tiberio, adoptiuis filiis Caesaris, per castra dispositos in magnam coaluisse gentem atque ita etiam nomen ex opere praesumpsisse, quia crebra per limitem habitacula constituta burgos uulgo uocant, eorumque esse praeualidam et perniciosam manum Galliae hodieque testes sunt, in quibus praesumpta possessione consistunt; ¹³ quamuis prouidentia Dei Christiani omnes modo facti catholica fide nostrisque clericis, quibus oboedirent, receptis blande mansuete innocenterque uiuant, non quasi cum subiectis Gallis sed uere cum fratribus Christianis.

¹⁰ Valentinian crushed the Saxons, a nation situated on the ocean’s shores and in pathless marshes, terrible for valor and agility, who were meditating a dangerous eruption upon the Roman borders with a great mass, and he overpowered them within the very territories of the Franks. ¹¹ Also the new name of the Burgundians, new enemies, who, more than eighty thousand, as they say, armed men, settled upon the bank of the river Rhine. ¹² These, once, when inner Germany had been subdued by Drusus and Tiberius, the adoptive sons of Caesar, having been distributed through the camps, coalesced into a great nation and thus even assumed a name from the deed, because the frequent dwellings established along the frontier they commonly call “burgi”; and that theirs is a very strong and pernicious band for Gaul, the regions in which, possession having been assumed, they now are settled are witnesses even today; ¹³ although by the providence of God all, lately made Christians, with the catholic faith and with our clerics, whom they might obey, received, live gently, meekly, and innocently, not as with subjected Gauls but truly with Christian brothers.

¹⁴ Anno autem undecimo imperii sui Valentinianus, cum Sarmatae sese per Pannonias diffudissent easque uastarent, bellum in eos parans apud Brigitionem oppidum subita effusione sanguinis, quod Graece apoplexis uocatur, suffocatus et mortuus est.

¹⁴ In the eleventh year of his reign, Valentinian, when the Sarmatians had spread themselves through the Pannonias and were devastating them, while preparing war against them at the town of Brigetio, by a sudden effusion of blood, which in Greek is called apoplexy, was suffocated and died.

¹⁵ Post quem Gratianus filius occidentis imperium tenuit, Valente patruo in orientis partibus constituto; Valentinianum etiam, fratrem suum paruum admodum, socium creauit imperii.

¹⁵ After whom Gratian, his son, held the empire of the West, his uncle Valens being constituted in the eastern parts; he also created Valentinian, his own brother very young, a colleague of the empire.

[33] Anno ab urbe condita MCXXVIII Valens tricesimus nonus imperium quattuor annis Valentiniano mortuo tenuit, cui soli, cum impie ageret, potuisset erubescere. ilico uelut effrenata libertatis audacia legem dedit, ut monachi, hoc est Christiani qui ad unum fidei opus dimissa saecularium rerum multimoda actione se redigunt, ad militiam cogerentur.² uastas illas tunc Aegypti solitudines harenasque diffusas, quas propter sitim ac sterilitatem periculosissimamque serpentum abundantiam conuersatio humana non nosset, magna habitantium monachorum multitudo compleuerat.

[33] In the year 1128 from the founding of the City, Valens, the thirty-ninth, held the imperium for four years after Valentinian died, before whom alone, when he was acting impiously, he might have been able to blush. Forthwith, as if with the unbridled audacity of license, he gave a law that monks—that is, Christians who, with the manifold activity of secular affairs dismissed, reduce themselves to the single work of faith—be compelled to military service.² By then those vast solitudes of Egypt and the outspread sands, which, on account of thirst and barrenness and the most dangerous abundance of serpents, human habitation had not known, a great multitude of monks dwelling there had filled.

³ huc tribuni et milites missi, qui sanctos ac ueros milites Dei alio nomine persecutionis abstraherent. interfecta sunt ibi agmina multa sanctorum. ⁴ quae autem per diuersas ubique prouincias his similibusque iussis aduersus ecclesias catholicas et rectae fidei populos gesta sint, satis significatum ipsa reticendi electione sufficiat.

³ to this place tribunes and soldiers were sent, to drag away the holy and true soldiers of god under another name of persecution. there many companies of saints were slain. ⁴ but what things through the various provinces everywhere, by these and similar orders, were done against the catholic churches and the peoples of the right faith, let it be sufficiently indicated by the very choice of keeping silence.

⁵ Interea in Africae partibus Firmus sese excitatis Maurorum gentibus regem constituens Africam Mauretaniamque uastauit; Caesaream urbem nobilissimam Mauretaniae dolo captam, deinde caedibus incendiisque conpletam barbaris in praedam dedit. ⁶ igitur comes Theodosius, Theodosii qui post imperio praefuit pater, a Valentiniano missus effusas Maurorum gentes multis proeliis fregit, ipsum Firmum afflictum et oppressum coegit ad mortem. ⁷ post cum experientissima prouidentia totam cum Mauretania Africam meliorem pristinis reddidisset, instimulante et obrepente inuidia iussus interfici, apud Carthaginem baptizari in remissionem peccatorum praeoptauit ac postquam sacramentum Christi quod quaesierat adsecutus est, post gloriosam saeculi uitam etiam de uitae aeternitate securus percussori iugulum ultro praebuit.

⁵ Meanwhile, in the parts of Africa, Firmus, setting himself up as king with the Moorish nations stirred up, laid waste Africa and Mauretania; the most noble city of Mauretania, Caesarea, taken by guile and then filled with slaughters and burnings, he gave over to the barbarians for plunder. ⁶ Therefore Count Theodosius, father of Theodosius who afterward presided over the imperium, sent by Valentinian, broke the outpoured tribes of the Moors in many battles, and forced Firmus himself, afflicted and overborne, to death. ⁷ Afterward, since with most experienced providence he had rendered all Africa together with Mauretania better than their former state, with envy goading and creeping in, he, having been ordered to be killed, preferred to be baptized at Carthage for the remission of sins; and after he attained the sacrament of Christ which he had sought, after a glorious life of this world, being also secure concerning life eternal, he willingly offered his throat to the executioner.

⁸ Gratianus interea imperator admodum iuuenis cum inaestimabilem multitudinem hostium Romanis infusam finibus cerneret, fretus Christi potentia, longe inpari militum numero sese in hostem dedit et continuo apud Argentariam, oppidum Galliarum, formidulosissimum bellum incredibili felicitate confecit. nam plus quam triginta milia Alamannorum minimo Romanorum detrimento in eo proelio interfecta narrantur.

⁸ Meanwhile Gratian, the emperor, a very young man, when he saw that an inestimable multitude of enemies had been poured into the Roman borders, relying on the potency of Christ, though with a far unequal number of soldiers, committed himself against the enemy, and straightway at Argentaria, a town of Gaul, brought a most formidable war to completion with incredible felicity. For more than 30,000 Alamanni are reported to have been slain in that battle, with the very least detriment to the Romans.

⁹ Tertio decimo autem anno imperii Valentis, hoc est paruo tempore postea quam Valens per totum orientem ecclesiarum lacerationes sanctorumque caedes egerat, radix illa miseriarum nostrarum copiosissimas simul frutices germinauit. ¹⁰ siquidem gens Hunorum, diu inaccessis seclusa montibus, repentina rabie percita exarsit in Gothos eosque passim conturbatos ab antiquis sedibus expulit. Gothi transito Danuuio fugientes, a Valente sine ulla foederis pactione suscepti ne arma quidem, quo tutius barbaris crederetur, tradidere Romanis.

⁹ In the 13th year, moreover, of the reign of Valens, that is, a short time after Valens had carried out through the whole East the lacerations of the churches and the slaughters of the saints, that root of our miseries at once germinated most copious shoots. ¹⁰ For indeed the nation of the Huns, long shut off by inaccessible mountains, smitten by sudden rabidity, blazed forth against the Goths and, with them thrown into confusion everywhere, drove them from their ancient seats. The Goths, fleeing after crossing the Danube, were received by Valens without any pact of treaty, nor did they even hand over their arms to the Romans, in order that the barbarians might be the more safely trusted.

¹¹ deinde propter intolerabilem auaritiam Maximi ducis fame et iniuriis adacti in arma surgentes, uicto Valentis exercitu per Thraciam sese, miscentes simul omnia caedibus incendiis rapinisque, fuderunt. ¹² Valens egressus de Antiochia cum ultima infelicis belli sorte traheretur, sera peccati maximi paenitentia stimulatus episcopos ceterosque sanctos reuocari de exiliis imperauit.

¹¹ then, because of the intolerable avarice of Duke Maximus, driven by famine and injuries, rising into arms, with the army of Valens conquered they poured themselves through Thrace, confusing everything at once with slaughters, conflagrations, and rapines. ¹² Valens, having gone out from Antioch, when he was being dragged by the last lot of the unlucky war, stirred by a late penitence for his greatest sin, ordered that the bishops and the other holy men be recalled from exile.

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.

¹³ And so, in the fifteenth year of his reign, he waged that lamentable war in Thrace with the Goths, already then most well-equipped by the exercise of their forces and an abundance of resources. There, at the very first onset of the Goths, the squadrons of Roman cavalry, thrown into disorder, abandoned the foot-soldiers’ positions, left naked of protection. ¹⁴ Soon the legions of infantry, surrounded on all sides by the enemy’s cavalry and first overwhelmed by clouds of arrows, then, when, crazed by fear, they were driven scattered along byways, were utterly cut down and perished by the swords and pikes of the pursuers.

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.

¹⁵ the emperor himself, wounded by an arrow and turned to flight, having been with difficulty transported into the cottage of a certain little villa and lying hidden, was detected by the pursuing enemies, was consumed with fire set beneath, and, that the testimony of his punishment and of divine indignation might be a more terrible example for posterity, he even lacked common sepulture.

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.

¹⁶ Let the obstinacy and misery of the gentiles console itself, but in this alone: that in Christian times and under Christian kings such great disasters, heaped up all at once, have weighed down the bowed neck of the commonwealth—provinces overthrown, the army annihilated, the emperor burned. This indeed is great for our grief, and the more pitiable the more novel it is. ¹⁷ But what does this profit toward the consolation of the pagans, who plainly perceive that in these matters too a persecutor of the churches was punished? One God handed down one faith, he diffused one church through the whole world: this one he regards, this one he loves, this one he defends; whoever cloaks himself under whatever name, if he is not joined to this, he is foreign; if he attacks this, he is an enemy.

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.

¹⁸ let the gentiles console themselves, as much as they wish, with the punishments of the Jews and of the heretics; let them acknowledge that there is one only God and that the same is not an acceptor of persons, or at the very least from this most especially proof of Valens extinguished. ¹⁹ The Goths previously, through legates, as suppliants demanded that bishops be sent to them, from whom they might learn the rule of the Christian faith. Emperor Valens, by a ruinous perversity, sent doctors of the Arian dogma.

Gothi primae fidei rudimento quod accepere tenuerunt. itaque iusto iudicio Dei ipsi eum uiuum incenderunt, qui propter eum etiam mortui uitio erroris arsuri sunt.

The Goths held fast to the first rudiment of the faith which they had received. And so, by the just judgment of God, they themselves burned him alive, they who, because of him, are destined to burn even when dead by the vice of error.

[34] Anno ab urbe condita MCXXXII Gratianus quadragesimus ab Augusto post mortem Valentis sex annis imperium tenuit, quamuis iamdudum antea cum patruo Valente et cum Valentiniano fratre regnaret.² qui cum adflictum ac paene conlapsum reipublicae statum uideret, eadem prouisione, qua quondam legerat Nerua Hispanum uirum Traianum, per quem respublica reparata est, legit et ipse Theodosium aeque Hispanum uirum et restituendae reipublicae necessitate apud Sirmium purpura induit orientisque et Thraciae simul praefecit imperio, ³ in hoc perfectiore iudicio, quia, cum in omnibus humanae uitae uirtutibus iste par fuerit, in fidei sacramento religionisque cultu sine ulla comparatione praecessit; siquidem ille persecutor, hic propagator Ecclesiae. ⁴ ita illi ne unus quidem proprius filius, quo successore gauderet, indultus est; huius autem orienti simul atque occidenti per succiduas usque ad nunc generationes gloriosa propago dominatur.

[34] In the year from the founding of the City 1132, Gratian, the fortieth from Augustus, after the death of Valens held the imperium for six years, although long before he had reigned with his uncle Valens and with his brother Valentinian.² When he saw the condition of the res publica afflicted and almost collapsed, by the same provision by which once Nerva had chosen Trajan, a Spanish man, through whom the res publica was repaired, he himself likewise chose Theodosius, a Spanish man as well, and, by the necessity of restoring the res publica, at Sirmium he invested him with the purple and at the same time set him over the imperium of the East and of Thrace; ³ in this with a more perfected judgment, because, although he was equal in all the virtues of human life, in the sacrament of faith and the cult of religion he surpassed without any comparison; for that one was a persecutor, this one a propagator of the Church. ⁴ Thus to that man not even a single natural son, in whom as successor he might rejoice, was granted; but of this man a glorious offspring rules the East together with the West through successive generations down to now.

⁵ itaque Theodosius adflictam rempublicam ira Dei reparandam credidit misericordia Dei; omnem fiduciam sui ad opem Christi conferens maximas illas Scythicas gentes formidatasque cunctis maioribus, Alexandro quoque illi Magno, sicut Pompeius Corneliusque testati sunt, euitatas, nunc autem extincto Romano exercitu Romanis equis armisque instructissimas, hoc est Alanos Hunos et Gothos, incunctanter adgressus magnis multisque proeliis uicit. ⁶ urbem Constantinopolim uictor intrauit et ne paruam ipsam Romani exercitus manum adsidue bellando detereret, foedus cum Athanarico Gothorum rege percussit. ⁷ Athanaricus autem continuo ut Constantinopolim uenit, diem obiit.

⁵ therefore Theodosius believed that the afflicted commonwealth, smitten by the wrath of God, must be repaired by the mercy of God; transferring all confidence in himself to the aid of Christ, he, having without hesitation attacked those very great Scythian nations, feared by all our forefathers—avoided even by that Alexander the Great, as Pompey and Cornelius have attested—now, however, the Roman army having been annihilated, most thoroughly equipped with Roman horses and arms, that is, the Alans, Huns, and Goths, conquered them in great and many battles. ⁶ As victor he entered the city of Constantinople, and, lest by assiduous warring he wear down that small band of the Roman army itself, he struck a treaty with Athanaric, king of the Goths. ⁷ But Athanaric, immediately upon coming to Constantinople, met his day.

uniuersae Gothorum gentes rege defuncto aspicientes uirtutem benignitatemque Theodosii Romano sese imperio dediderunt. ⁸ in isdem etiam diebus Persae, qui Iuliano interfecto aliisque imperatoribus saepe uictis, nunc etiam Valente in fugam acto recentissimae uictoriae satietatem cruda insultatione ructabant, ultro Constantinopolim ad Theodosium misere legatos pacemque supplices poposcerunt; ictumque tunc foedus est, quo uniuersus oriens usque ad nunc tranquillissime fruitur. ⁹ interea cum Theodosius in oriente subactis barbarorum gentibus Thracias tandem ab hoste liberas reddidisset et Arcadium filium suum consortem fecisset imperii, Maximus, uir quidem strenuus et probus atque Augusto dignus nisi contra sacramenti fidem per tyrannidem emersisset, in Britannia inuitus propemodum ab exercitu imperator creatus in Galliam transiit: ¹⁰ ubi Gratianum Augustum subita incursione perterritum atque in Italiam transire meditantem dolis circumuentum interfecit fratremque eius Valentinianum Augustum Italia expulit.

all the nations of the Goths, their king deceased, looking to the virtue and benignity of Theodosius, surrendered themselves to the Roman empire. ⁸ In those same days as well, the Persians—who, with Julian slain and other emperors often conquered, and now also Valens put to flight, were belching forth the surfeit of their most recent victory with raw insultation—of their own accord sent legates to Constantinople to Theodosius and, as suppliants, asked for peace; and a treaty was then struck, by which the whole East even to now enjoys most tranquil peace. ⁹ Meanwhile, when Theodosius in the East, the peoples of the barbarians having been subjugated, had at last rendered the Thracian regions free from the enemy and had made his son Arcadius a partner of the imperium, Maximus—a man indeed strenuous and upright and worthy of the Augustus, were it not that, against the faith of his oath, he had emerged by tyranny—created emperor in Britain by the army, almost unwilling, crossed into Gaul: ¹⁰ where he killed Gratian Augustus—terrified by a sudden incursion and contemplating a crossing into Italy—after ensnaring him by wiles, and he drove his brother Valentinian Augustus out of Italy.

Valentinianus in orientem refugiens a Theodosio paterna pietate susceptus, mox etiam imperio restitutus est.

Valentinian, fleeing into the East, was received by Theodosius with paternal piety, and soon was even restored to the imperial power.

[35] Anno ab urbe condita MCXXXVIII Theodosius quadragesimus primus interfecto per Maximum Gratiano imperium Romani orbis obtinuit mansitque in eo annis undecim, cum iam in orientis partibus sex annis Gratiano uiuente regnasset.² itaque iustis necessariisque causis ad bellum ciuile permotus, cum e duobus Augustis fratribus et ultionem unius interfecti sanguis exigeret et restitutionem miseria alterius exulantis oraret, posuit in Deo spem suam seseque aduersus Maximum tyrannum sola fide maior - nam longe minor uniuersa apparatus bellici conparatione - proripuit. ³ Aquileiae tunc Maximus uictoriae suae spectator insederat.

[35] In the year from the founding of the City 1138 Theodosius, the forty-first, with Gratian slain by Maximus, obtained the imperium of the Roman world, and he remained in it for eleven years, although he had already reigned in the eastern parts for six years with Gratian still living.² Therefore, moved by just and necessary causes to civil war, since of the two Augusti brothers the blood of the one slain demanded vengeance and the misery of the other, exiled, begged for restoration, he placed his hope in God and, greater by faith alone—for he was far inferior in the entire comparison of the military apparatus—he rushed forth against Maximus the tyrant. ³ At Aquileia then Maximus had taken his seat, a spectator of his own victory.

Andragathius comes eius summam belli administrabat: qui cum largissimis militum copiis ipsamque magnarum copiarum fortitudinem praecellente consilio omnes incredibiliter Alpium ac fluminum aditus communisset, ineffabili iudicio Dei, dum nauali expeditione incautum hostem praeuenire et obruere parat, sponte eadem quae obstruxerat claustra deseruit. ⁴ ita Theodosius nemine sentiente, ut non dicam repugnante, uacuas transmisit Alpes atque Aquileiam inprouisus adueniens hostem illum magnum, Maximum, trucem et ab inmanissimis quoque Germanorum gentibus tributa ac stipendia solo terrore nominis exigentem, sine dolo et sine controuersia clausit cepit occidit. ⁵ Valentinianus recepto Italiae potitus imperio est.

Andragathius, his comes, was administering the supreme command of the war: who, when with very large forces of soldiers and with a counsel surpassing even the very fortitude of great forces he had incredibly fortified all the passes of the Alps and the approaches of the rivers, by the ineffable judgment of God, while he prepares by a naval expedition to anticipate and overwhelm the incautious enemy, of his own accord abandoned the same barriers which he had obstructed. ⁴ Thus Theodosius, with no one perceiving it—not to say resisting—crossed the Alps left vacant, and, arriving unexpectedly at Aquileia, that great enemy, Maximus—savage, and from even the most inhuman tribes of the Germans exacting tributes and stipends by the mere terror of his name—he shut in, captured, and killed without guile and without controversy. ⁵ Valentinian, Italy having been recovered, obtained possession of the empire.

Andragathius comes cognita Maximi nece praecipitem sese e naui in undas dedit ac suffocatus est. Theodosius incruentam uictoriam Deo procurante suscepit.

Andragathius the count, upon learning of Maximus’s death, hurled himself headlong from the ship into the waves and was drowned. Theodosius, with God procuring, received a bloodless victory.

⁶ Ecce regibus et temporibus Christianis qualiter bella ciuilia, cum uitari nequeunt, transiguntur. ad uictoriam peruentum est, inrupta est ciuitas, correptus tyrannus. et hoc parum est.

⁶ Behold, with Christian kings and times, how civil wars, when they cannot be avoided, are transacted. It was brought to victory, the city was breached, the tyrant seized. And this is too little.

ecce parte alia uictus hostilis exercitus atque ipso tyranno truculentior comes tyranni ad mortem coactus, tantae dissolutae elusaeque insidiae, tanti apparatus exinaniti sunt: ⁷ et tamen nullus dolos struxit, nullus aciem disposuit, postremo nullus, si dici licet, gladium de uagina extulit. formidulosissimum bellum sine sanguine usque ad uictoriam et in uictoria duorum morte confectum est. ⁸ et, ne hoc quisquam casu factum putet, quo magis potentia Dei, qua et dispensantur et iudicantur uniuersa, propalato sui testimonio declarata obstrepentium mentes uel ad confusionem uel ad fidem cogat, dico rem et ignotam omnibus et omnibus notam: ⁹ post hoc bellum, quo Maximus interfectus est, multa utique, sicut omnes recognoscimus, Theodosium filiumque eius Honorium usque ad nunc et externa bella et ciuilia consecuta sunt, et tamen omnia paene usque in hodiernum diem et quidem cum fructu simplicis sanctaeque uictoriae uel nullo uel minimo sanguine quieuerunt.

Behold, on another side the hostile army was defeated, and the count of the tyrant, more truculent than the tyrant himself, was driven to death; such great plots dissolved and foiled, such great apparatus emptied out: ⁷ and yet no one constructed deceits, no one disposed a battle line; finally no one, if it may be said, drew a sword from the sheath. The most formidable war was brought to completion without bloodshed up to the victory, and in the victory by the death of two. ⁸ And, lest anyone think this was done by chance—so that the power of God, by which all things are both dispensed and judged, with its own testimony made public, might the more compel the minds of the obstreperous either to confusion or to faith—I state a matter both unknown to all and known to all: ⁹ after this war, in which Maximus was slain, many, surely—as we all recognize—both foreign and civil wars have followed Theodosius and his son Honorius up to now, and yet almost all, even to this very day, and indeed with the fruit of a simple and holy victory, have settled with either no blood or the very least.

¹⁰ Igitur Valentinianus iunior regno restitutus extincto Maximo eiusque filio Victore, quem imperatorem Gallis Maximus reliquerat, ipse in Galliam transiit: ubi cum tranquilla republica in pace ageret, apud Viennam dolo Arbogastis comitis sui, ut ferunt, strangulatus atque, ut uoluntariam sibi consciuisse mortem putaretur, laqueo suspensus est. ¹¹ mortuo Valentiniano Augusto Arbogastes Eugenium tyrannum mox creare ausus est legitque hominem, cui titulum imperatoris inponeret; ipse acturus imperium uir barbarus, animo consilio manu audacia potentiaque nimius, contraxit undique innumeras inuictasque copias, uel Romanorum praesidiis uel auxiliis barbarorum alibi potestate alibi cognatione subnixus. ¹² historiam notam etiam oculis plurimorum, quam melius qui spectauere nouerunt, dilatari uerbis non opus est.

¹⁰ Therefore the younger Valentinian, restored to the kingdom with Maximus and his son Victor extinguished—whom Maximus had left as emperor to the Gauls—himself crossed into Gaul: where, as he was conducting the commonwealth, tranquil, in peace, at Vienne he was strangled by the treachery of his count Arbogast, as they report, and, so that it might be thought he had contrived a voluntary death for himself, he was hung by a noose. ¹¹ With Valentinian Augustus dead, Arbogast soon dared to create Eugenius as tyrant and chose a man upon whom he might impose the title of emperor; he himself, about to administer the imperium, a barbarian man, excessive in spirit, counsel, hand, audacity, and power, gathered from everywhere innumerable and unconquered forces, relying either on the garrisons of the Romans or on the auxiliaries of the barbarians, supported in some places by authority, elsewhere by kinship. ¹² A history known even to the eyes of very many, which those who looked upon it know better, has no need to be dilated by words.

potentia Dei non fiducia hominis uictorem semper extitisse Theodosium, Arbogastes iste praecipuum in utroque documentum est, qui et tunc, cum Theodosio paruit, tantis instructum praesidiis Maximum ipse minimus cepit et nunc, cum aduersus eundem Theodosium collectis Gallorum Francorumque uiribus exundauit, nixus etiam praecipuo culto idolorum, magna tamen facilitate succubuit. ¹³ Eugenius atque Arbogastes instructas acies campis expedierant, arta Alpium latera atque ineuitabiles transitus praemissis callide insidiis occuparant, etiamsi numero ac uiribus inpares forent, sola tamen belli dispositione uictores. ¹⁴ at uero Theodosius in summis Alpibus constitutus expers cibi ac somni, sciens quod destitutus suis, nesciens quod clausus alienis, Dominum Christum solus solum, qui posset omnia, corpore humi fusus, mente caelo fixus orabat.

that by the power of God, not by the confidence of man, Theodosius always emerged a victor, this Arbogastes is a chief proof in both respects: who both then, when he obeyed Theodosius, he himself the least, captured Maximus equipped with such strong garrisons; and now, when against the same Theodosius he overflowed with the gathered forces of the Gauls and the Franks, leaning even on the especial cult of idols, nevertheless he succumbed with great facility. ¹³ Eugenius and Arbogastes had deployed their drawn-up battle-lines on the plains, they had occupied the narrow flanks of the Alps and the unavoidable passes with ambushes cleverly sent ahead; even if they were unequal in number and in forces, yet by the disposition of war alone they were victors. ¹⁴ But indeed Theodosius, positioned on the highest Alps, lacking food and sleep, knowing that he was deserted by his own, not knowing that he was enclosed by others, to the Lord Christ, alone to the Only One, who could do all things, with his body poured upon the ground, with his mind fixed on heaven, was praying.

¹⁵ dehinc postquam insomnem noctem precum continuatione transegit et testes propemodum quas in pretium praesidii caelestis adpenderat lacrimarum lacunas reliquit, fiducialiter arma corripuit solus, sciens se esse non solum. signo crucis signum proelio dedit ac se in bellum, etiamsi nemo sequeretur, uictor futurus, inmisit. ¹⁶ prima salutis uia extitit Arbitio, hostilium partium comes: qui cum ignarum imperatorem circumpositis excepisset insidiis, conuersus ad reuerentiam praesentis Augusti, non solum periculo liberauit uerum etiam instruxit auxilio.

¹⁵ then, after he passed a sleepless night in the continuation of prayers and left behind almost pools of tears as witnesses, which he had weighed out as the price of heavenly protection, he confidently seized arms alone, knowing that he was not alone. with the sign of the cross he gave the signal for battle, and launched himself into the war—destined to be victor, even if no one should follow. ¹⁶ the first path of deliverance proved to be Arbitio, a count of the hostile side: who, when he had caught the unwary emperor with ambushes laid around, turned to reverence for the present Augustus, and not only freed him from danger but also furnished him with aid.

¹⁷ at ubi ad contigua miscendae pugnae spatia peruentum est, continuo magnus ille et ineffabilis turbo uentorum in ora hostium ruit. ferebantur per aera spicula missa nostrorum atque ultra mensuram humani iactus per magnum inane portata nusquam propemodum cadere, priusquam inpingerent, sinebantur. ¹⁸ porro autem turbo continuus ora pectoraque hostium nunc inlisis grauiter scutis euerberabat, nunc inpressis pertinaciter obstructa claudebat, nunc auulsis uiolenter destituta nudabat, nunc oppositis iugiter in terga trudebat; tela etiam, quae ipsi uehementer intorserant, excepta uenti impetu supinato ac retrorsum coacta ipsos infeliciter configebant.

¹⁷ But when it had come to the contiguous spaces for a mêlée to be joined, immediately that great and ineffable whirlwind of winds rushed upon the enemies’ faces. The spicula sent by our men were borne through the air and, carried beyond the measure of a human cast through the great void, were scarcely allowed to fall anywhere before they struck. ¹⁸ Moreover, the continuous whirlwind was lashing the faces and chests of the enemy—now, with the shields dashed hard against them, it scourged them; now, with them pressed in, it stubbornly shut things closed; now, with them torn away, it violently stripped and left them bare; now, with them opposed, it kept thrusting them continually onto their backs; even the missiles which they themselves had hurled vehemently, caught by the impetus of the wind, upturned and driven backward, were unhappily transfixing those very men.

¹⁹ prospexit sibi humanae conscientiae pauor, nam continuo sese parua suorum manu fusa uictori Theodosio hostilis prostrauit exercitus; Eugenius captus atque interfectus est; Arbogastes sua se manu perculit. ita et hic duorum sanguine bellum ciuile restinctum est, absque illis decem milibus Gothorum, quos praemissos a Theodosio Arbogastes delesse funditus fertur: quos utique perdidisse lucrum et uinci uincere fuit. ²⁰ non insulto obtrectatoribus nostris.

¹⁹ a regard for human conscience took forethought for itself, for immediately the hostile army, routed by a small band of his own men, prostrated itself before Theodosius the victor; Eugenius was captured and slain; Arbogastes struck himself down with his own hand. thus here too the civil war was extinguished by the blood of two, apart from those ten thousand Goths, whom, sent ahead by Theodosius, Arbogastes is said to have utterly destroyed: the losing of whom was in any case a gain, and to be conquered was to conquer. ²⁰ I do not insult our detractors.

unum aliquod ab initio urbis conditae bellum proferant tam pia necessitate susceptum, tam diuina felicitate confectum, tam clementi benignitate sopitum, ubi nec pugna grauem caedem nec uictoria cruentam exegerit ultionem, et fortasse concedam, ut non haec fidei Christiani ducis concessa uideantur; ²¹ quamuis ego hoc testimonio non laborem, quando unus ex ipsis, poeta quidem eximius sed paganus peruicacissimus, huiusmodi uersibus et Deo et homini testimonium tulit, quibus ait:
O nimium dilecte Deo! tibi militat aether,
Et coniurati ueniunt ad classica uenti.

let them bring forward some one war from the beginning of the city’s founding, undertaken by so pious a necessity, finished by so divine a felicity, hushed by so clement a benignity, where neither battle exacted a grievous slaughter nor victory a bloody vengeance; and perhaps I will concede that these things do not seem to have been conceded to the faith of the Christian leader; ²¹ although I do not labor for this testimony, since one of them—indeed an exceptional poet but a most stubborn pagan—bore witness both to God and to the man with verses of this sort, in which he says:
O exceedingly beloved of God! for you the ether wages war,
And the winds, sworn together, come to the war-trumpets.

²² Ita caelitus iudicatum est inter partem etiam sine praesidio hominum de solo Deo humiliter sperantem et partem adrogantissime de uiribus suis et de idolis praesumentem.

²² Thus it was adjudged from heaven between the party even without the protection of men, hoping humbly in God alone, and the party most arrogantly presuming upon its own strengths and upon idols.

²³ Theodosius autem conposita tranquillataque republica apud Mediolanium constitutus diem obiit.

²³ But Theodosius, with the commonwealth composed and made tranquil, being settled at Mediolanum, died.

[36] Anno ab urbe condita MCXLVIIII Arcadius Augustus, cuius nunc filius Theodosius orientem regit, et Honorius Augustus frater eius, cui nunc respublica innititur, quadragensimo secundo loco commune imperium diuisis tantum sedibus tenere coeperunt; uixitque Arcadius post patris excessum annis duodecim imperiique summam Theodosio filio paruo admodum moriens tradidit.² interea Gildo comes, qui in initio regni eorum Africae praeerat, simul ut defunctum Theodosium comperit, siue (ut quidam ferunt) quadam permotus inuidia Africam orientalis imperii partibus iungere molitus est, ³ siue (ut alia tradit opinio) minimam in paruulis spem fore arbitratus - praesertim cum absque his non facile antea quisquam pusillus in imperio relictus ad maturitatem uirilis aetatis euaserit istique propemodum soli inueniantur, quos ob egregiam patris ac suam fidem et diuisos et destitutos Christi tutela prouexerit - Africam excerptam a societate reipublicae sibi usurpare ausus est, gentili magis licentia contentus quam ambitu regiae affectationis inflatus. ⁴ huic Mascezel frater fuit, qui nouarum rerum molitiones in fratre perhorrescens, relictis apud Africanam militiam duobus filiis adulescentibus in Italiam rediit.

[36] In the year from the city’s founding 1149, Arcadius Augustus, whose son Theodosius now rules the East, and Honorius Augustus his brother, upon whom the commonwealth now leans, in the forty-second place began to hold the common imperium, only the seats being divided; and Arcadius lived, after his father’s departure, twelve years, and dying he handed over the sum of the imperium to his son Theodosius, very small indeed.² Meanwhile Gildo, a count, who at the beginning of their reign was in charge of Africa, as soon as he learned that Theodosius had died, either (as some assert) moved by a certain envy, endeavored to join Africa to the parts of the Eastern imperium, ³ or (as another opinion hands down) judging there would be the least hope in the very small boys—especially since, apart from these, scarcely ever before has anyone left as a little one in the imperium reached the maturity of manly age, and almost these alone are found whom, on account of the outstanding faith of their father and their own, Christ’s tutelage has raised up, though divided and left unsupported—he dared to usurp Africa, torn out from the fellowship of the commonwealth, for himself, content rather with gentile license than inflated with the ambition of royal affectation. ⁴ He had a brother, Mascezel, who, shuddering at his brother’s plots for novelties, left behind in the African soldiery his two adolescent sons and returned to Italy.

Gildo, et absentiam fratris et praesentiam filiorum eius suspectam habens, adulescentes dolo circumuentos interfecit. ⁵ ad hunc iam ut hostem bello insequendum Mascezel frater missus est, quem idoneum procurandae reipublicae fore propriae orbitatis recens dolor pollicebatur. igitur Mascezel, iam inde a Theodosio sciens, quantum in rebus desperatissimis oratio hominis per fidem Christi a clementia Dei impetraret, Caprariam insulam adiit, unde secum sanctos seruos Dei aliquot permotos precibus suis sumpsit: cum his orationibus ieiuniis psalmis dies noctesque continuans sine bello uictoriam meruit ac sine caede uindictam.

Gildo, holding both his brother’s absence and the presence of his sons as suspect, killed the adolescents, having circumvented them by deceit. ⁵ Against him now, as an enemy to be pursued in war, the brother Mascezel was sent, whom the fresh pain of his own bereavement promised would be suitable for the management of the republic. Therefore Mascezel, knowing already from Theodosius how much, in the most desperate affairs, a man’s prayer through the faith of Christ might obtain from the clemency of God, went to the island Capraria, whence he took with him several holy servants of God, moved by his entreaties: with these, continuing days and nights in prayers, fasts, and psalms, he merited victory without war and vindication without slaughter.

⁶ Ardalio fluminis nomen est, quod fluit inter Theuesten et Ammederam ciuitates; ubi cum parua manu, hoc est cum quinque milibus (ut aiunt) militum, contra septuaginta milia hostium castra metatus, cum interiecta mora excedere loco oppositasque praeiacentis uallis angustias transgredi uellet, ⁷ incurrente nocte beatum Ambrosium episcopum Mediolani paulo ante defunctum per somnium sibi uidere uisus est significantem manu et inpacto ad humum ter baculo dicentem: hic, hic, hic. quod ille prudenti coniectura intellexit merito adnuntiantis fidem uictoriae, uerbo locum, numero diem significare. ⁸ substitit ac tertio demum die post noctem orationibus hymnisque peruigilem ab ipsis caelestium sacramentorum mysteriis in hostem circumfusum processit; ⁹ et cum ad eos, qui primi occurrerant, pia pacis uerba iactaret, signiferum quendam insolenter obsistentem et iamiamque pugnam excitantem gladio percussit in bracchio eumque manu.

⁶ Ardalio is the name of a river, which flows between the cities of Theveste and Ammedera; where, with a small band, that is with 5,000 (as they say) soldiers, against 70,000 of the enemy he pitched camp, and when, a delay having intervened, he wished to move out from the place and cross the narrow passes of the valley lying in front, ⁷ as night was falling he seemed to see in a dream the blessed Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who had died a little before, indicating with his hand and, his staff struck to the ground three times, saying: here, here, here. Which he, by prudent conjecture, understood as rightly announcing the faith of victory, the word to signify the place, the number the day. ⁸ He halted, and only on the third day, after a night kept sleepless with prayers and hymns, from the very mysteries of the heavenly sacraments he advanced against the enemy surrounding him; ⁹ and when to those who had first met him he was casting pious words of peace, he struck with his sword on the arm a certain standard-bearer who insolently opposed and was already rousing battle, and on the hand as well.

debilem ipso uulnere coegit pronum inclinare uexillum. ¹⁰ quo uiso reliquae cohortes deditionem iam fieri priorum existimantes certatim sese ad Mascezelem signis tradidere conuersis. barbari, quorum magnam multitudinem Gildo ad bellum deduxerat, defectu militum destituti in diuersa fugerunt.

he forced him, disabled by the wound itself, to bend the vexillum prone. ¹⁰ At this sight the remaining cohorts, supposing that a surrender was already being made by those in front, vied with one another to hand themselves over to Mascezel, their standards turned. The barbarians, a great multitude of whom Gildo had led to war, left destitute by the defection of the soldiers, fled in different directions.

¹¹ Gildo et ipse fugam molitus arrepta naui ut in altum prouectus ac deinde reuocatus in Africam est, post aliquot dies strangulatus interiit. ¹² periclitaremur sub tantorum miraculorum relatu quasi praesumpta mentiendi inpudentia, nisi adhuc uocem nostram conscientia eorum, qui interfuere, praecurreret. nullae aguntur insidiae, nulla corruptio; septuaginta milia hostium uincuntur paene sine pugna; fugit uictus ad tempus, ne plus audeat uictor iratus; transportatur in diuersum locum, ut nesciat frater occidi, quo uindicatur occiso.

¹¹ Gildo likewise himself, having engineered flight, with a ship seized, when he had been carried out into the deep and then was called back into Africa, after several days perished, strangled. ¹² We should be running peril under the report of so great miracles, as though by a presumed impudence of lying, unless even now our voice were anticipated by the conscience of those who were present. No plots are set in motion, no corruption; seventy thousand of the enemy are conquered almost without a fight; the defeated man flees for a time, lest an angry victor dare more; he is transported to a different place, so that his brother may not know he is being slain—by whose death the brother is avenged.

¹³ sane idem Mascezel elatus rerum secundarum insolentia, posthabito sanctorum consortio, cum quibus antea Deo militans uicerat, etiam ecclesiam temerare ausus est atque ex ea quosdam non dubitauit extrahere. secuta est poena sacrilegum. nam isdem superstitibus atque insultantibus, quos ab ecclesia ad poenam protraxerat, post aliquantum tempus solus ipse punitus est probauitque in se uno, ad utrumque semper diuinum uigilare iudicium, quando et, cum sperauit, adiutus et, cum contempsit, occisus est.

¹³ Indeed this same Mascezel, exalted by the insolence of favorable fortunes, with the fellowship of the saints set aside—with whom earlier, waging war for God, he had conquered—dared even to profane the church and did not hesitate to drag certain persons out from it. The penalty of the sacrilegious followed. For with the same men surviving and insulting, whom he had drawn forth from the church to punishment, after some time he himself alone was punished, and he proved in himself alone that the divine judgment is always vigilant for both alternatives, since both, when he hoped, he was aided, and, when he contemned, he was slain.

[37] Interea cum a Theodosio imperatore seniore singulis potissimis infantum cura et disciplina utriusque palatii commissa esset, hoc est Rufino orientalis aulae, Stiliconi occidentalis imperii, quid uterque egerit, quidue agere conatus sit, exitus utriusque docuit, cum alius sibi, alius filio suo affectans regale fastigium, ut rebus repente turbatis necessitas reipublicae scelus ambitus tegeret, barbaras gentes ille inmisit, hic fouit.² taceo de Alarico rege cum Gothis suis saepe uicto, saepe concluso semperque dimisso. taceo de infelicibus illis apud Pollentiam gestis, cum barbaro et pagano duci, hoc est Sauli, belli summa commissa est, cuius inprobitate reuerentissimi dies et sanctum pascha uiolatum est cedentique hosti propter religionem, ut pugnaret, extortum est: cum quidem, ostendente in breui iudicio Dei et quid fauor eius possit et quid ultio exigeret, pugnantes uicimus, uictores uicti sumus.

[37] Meanwhile, since by the elder Emperor Theodosius the care and discipline of the foremost of the children of each palace had been entrusted, that is, to Rufinus of the eastern court, to Stilicho of the western empire, what each did, and what each tried to do, the outcome of each made clear, since the one, aiming at the royal summit for himself, the other for his son, in order that, with affairs suddenly thrown into turmoil, the necessity of the commonwealth might cover the crime of ambition, that one let in barbarian nations, this one fostered them.² I am silent about King Alaric with his Goths, often conquered, often hemmed in, and always dismissed. I am silent about those ill-fated doings at Pollentia, when to a barbarian and pagan leader, that is, to Saul, the supreme command of the war was entrusted, by whose wickedness the most reverend days and holy Pascha were violated, and from an enemy withdrawing on account of religion it was wrung that he fight: when indeed, with God, in a brief judgment, showing both what His favor can do and what His vengeance demanded, fighting we conquered, as victors we were conquered.

³ taceo de ipsorum inter se barbarorum crebris dilacerationibus, cum se inuicem Gothorum cunei duo, deinde Alani atque Huni uariis caedibus populabantur. ⁴ Radagaisus, omnium antiquorum praesentiumque hostium longe immanissimus, repentino impetu totam inundauit Italiam. nam fuisse in populo eius plus quam ducenta milia Gothorum ferunt.

³ I pass over the frequent dilacerations of the barbarians among themselves, when the two wedges of the Goths, then the Alans and the Huns, were depopulating one another with various slaughters. ⁴ Radagaisus, by far the most savage of all enemies, ancient and present, with a sudden impetus inundated all Italy; for they report that there were in his people more than 200,000 Goths.

⁵ hic supra hanc incredibilem multitudinem indomitamque uirtutem paganus et Scytha erat, qui, ut mos est barbaris huiusmodi gentibus, omnem Romani generis sanguinem dis suis propinare deuouerat. ⁶ hoc igitur Romanis arcibus imminente fit omnium paganorum in urbe concursus, hostem esse cum utique copia uirium tum maxime praesidio deorum potentem, urbem autem ideo destitutam et mature perituram, quia deos et sacra perdiderit. ⁷ magnis querellis ubique agitur et continuo de repetendis sacris celebrandisque tractatur, feruent tota urbe blasphemiae, uulgo nomen Christi tamquam lues aliqua praesentium temporum probris ingrauatur.

⁵ he, over and above this incredible multitude and indomitable valor, was a pagan and a Scythian, who, as is the custom of barbarian peoples of this kind, had vowed to his gods to pour out all the blood of the Roman race as a drink-offering. ⁶ With this, therefore, looming over the Roman citadels, there is a concourse of all the pagans in the city, [saying] that the enemy is powerful both assuredly in abundance of forces and especially by the protection of the gods, but that the city is therefore forsaken and soon to perish, because it has lost the gods and the rites. ⁷ Everywhere great complaints are made and immediately there is discussion about rites to be taken up again and celebrated; blasphemies seethe through the whole city; commonly the name of Christ is burdened with reproaches as though it were some plague of the present times.

⁸ Itaque ineffabili iudicio Dei factum est, uti, quoniam in permixto populo piis gratia, poena impiis debebatur oportebatque permitti hostes, qui insuadibilem in plurimis et contradicentem ciuitatem seuerioribus solito flagris coarguerent, non tamen eos, qui indiscrete cunctos intemperata caede delerent - duo tunc Gothorum populi cum duobus potentissimis regibus suis per Romanas prouincias bacchabantur: ⁹ quorum unus Christianus propiorque Romano et, ut res docuit, timore Dei mitis in caede, alius paganus barbarus et uere Scytha, qui non tantum gloriam aut praedam quantum inexsaturabili crudelitate ipsam caedem amaret in caede, et hic iam sinu receptus Italiae Romam e proximo trementem terrore quassabat. ¹⁰ itaque si huic ultionis potestas permitteretur, quem Romani ob hoc praecipue timendum arbitrabantur, quia fauorem deorum sacrificiorum obsequiis inuitaret, et immoderatior caedes sine fructu emendationis arsisset et error nouissimus peior priore creuisset; quandoquidem in pagani et idololatrae manus incidisse, non solum paganis residuis de instaurando cultu idolorum esset indubitata persuasio sed etiam Christianis periculosa confusio, cum et hi terrerentur praeiudicio et illi confirmarentur exemplo. ¹¹ quamobrem iustus dispensator humani generis Deus perire paganum hostem uoluit et Christianum praeualere permisit, ut pagani blasphemantesque Romani et illo confunderentur perdito et hoc punirentur immisso; maxime cum imperatoris Honorii admiranda in rege continentia et sanctissima fides non parum diuinae misericordiae mereretur.

⁸ And so by the ineffable judgment of God it came about, that, since in a mixed populace grace was owed to the pious, punishment to the impious, it was fitting to permit enemies who would convict the city—unpersuadable in very many matters and gainsaying—with scourges severer than usual, yet not those who would indiscriminately destroy all with immoderate slaughter - two peoples of the Goths then, with their two most powerful kings, were raging through the Roman provinces: ⁹ of whom one was a Christian and nearer to the Roman and, as the event taught, by fear of God gentle in slaughter; the other a pagan barbarian and a true Scythian, who loved not so much glory or booty as, with insatiable cruelty, slaughter itself in slaughter, and this man, now taken into the bosom of Italy, was shaking Rome, trembling from close by, with terror. ¹⁰ Therefore, if to this one the power of vengeance were permitted, whom the Romans for this reason judged to be especially to be feared—because he would invite the favor of the gods by the observances of sacrifices—both a more immoderate slaughter would have blazed without the fruit of amendment and a newest error, worse than the former, would have grown; since, having fallen into the hands of a pagan and idololater, there would be not only for the remaining pagans an undoubted persuasion about restoring the cult of idols but also for the Christians a dangerous confusion, since both these would be terrified by the prejudgment and those would be confirmed by the example. ¹¹ Wherefore God, the just dispenser of the human race, willed the pagan enemy to perish and permitted the Christian to prevail, so that the pagans and the Romans blaspheming would both be confounded by that one destroyed and be punished by this one sent in; especially since the emperor Honorius’s admirable continence toward the king and most holy good faith not a little merited divine mercy.

¹² conceduntur quidem aduersus immanissimum illum hostem Radagaisum aliorum hostium cum copiis suis inclinati ad auxilium animi. adsunt Uldin et Sarus, Hunorum et Gothorum duces, praesidio Romanorum; sed non sinit Deus rem potentiae suae uirtutem hominum ac maxime hostium uideri. ¹³ conterritum diuinitus Radagaisum in Faesulanos montes cogit eiusque - secundum eos qui parcissime referunt - ducenta milia hominum inopum consilii et cibi in arido et aspero montis iugo, urguente undique timore concludit agminaque, quibus dudum angusta uidebatur Italia, latendi spe in unum ac paruum uerticem trudit.

¹² Granted, against that most monstrous enemy Radagaisus the minds of other enemies, with their own forces, were inclined to give aid. Uldin and Sarus are present, leaders of the Huns and of the Goths, for the protection of the Romans; but God does not permit that the matter of His power should be seen as the virtue of men, and especially of enemies. ¹³ He drives Radagaisus, divinely terrified, into the Faesulan mountains, and—according to those who report most sparingly—he encloses 200 thousand men of his, poor in counsel and in food, on the arid and asperous ridge of the mountain, with fear pressing on every side, and the columns, to which Italy had long seemed too narrow, he shoves by a hope of hiding onto one single and small summit.

¹⁴ quid multis morer? non disposita in bellum acies fuit, non furor timorque incerta pugnae praetulit; non caedes acta, non sanguis effusus est, non postremo - quod felicitatis loco deputari solet - damna pugnae euentu compensata uictoriae: edentibus bibentibus ludentibusque nostris tanti ilii tamque immanes hostes esurientes sitientes languentesque confecti sunt. ¹⁵ parum hoc est, nisi captum et subiugatum sciant, quem timuere Romani, illumque idololatram suum, cuius sacrificia se magis pertimescere quam arma fingebant, sine proelio uictum ac uinctum sub iugo catenisque despiciant.

¹⁴ Why should I linger with many words? no battle line was disposed for war, no fury and fear brought on the uncertainties of combat; no slaughter was done, no blood was poured out, nor finally—which is wont to be reckoned in the place of felicity—were the losses of battle compensated by the event of victory: while our men were eating, drinking, and playing, those enemies, so many and so monstrous, were consumed with hunger, thirst, and faintness. ¹⁵ This is too little, unless they know that the man whom the Romans feared was captured and subjugated, and unless they despise that their own idololater, whose sacrifices they feigned to fear more than arms, as defeated without battle and bound beneath the yoke and chains.

igitur rex Radagaisus solus spem fugae sumens clam suos deseruit atque in nostros incidit: a quibus captus et paulisper retentus ac deinde interfectus est. ¹⁶ tanta uero multitudo captiuorum Gothorum fuisse fertur, ut uilissimorum pecudum modo singulis aureis passim greges hominum uenderentur. sed nihil superesse Deus de eodem populo sinit.

Therefore King Radagaisus, taking alone the hope of flight, secretly deserted his own and fell into our hands: by whom he was captured and held for a short while and then slain. ¹⁶ So great a multitude of Gothic captives is reported to have been, that, in the manner of the cheapest cattle, herds of men were sold everywhere for single aurei. But God does not allow anything to remain of that same people.

nam ilico cunctis qui emebantur morientibus quod improbi emptores eorum non impenderunt turpiter pretiis, expenderunt misericorditer sepulturis. ¹⁷ igitur ingrata Roma, quae sicut nunc sensit non ad remittendam sed ad reprimendam idololatriae praesumptionem iudicis Dei obliquam misericordiam, ita continuo propter uiuorum mortuorumque sanctorum piam recordationem Dei iram passura non plenam, si forte confusa paeniteat et per experientiam fidem discat, ab incursu Alarici regis et hostis sed Christiani aliquantulo ad tempus spatio differtur.

for immediately, with all those who were being bought dying, what their wicked buyers did not spend shamefully on prices, they spent mercifully on burials. ¹⁷ therefore ungrateful Rome, which, just as it has now felt the oblique mercy of God the Judge, not for remitting but for repressing the presumption of idolatry, so at once, on account of the pious remembrance of the saints, living and dead, about to suffer not the full wrath of God—if perhaps, being confounded, it may repent and learn faith through experience—is deferred for a little space of time from the incursion of Alaric, a king and an enemy, but a Christian.

[38] Interea comes Stilico, Vandalorum inbellis auarae perfidae et dolosae gentis genere editus, parui pendens quod sub imperatore imperabat, Eucherium filium suum, sicut a plerisque traditur, iam inde Christianorum persecutionem a puero priuatoque meditantem, in imperium quoquo modo substituere nitebatur.² quamobrem Alaricum cunctamque Gothorum gentem, pro pace optima et quibuscumque sedibus suppliciter ac simpliciter orantem, occulto foedere fouens, publice autem et belli et pacis copia negata, ad terendam terrendamque rempublicam reseruauit. ³ praeterea gentes alias copiis uiribusque intolerabiles, quibus nunc Galliarum Hispaniarumque prouinciae premuntur, hoc est Alanorum Sueborum Vandalorum ipsoque simul motu inpulsorum Burgundionum, ultro in arma sollicitans, deterso semel Romani nominis metu suscitauit.

[38] Meanwhile Count Stilicho, born of the stock of the Vandals, an unwarlike, avaricious, perfidious, and deceitful nation, making little of the fact that he exercised command under the emperor, was striving to substitute his son Eucherius—who, as many relate, already from boyhood and as a private person was meditating a persecution of Christians—into the imperium by any means whatsoever.² For which reason, fostering Alaric and the whole nation of the Goths, who were beseeching humbly and simply for the best peace and for whatever settlements, by a secret pact, but publicly, with the opportunity of both war and peace denied, he reserved them to wear down and to terrify the republic. ³ Moreover, by proactively stirring into arms other nations intolerable in resources and in strength—by whom the provinces of the Gauls and of the Spains are now pressed—namely the Alans, Suebi, Vandals, and likewise the Burgundians, impelled at the same time by the very commotion, with the fear of the Roman name once wiped away, he aroused them.

⁴ eas interim ripas Rheni quatere et pulsare Gallias uoluit, sperans miser sub hac necessitatis circumstantia, quia et extorquere imperium genero posset in filium et barbarae gentes tam facile comprimi quam commoueri ualerent. ⁵ itaque ubi imperatori Honorio exercituique Romano haec tantorum scelerum scaena patefacta est, commoto iustissime exercitu occisus est Stilico, qui ut unum puerum purpura indueret, totius generis humani sanguinem dedidit; ⁶ occisus Eucherius, qui ad conciliandum sibi fauorem paganorum restitutione templorum et euersione ecclesiarum inbuturum se regni primordia minabatur, paucique cum isdem satellites tantarum molitionum puniti sunt. ita minimo negotio paucorumque poena ecclesiae Christi cum imperatore religioso et liberatae sunt et uindicatae.

⁴ meanwhile he wished to shake those banks of the Rhine and to batter the Gauls, the wretch hoping under this circumstance of necessity that he both could extort the imperium from his son-in-law for his son, and that the barbarian gentes might be able to be compressed as easily as they could be stirred. ⁵ therefore, when to the emperor Honorius and to the Roman army this scena of such great crimes was laid open, with the army most justly aroused Stilicho was slain, who, that he might clothe one boy with the purple, gave over the blood of the whole human race; ⁶ Eucherius was slain, who, to conciliate to himself the favor of the pagans, was threatening that he would imbrue the beginnings of his reign with the restitution of temples and the overthrow of churches, and a few satellites together with him, men of such machinations, were punished. thus with the least business and by the punishment of a few, the churches of Christ, together with the religious emperor, were both freed and vindicated.

⁷ Itaque post haec tanta augmenta blasphemiarum nullamque paenitentiam ultima illa diuque suspensa urbem poena consequitur.

⁷ Therefore, after these so great augmentations of blasphemies and no penitence, that ultimate punishment, long suspended, overtakes the city.

[39] adest Alaricus, trepidam Romam obsidet turbat inrumpit, dato tamen praecepto prius, ut si qui in sancta loca praecipueque in sanctorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli basilicas confugissent, hos inprimis inuiolatos securosque esse sinerent, tum deinde in quantum possent praedae inhiantes a sanguine temperarent.² accidit quoque, quo magis illa urbis inruptio indignatione Dei acta quam hostis fortitudine probaretur, ut beatus Innocentius, Romanae urbis episcopus, tamquam iustus Loth subtractus a Sodomis occulta prouidentia Dei apud Rauennam tunc positus, peccatoris populi non uideret excidium. ³ discurrentibus per urbem barbaris forte unus Gothorum idemque potens et Christianus sacram Deo uirginem iam aetate prouectam, in quadam ecclesiastica domo reperit, cumque ab ea aurum argentumque honeste exposceret, ⁴ illa fideli constantia esse apud se plurimum et mox proferendum spopondit ac protulit, cumque expositis opibus attonitum barbarum magnitudine pondere pulchritudine, ignota etiam uasorum qualitate intellegeret, uirgo Christi ad barbarum ait: ⁵ haec Petri apostoli sacra ministeria sunt.

[39] Alaric is present; he besieges, throws into turmoil, and bursts into trembling Rome, yet with a command first given, that if any had fled for refuge into the holy places, and especially into the basilicas of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, they should allow these above all to be inviolate and secure, then next, in so far as they could, though gaping for plunder, they should refrain from blood.² It also befell, that the irruption into the city might be proved to have been driven by the indignation of God rather than by the enemy’s fortitude, that blessed Innocent, bishop of the Roman city, like the just Lot withdrawn from Sodom by the hidden providence of God, being then situated at Ravenna, did not see the destruction of the sinful people. ³ As the barbarians were running through the city, by chance one of the Goths—powerful, and a Christian—found a virgin sacred to God, already advanced in age, in a certain ecclesiastical house; and when he respectfully asked from her gold and silver, ⁴ she, with faithful constancy, promised that she had very much with her and would soon bring it forth, and she brought it forth; and when, with the treasures set out, she understood the barbarian to be astonished at the greatness, weight, and beauty, and also ignorant of the quality of the vessels, the virgin of Christ said to the barbarian: ⁵ These are the sacred ministries of the apostle Peter.

praesume, si audes; de facto tu uideris. ego quia defendere nequeo, tenere non audeo. ⁶ barbarus uero ad reuerentiam religionis timore Dei et fide uirginis motus ad Alaricum haec per nuntium rettulit: qui continuo reportari ad apostoli basilicam uniuersa ut erant uasa imperauit, ⁷ uirginem etiam simulque omnes qui se adiungerent Christianos eodem cum defensione deduci. ea domus a sanctis sedibus longe ut ferunt et medio interiectu urbis aberat.

“Presume, if you dare; as for the deed, you see to it. I, since I cannot defend it, do not dare to hold it.”. ⁶ But the barbarian, moved to reverence for religion by fear of God and by the virgin’s faith, reported these things by a messenger to Alaric: who immediately ordered that all the vessels be carried back, just as they were, to the basilica of the Apostle, ⁷ and that the virgin also, and likewise all Christians who should join themselves, be conducted to the same place with protection. That house, as they tell, was far from the holy seats, with the middle of the city intervening.

⁸ itaque magno spectaculo omnium disposita per singulos singula et super capita elata palam aurea atque argentea uasa portantur; exertis undique ad defensionem gladiis pia pompa munitur; ⁹ hymnum Deo Romanis barbarisque concinentibus publice canitur; personat late in excidio urbis salutis tuba omnesque etiam in abditis latentes inuitat ac pulsat; ¹⁰ concurrunt undique ad uasa Petri uasa Christi, plurimi etiam pagani Christianis professione etsi non fide admiscentur et per hoc tamen ad tempus, quo magis confundantur, euadunt; quanto copiosius adgregantur Romani confugientes, tanto auidius circumfunduntur barbari defensores. ¹¹ o sacra et ineffabilis diuini iudicii discretio! o sanctum istud et salutare flumen, quod parua exortum domo, dum beato alueo in sanctorum sedes tendit, oberrantes periclitantesque animas in salutis sinum pia rapacitate peruexit!

⁸ therefore, to the great spectacle of all, item by item arranged for individuals and lifted above heads, openly the golden and silver vessels are carried; with swords drawn on all sides for defense, the pious pomp is fortified; ⁹ a hymn to God is sung publicly, with Romans and barbarians singing together in concord; far and wide, amid the destruction of the city, the trumpet of salvation resounds, and it invites and knocks at all, even those hiding in secret places; ¹⁰ from every side the vessels of Christ run together to the vessels of Peter; very many pagans too are mingled with the Christians in profession, though not in faith, and by this, nevertheless for a time, they escape, that they may be the more confounded; the more copiously the Romans gather as refugees, the more eagerly the barbarian defenders surround them. ¹¹ O sacred and ineffable discrimination of the divine judgment! O that holy and health-giving river which, sprung from a small house, while it tends along a blessed channel toward the seats of the saints, has borne into the bosom of salvation, with pious rapacity, souls wandering and in peril!

¹² o praeclara illa Christianae militiae tuba, quae generaliter cunctos dulcissimo ad uitam modulamine inuitans, quos ad salutem inoboedientes non suscitauit, inexcusabiles reliquit ad mortem. ¹³ mysterium hoc, quod in transferendis uasis, dicendis hymnis, ducendis populis fuit, tamquam magnum cribrum fuisse arbitror, per quod ex congregatione populi Romani tamquam ex magna massa frumenti per omnia ex uniuerso ambitu ciuitatis latebrarum foramina effluxere grana uiua siue occasione siue ueritate commota; ¹⁴ omnia tamen de praesenti salute credentia ex horreo dominicae praeparationis accepta sunt, reliqua uero uelut stercora et uelut paleae, ipsa uel incredulitate uel inoboedientia praeiudicata, ad exterminium atque incendium remanserunt. quis haec perpendere plenis miraculis, quis praedicare dignis laudibus queat?

¹² O that illustrious trumpet of the Christian soldiery, which, inviting all in general to life with the sweetest modulation, left inexcusable unto death those whom it did not rouse to salvation in their disobedience. ¹³ This mystery, which was in the transferring of the vessels, the singing of hymns, the leading of peoples, I judge to have been as it were a great sieve, through which from the congregation of the Roman people, as from a great mass of grain, through all the holes of hiding-places throughout the entire circuit of the city there flowed out living grains, moved either by occasion or by truth; ¹⁴ all, however, believing concerning present salvation were received from the granary of the Lord’s preparation, but the rest, like dung and like chaff, themselves pre-judged either by unbelief or by disobedience, remained for extermination and for conflagration. Who can weigh these things, full of miracles, who can proclaim them with worthy praises?

¹⁵ Tertia die barbari quam ingressi urbem fuerant sponte discedunt, facto quidem aliquantarum aedium incendio sed ne tanto quidem quantum septingentesimo conditionis eius anno casus effecerat. ¹⁶ nam si exhibitam Neronis imperatoris sui spectaculis inflammationem recenseam, procul dubio nulla conparatione aequiperabitur secundum id, quod excitauerat lasciuia principis, hoc, quod nunc intulit ira uictoris. ¹⁷ neque uero Gallorum meminisse in huiusmodi conlatione debeo, qui continuo paene anni spatio incensae euersaeque urbis adtritos cineres possederunt.

¹⁵ On the third day after the barbarians had entered the city, they depart of their own accord, with a conflagration indeed made of some houses, but not even so great as the disaster had effected in the 700th year of its foundation. ¹⁶ For if I recount the inflammation exhibited by their emperor Nero for his spectacles, beyond doubt by no comparison will this be equated with that: that which the lasciviousness of the prince had aroused, and this which the wrath of the victor has now inflicted. ¹⁷ Nor indeed ought I to make mention of the Gauls in a comparison of this sort, who for almost the continuous space of a year possessed the ground-down ashes of a burned and overthrown city.

¹⁸ et ne quisquam forte dubitaret ad correptionem superbae lasciuae et blasphemae ciuitatis hostibus fuisse permissum, eodem tempore clarissima urbis loca fulminibus diruta sunt, quae inflammari ab hostibus nequiuerunt.

¹⁸ and lest anyone perhaps should doubt that it had been permitted to the enemies for the correction of the proud, wanton, and blasphemous city, at the same time the most illustrious places of the city were overthrown by thunderbolts, which the enemies were not able to set on fire.

[40] Anno itaque ab urbe condita MCLXIIII inruptio urbis per Alaricum facta est: cuius rei quamuis recens memoria sit, tamen si quis ipsius populi Romani et multitudinem uideat et uocem audiat, nihil factum, sicut etiam ipsi fatentur, arbitrabitur, nisi aliquantis adhuc existentibus ex incendio ruinis forte doceatur.² in ea inruptione Placidia, Theodosii principis filia, Arcadii et Honorii imperatorum soror, ab Athaulfo, Alarici propinquo, capta atque in uxorem adsumpta, quasi eam diuino iudicio uelut speciale pignus obsidem Roma tradiderit, ita iuncta potentissimo barbari regis coniugio multo reipublicae commodo fuit.

[40] Therefore, in the year 1164 from the founding of the City, the irruption of the city was effected by Alaric: the memory of which affair, although recent, yet if anyone should see the very multitude of the Roman people and hear their voice, he will judge that nothing was done, as even they themselves confess, unless he be perchance taught by certain ruins still existing from the conflagration.² In that irruption, Placidia, daughter of the princeps Theodosius, sister of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius, was captured by Ataulf, kinsman of Alaric, and taken in marriage, as though Rome by divine judgment had handed her over as a special pledge, a hostage; thus, being joined in wedlock to the most powerful barbarian king, she was of much advantage to the republic.

³ Interea ante biennium Romanae inruptionis excitatae per Stiliconem gentes Alanorum, ut dixi, Sueborum Vandalorum multaeque cum his aliae Francos proterunt, Rhenum transeunt, Gallias inuadunt directoque impetu Pyrenaeum usque perueniunt: cuius obice ad tempus repulsae, per circumiacentes prouincias refunduntur.

³ Meanwhile, two years before the inruption of Rome, the peoples of the Alans, as I said, of the Suebi, of the Vandals, and many others with them, overwhelm the Franks, cross the Rhine, invade the Gauls, and with a direct impetus reach as far as the Pyrenees: repelled for a time by its barrier, they are poured back through the surrounding provinces.

⁴ His per Gallias bacchantibus apud Britannias Gratianus, municeps eiusdem insulae, tyrannus creatur et occiditur. huius loco Constantinus ex infima militia propter solam spem nominis sine merito uirtutis eligitur: qui continuo, ut inuasit imperium, in Gallias transiit. ibi saepe a barbaris incertis foederibus inlusus, detrimento magis reipublicae fuit.

⁴ While these were raging through Gaul, in Britain Gratian, a native of that same island, is created tyrant and is killed. In his place Constantine, from the lowest rank of the soldiery, is chosen on account of the sole hope of his name, without merit of virtue; who immediately, as soon as he had seized the imperial power, crossed into Gaul. There, often deluded by the barbarians with uncertain treaties, he proved more a detriment to the republic.

⁵ misit in Hispanias iudices: quos cum prouinciae oboedienter accepissent, duo fratres iuuenes nobiles et locupletes Didymus et Verinianus non assumere aduersus tyrannum quidem tyrannidem sed imperatori iusto aduersus tyrannum et barbaros tueri sese patriamque suam moliti sunt. quod ipso gestae rei ordine patuit. ⁶ nam tyrannidem nemo nisi celeriter maturatam secrete inuadit et publice armat, cuius summa est assumpto diademate ac purpura uideri antequam sciri; hi uero plurimo tempore seruulos tantum suos ex propriis praediis colligentes ac uernaculis alentes sumptibus nec dissimulato proposito absque cuiusquam inquietudine ad Pyrenaei claustra tendebant.

⁵ he sent judges into the Spains: when the provinces had received them obediently, two brothers, young, noble, and wealthy, Didymus and Verinianus, did not assume tyranny indeed against the tyrant, but endeavored, for the just emperor against the tyrant and the barbarians, to protect themselves and their fatherland. which was evident from the very order of the deed. ⁶ for no one seizes upon tyranny unless, quickly ripened, he invades it in secret and arms it in public, whose sum is—after the diadem and the purple have been assumed—to be seen before being known; but they, for a very long time, gathering only their own slaves from their own estates and sustaining homeborns at their own expense, and with their purpose not concealed, without anyone’s disturbance, were making for the barriers of the Pyrenees.

⁷ aduersus hos Constantinus Constantem filium suum, - pro dolor! - ex monacho Caesarem factum, cum barbaris quibusdam, qui quondam in foedus recepti atque in militiam allecti Honoriaci uocabantur, in Hispanias misit. hinc apud Hispanias prima mali labes.

⁷ against these Constantine sent his son Constans—alas!—made Caesar from a monk, with certain barbarians who once, received into a treaty and enlisted into the militia, were called the Honoriaci, into Spain. hence in Spain the first taint of evil.

⁸ nam interfectis illis fratribus, qui tutari priuato praesidio Pyrenaei Alpes moliebantur, his barbaris quasi in pretium uictoriae primum praedandi in Palentinis campis licentia data, dehinc supra dicti montis claustrorumque eius cura permissa est remota rusticanorum fideli et utili custodia. ⁹ igitur Honoriaci inbuti praeda et inlecti abundantia, quo magis scelus inpunitum foret atque ipsi sceleri plus liceret, prodita Pyrenaei custodia claustrisque patefactis cunctas gentes, quae per Gallias uagabantur, Hispaniarum prouinciis inmittunt isdemque ipsi adiunguntur: ¹⁰ ubi actis aliquamdiu magnis cruentisque discursibus, post graues rerum atque hominum uastationes, de quibus ipsos quoque modo paenitet, habita sorte et distributa usque ad nunc possessione consistunt.

⁸ for, those brothers having been slain, who were striving to protect the Pyrenean Alps by private garrison, to those barbarians, as though in price of victory, there was first given license to prey in the Palentine fields, then the care of the aforesaid mountain and its barriers was entrusted to them, the faithful and useful guard of the countryfolk having been removed. ⁹ therefore the Honoriaci, imbued with booty and enticed by abundance, in order that the crime might be the more unpunished and that to crime itself more might be permitted, the guard of the Pyrenees betrayed and the passes thrown open, let into the provinces of the Spains all the nations which were wandering through the Gauls, and they themselves are joined to the same. ¹⁰ where, great and blood-stained raids having been carried on for some time, after heavy devastations of goods and of men—over which now even they themselves in some manner repent—by lot being taken and possession distributed, they settle and remain even to now.

[41] Multa nunc mihi de huiuscemodi rebus loquendi facultas foret, si non secundum omnes homines apud unius cuiusque mentem conscientia secreta loqueretur.² inruptae sunt Hispaniae, caedes uastationesque passae sunt: nihil quidem nouum, hoc enim nunc per biennium illud, quo hostilis gladius saeuiit, sustinuere a barbaris, quod per ducentos quondam annos passae fuerant a Romanis, quod etiam sub Gallieno imperatore per annos propemodum duodecim Germanis euertentibus exceperunt. ³ uerumtamen quis non se, qui sui suorumque actuum uel etiam cogitationum conscius iudicia Dei metuit, iuste omnia passum uel etiam parua sustinuisse fateatur?

[41] I would now have much capacity for speaking about matters of this kind, if a secret conscience were not speaking, in accord with all men, within each one’s mind.² The Spains have been broken into, slaughters and devastations have been suffered: nothing indeed new, for in that biennium during which the hostile sword raged they have now endured from the barbarians what for two hundred years once they had suffered from the Romans, and what also under the emperor Gallienus, for almost twelve years, with the Germans overturning, they received. ³ Nevertheless, who would not admit himself—who, being conscious of his own and his people’s deeds, or even thoughts, fears the judgments of God—to have suffered all things justly, or even to have borne little?

aut qui se non intellegit Deumque non metuit, quomodo non iuste ista et quidem parua sustinuit? ⁴ quae cum ita sint, illud tamen clementia Dei eadem pietate, qua dudum praedixerat, procurauit, ut secundum euangelium suum, quo incessabiliter commonebat: cum uos persecuti fuerint in una ciuitate, fugite in aliam, quisque egredi atque abire uellet, ipsis barbaris mercennariis ministris ac defensoribus uteretur. ⁵ hoc tunc ipsi ultro offerebant; et qui auferre omnia interfectis omnibus poterant, particulam stipendii ob mercedem seruitii sui et transuecti oneris flagitabant.

or he who does not understand himself and does not fear God, how has he not justly endured these things, and indeed small ones? ⁴ Since these things are so, nevertheless the clemency of God, with the same piety with which he had earlier foretold, has provided this: that, according to his gospel, by which he incessantly admonished, ‘when they shall have persecuted you in one city, flee into another,’ whoever might wish to go out and depart would use the very barbarians as mercenary ministers and defenders. ⁵ This then they themselves were offering unbidden; and they who could carry off everything, with all slain, were demanding a small portion of a stipend as the wage of their service and for the transport of the burden.

et hoc quidem a plurimis factum est. ⁶ qui autem non crediderunt euangelio Dei quasi contumaces, uel si etiam non audierunt dupliciter contumaces, non dederunt locum irae, iuste a superueniente ira conprehensi et oppressi sunt. ⁷ quamquam et post hoc quoque continuo barbari exsecrati gladios suos ad aratra conuersi sunt residuosque Romanos ut socios modo et amicos fouent, ut inueniantur iam inter eos quidam Romani, qui malint inter barbaros pauperem libertatem, quam inter Romanos tributariam sollicitudinem sustinere.

and this indeed was done by very many. ⁶ but those who did not believe the Gospel of God, as though contumacious, or even if they did not hear it—doubly contumacious—did not give place to wrath; justly were they seized and oppressed by the supervening wrath. ⁷ and yet even after this straightway the barbarians, having execrated their swords, were turned to ploughs, and they cherish the remaining Romans now as allies and friends, so that now among them certain Romans are found who would prefer among the barbarians a poor liberty to enduring among the Romans a tributary solicitude.

⁸ quamquam si ob hoc solum barbari Romanis finibus inmissi forent, quod uulgo per orientem et occidentem ecclesiae Christi Hunis Suebis Vandalis et Burgundionibus diuersisque innumeris credentium populis replentur, laudanda et adtollenda misericordia Dei uideretur, quandoquidem, etsi cum labefactione nostri, tantae gentes agnitionem ueritatis acciperent, quam inuenire utique nisi hac occasione non possent. ⁹ quid enim damni est Christiano ad uitam aeternam inhianti, huic saeculo quolibet tempore et quoquo pacto abstrahi? quid autem lucri est pagano in medio Christianorum aduersus fidem obdurato, si paulo diutius diem protrahat, quandoque morituro, cui desperata conuersio est?

⁸ although, if for this alone the barbarians had been unleashed into Roman borders—that commonly through the Orient and the Occident the churches of Christ are being filled with Huns, Suebi, Vandals, and Burgundians, and with diverse innumerable peoples of believers—the mercy of God would seem worthy of praise and to be exalted, since indeed, although with the labefaction of our own estate, so great nations would receive the recognition of truth, which assuredly they could not find except by this occasion. ⁹ For what loss is it to a Christian, yearning toward eternal life, to be withdrawn from this age at whatever time and by whatever manner? But what profit is there to a pagan, hardened against the faith in the midst of Christians, if he prolongs his day a little longer, since he will die eventually, for whom conversion is despaired of?

¹⁰ Et quia ineffabilia sunt iudicia Dei, quae nec scire omnia nec explicare quae scimus possumus, breuiter expresserim, correptionem iudicis Dei, quoquo pacto accidat, iuste sustinere qui sciunt, iuste sustinere qui nesciunt.

¹⁰ And because the judgments of God are ineffable, which we can neither know in their entirety nor explain what we do know, let me briefly express this: the correction of God the Judge, in whatever way it happens, those who know justly endure, and those who do not know justly endure.

[42] Anno ab urbe condita MCLXV Honorius imperator, uidens tot oppositis tyrannis nihil aduersus barbaros agi posse, ipsos prius tyrannos deleri iubet. Constantio comiti huius belli summa commissa est.² sensit tunc demum respublica et quam utilitatem in Romano tandem duce receperit et quam eatenus perniciem per longa tempora barbaris comitibus subiecta tolerarit.

[42] In the year from the founding of the city 1165 Honorius the emperor, seeing that with so many tyrants set in opposition nothing could be done against the barbarians, ordered that the tyrants themselves first be destroyed. To the count Constantius the supreme command of this war was entrusted.² then at last did the commonwealth feel both what advantage it had recovered in a Roman leader at last, and how far a ruin it had endured for long times, subjected to barbarian counts.

³ igitur Constantius comes in Galliam cum exercitu profectus, Constantinum imperatorem apud Arelatem ciuitatem clausit cepit occidit.

³ therefore Count Constantius, having set out into Gaul with the army, shut up the emperor Constantine at the city of Arelate, captured him, and killed him.

⁴ Iam hinc, ut de catalogo tyrannorum quam breuissime loquar, Constantem Constantini filium Gerontius comes suus, uir nequam magis quam probus, apud Viennam interfecit atque in eius locum Maximum quendam substituit. ipse uero Gerontius a suis militibus occisus est. ⁵ Maximus exutus purpura destitutusque a militibus Gallicanis, qui in Africam traiecti, deinde in Italiam reuocati sunt, nunc inter barbaros in Hispania egens exulat.

⁴ Now from here, so that I may speak as briefly as possible about the catalog of tyrants: Constans, the son of Constantine, was slain at Vienne by his own count Gerontius, a man wicked rather than upright, and in his place he substituted a certain Maximus. But Gerontius himself was killed by his own soldiers. ⁵ Maximus, stripped of the purple and deserted by the Gallican soldiers, who were ferried over into Africa and then recalled into Italy, now, needy, is exiled among the barbarians in Spain.

⁶ Iouinus postea uir Galliarum nobilissimus in tyrannidem mox ut adsurrexit et cecidit. Sebastianus frater eiusdem hoc solum, ut tyrannus moreretur, elegit: nam continuo ut creatus occisus est. ⁷ quid de infelicissimo Attalo loquar, cui occidi inter tyrannos honor et mori lucrum fuit?

⁶ Jovinus afterward, a most noble man of the Gauls, into tyranny, as soon as he rose up, also fell. Sebastianus, his brother, chose this only: to die as a tyrant; for immediately, as soon as he was created, he was killed. ⁷ What shall I say of the most unfortunate Attalus, for whom to be killed among tyrants was an honor, and to die was a gain?

in hoc Alaricus imperatore facto infecto refecto ac defecto, citius his omnibus actis paene quam dictis, mimum risit et ludum spectauit imperii; ⁸ nec mirum si iure hac pompa miser lusus est, cuius ille umbratilis consul Tertullus ausus est in curia dicere: loquar uobis, patres conscripti, consul et pontifex, quorum alterum teneo, alterum spero, sperans ab eo qui spem non habebat et maledictus utique, quia spem suam posuerat in homine. ⁹ Attalus itaque tamquam inane imperii simulacrum cum Gothis usque ad Hispanias portatus est, unde discedens naui incerta moliens in mari captus et ad Constantium comitem deductus, deinde imperatori Honorio exhibitus truncata manu uitae relictus est. ¹⁰ Heraclianus interea Africae comes missus, cum idem Attalus umbram gestaret imperii, Africam strenue aduersum iudices ab eo missos tutatus, consulatum adsecutus est; ¹¹ quo elatus supercilio Sabinum domesticum suum, uirum ingenio callidum industriaque sollertem et sapientem nominandum si animi uires tranquillis studiis adcommodauisset, generum allegit; ¹² cum quo quorundam periculorum suspiciones dum patitur fecit atque, aliquamdiu Africana annona extra ordinem detenta, ipse tandem cum inmensa, certe temporibus nostris satis incredibili classe nauium Romam contendit.

in this Alaric, with an emperor made, unmade, remade, and undone, all these things done almost faster than said, he laughed at the mime and watched the play of empire; ⁸ nor is it a marvel if with good right in this pageant the wretch was toyed with, whose shadowy consul Tertullus dared to say in the Curia: I will speak to you, Conscript Fathers, as consul and pontifex, of which the one I hold, the other I hope for, hoping from him who had no hope, and surely accursed, because he had placed his hope in a man. ⁹ Attalus therefore, as an empty simulacrum of empire, was carried with the Goths as far as the Spains; whence departing, attempting an uncertain voyage by ship, he was seized at sea and led to the Count Constantius, then presented to the emperor Honorius; with his hand cut off he was left alive. ¹⁰ Meanwhile Heraclianus, sent as Count of Africa, while that same Attalus was bearing the shadow of empire, stoutly defended Africa against the judges sent by him, and attained the consulate; ¹¹ uplifted in brow thereat, he chose as his son-in-law Sabinus, his domesticus, a man clever in wit and dexterous in industry, and one to be named wise if he had applied the forces of his mind to tranquil studies; ¹² with whom, while he was allowing suspicions of certain dangers, he created them, and, the African grain-supply for some time detained out of course, he himself at length, with an immense—surely in our times quite unbelievable—fleet of ships, made for Rome.

¹³ nam habuisse tunc tria milia septingentas naues dicitur, quem numerum ne apud Xerxen quidem praeclarum illum Persarum regem et Alexandrum Magnum uel quemquam alium regum fuisse historiae ferunt. ¹⁴ is simul ut cum agmine militum ad urbem pergens litore egressus est, occursu comitis Marini territus et in fugam uersus, arrepta naui solus Carthaginem rediit atque ibi continuo militari manu interfectus est. Sabinus gener eius Constantinopolim fugit, unde post aliquantum temporis retractus exilioque damnatus est.

¹³ for he is said at that time to have had 3,700 ships, a number which histories report not to have existed even in the case of Xerxes, that illustrious king of the Persians, and Alexander the Great, or any other of the kings. ¹⁴ he, as soon as, proceeding with a column of soldiers toward the city, he went ashore on the coast, terrified at the encounter with Count Marinus and turned to flight, seized a ship and returned alone to Carthage, and there immediately was slain by a military band. Sabinus, his son-in-law, fled to Constantinople, whence after some time he was brought back and condemned to exile.

¹⁵ Hunc omnem catalogum, ut dixi, uel manifestorum tyrannorum uel inoboedientium ducum optima Honorius imperator religione et felicitate meruit, magna Constantius comes industria et celeritate confecit: ¹⁶ merito sane, quia in his diebus praecipiente Honorio et adiuuante Constantio pax et unitas per uniuersam Africam Ecclesiae catholicae reddita est et corpus Christi, quod nos sumus, redintegrata discissione sanatum est, imposita exsecutione sacri praecepti Marcellino tribuno, uiro inprimis prudenti et industrio omniumque bonorum studiorum appetentissimo. ¹⁷ quem Marinus comes apud Carthaginem - incertum zelo stimulatus an auro corruptus - occidit: qui continuo reuocatus ex Africa factusque priuatus uel ad poenam uel ad paenitentiam conscientiae suae dimissus est.

¹⁵ This whole catalogue, as I said, whether of manifest tyrants or of inobedient leaders, the most excellent Emperor Honorius merited by excellent religion and felicity, and the Count Constantius, by great industry and celerity, brought to completion: ¹⁶ deservedly indeed, because in these days, with Honorius giving the precept and Constantius aiding, peace and unity throughout all Africa were restored to the Catholic Church, and the Body of Christ, which we are, with the discission reintegrated, was healed, the execution of the sacred precept being imposed upon Marcellinus the tribune, a man eminently prudent and industrious and most eager for all good pursuits. ¹⁷ Him the count Marinus at Carthage—uncertain whether stirred by zeal or corrupted by gold—killed: who immediately, recalled from Africa and made a private person, was dismissed either to the punishment or to the penitence of his own conscience.

[43] Anno ab urbe condita MCLXVIII Constantius comes apud Arelatem Galliae urbem consistens, magna rerum gerendarum industria Gothos a Narbona expulit atque abire in Hispaniam coegit interdicto praecipue atque intercluso omni commeatu nauium et peregrinorum usu commerciorum.² Gothorum tunc populis Athaulfus rex praeerat: qui post inruptionem urbis ac mortem Alarici Placidia, ut dixi, captiua sorore imperatoris in uxorem adsumpta Alarico in regnum successerat. ³ is, ut saepe auditum atque ultimo exitu eius probatum est, satis studiose sectator pacis militare fideliter Honorio imperatori ac pro defendenda Romana republica inpendere uires Gothorum praeoptauit.

[43] In the year from the founding of the city 1168, Constantius the count, stationed at Arelate, a city of Gaul, with great industry in the conducting of affairs drove the Goths from Narbo and forced them to depart into Hispania, by prohibiting, above all, and by shutting off all convoy of ships and the use of commerce by foreigners.² Over the peoples of the Goths at that time King Athaulfus presided: who, after the irruption of the city and the death of Alaric, having taken in marriage Placidia, as I said, the emperor’s sister, a captive, succeeded Alaric in the kingship. ³ He, as has often been heard and was proved by his final outcome, quite zealously, a pursuer of peace, preferred to soldier faithfully for Emperor Honorius and to expend the forces of the Goths for defending the Roman commonwealth.

⁴ nam ego quoque ipse uirum quendam Narbonensem inlustris sub Theodosio militiae, etiam religiosum prudentemque et grauem, apud Bethleem oppidum Palaestinae beatissimo Hieronymo presbytero referentem audiui, se familiarissimum Athaulfo apud Narbonam fuisse ac de eo saepe sub testificatione didicisse, quod ille, cum esset animo uiribus ingenioque nimius, referre solitus esset: ⁵ se inprimis ardenter inhiasse, ut oblitterato Romano nomine Romanum omne solum Gothorum imperium et faceret et uocaret essetque, ut uulgariter loquar, Gothia quod Romania fuisset et fieret nunc Athaulfus quod quondam Caesar Augustus, ⁶ at ubi multa experientia probauisset neque Gothos ullo modo parere legibus posse propter effrenatam barbariem neque reipublicae interdici leges oportere, sine quibus respublica non est respublica, elegisse saltim, ut gloriam sibi de restituendo in integrum augendoque Romano nomine Gothorum uiribus quaereret habereturque apud posteros Romanae restitutionis auctor, postquam esse non potuerat immutator. ⁷ ob hoc abstinere a bello, ob hoc inhiare paci nitebatur, praecipue Placidiae uxoris suae, feminae sane ingenio acerrimae et religione satis probae, ad omnia bonarum ordinationum opera persuasu et consilio temperatus. ⁸ cumque eidem paci petendae atque offerendae studiosissime insisteret, apud Barcinonam Hispaniae urbem dolo suorum, ut fertur, occisus est.

⁴ for I too myself heard a certain man of Narbonne, of illustrious military service under Theodosius, also religious, prudent, and grave, relating at Bethlehem, a town of Palestine, in the presence of the most blessed Jerome, presbyter, that he had been most intimate with Athaulf at Narbonne and had often learned about him with attestation, namely that he, since he was excessive in spirit, in strength, and in ingenuity, used to say: ⁵ that he had at first ardently longed that, the Roman name obliterated, he might both make and call all Roman soil the empire of the Goths, and that, to speak popularly, Gothia should be what Romania had been, and that Athaulf should now become what once Caesar Augustus had been; ⁶ but when by much experience he had proved that the Goths could in no way obey laws on account of unbridled barbarism, and that it was not fitting that laws be interdicted to the commonwealth, without which the commonwealth is not a commonwealth, he had chosen at least to seek glory for himself from restoring to wholeness and enlarging the Roman name by the forces of the Goths, and to be held among posterity as the author of Roman restoration, since he had not been able to be its changer. ⁷ On this account he strove to abstain from war, on this account he longed for peace, being moderated—especially by the persuasion and counsel of Placidia his wife, a woman truly most keen in intellect and sufficiently upright in religion—for all works of good ordering. ⁸ And when he was most zealously insisting on both seeking and offering that same peace, at Barcelona, a city of Spain, he was slain by the treachery of his own men, as it is said.

⁹ Post hunc Segericus rex a Gothis creatus cum itidem iudicio Dei ad pacem pronus esset, nihilominus a suis interfectus est.

⁹ After him Segeric, created king by the Goths, although likewise by the judgment of God he was inclined toward peace, was nonetheless slain by his own.

¹⁰ Deinde Vallia successit in regnum ad hoc electus a Gothis, ut pacem infringeret, ad hoc ordinatus a Deo, ut pacem confirmaret. ¹¹ hic igitur - territus maxime iudicio Dei, quia cum magna superiore abhinc anno Gothorum manus instructa armis nauigiisque transire in Africam moliretur, in duodecim milibus passuum Gaditani freti tempestate correpta, miserabili exitu perierat, ¹² memor etiam illius acceptae sub Alarico cladis, cum in Siciliam Gothi transire conati, in conspectu suorum miserabiliter arrepti et demersi sunt - pacem optimam cum Honorio imperatore, datis lectissimis obsidibus pepigit; Placidiam imperatoris sororem honorifice apud se honesteque habitam fratri reddidit; ¹³ Romanae securitati periculum suum obtulit, ut aduersus ceteras gentes, quae per Hispanias consedissent, sibi pugnaret et Romanis uinceret. ¹⁴ quamuis et ceteri Alanorum Vandalorum Sueborumque reges eodem nobiscum placito depecti forent mandantes imperatori Honorio : "tu cum omnibus pacem habe omniumque obsides accipe; nos nobis confligimus, nobis perimus, tibi uincimus, immortali uero quaestu reipublicae tuae, si utrique pereamus." ¹⁵ quis haec crederet, nisi res doceret?

¹⁰ Then Vallia succeeded to the kingship, elected by the Goths for this purpose, that he might break the peace; ordained by God for this purpose, that he might confirm the peace. ¹¹ He therefore—greatly terrified by the judgment of God, because, when a great band of Goths the year before, equipped with arms and ships, was attempting to cross into Africa, at twelve miles from the Gaditan Strait, caught by a storm, had perished with a pitiable outcome, mindful also of that disaster received under Alaric, when the Goths, having tried to cross into Sicily, in the sight of their own were miserably seized and submerged—concluded an excellent peace with the emperor Honorius, choicest hostages having been given; he restored Placidia, the emperor’s sister, who had been honorably and decently kept with him, to her brother; ¹³ he offered his own peril for the Roman security, to the end that he might fight on his own behalf against the other peoples who had settled throughout the Spains, and might conquer for the Romans. ¹⁴ Although the other kings of the Alans, Vandals, and Suebi had likewise agreed with us by the same compact, instructing the emperor Honorius: "Do you have peace with all and receive the hostages of all; we fight among ourselves, we perish ourselves, we conquer for you, truly to the immortal profit of your commonwealth, if we both should perish." ¹⁵ Who would believe these things, unless the fact taught?

itaque nunc cottidie apud Hispanias geri bella gentium et agi strages ex alterutro barbarorum crebris certisque nuntiis discimus, praecipue Valliam Gothorum regem insistere patrandae paci ferunt. ¹⁶ ex quo utcumque concesserim, ut licenter Christiana tempora reprehendantur, si quid a conditione mundi usque ad nunc simili factum felicitate doceatur. ¹⁷ manifestauimus, ut arbitror, atque ostendimus non magis uerbo paene quam digito innumera bella sopita, plurimos extinctos tyrannos, conpressas coangustatas addictas exinanitasque immanissimas gentes minimo sanguine, nullo certamine ac paene sine caede.

and so now every day throughout the Spains we learn by frequent and sure reports that wars of the nations are being waged and slaughters are being carried out on either side of the barbarians; they report especially that Vallia, king of the Goths, is insisting on consummating peace. ¹⁶ from which I might somehow concede that the Christian times be freely criticized, if anything from the creation of the world up to now should be shown to have been done with similar felicity. ¹⁷ we have made manifest, as I judge, and have demonstrated almost not so much by word as by finger: innumerable wars lulled, very many tyrants extinguished, the most savage nations compressed, straitened, subjected, and emptied out—with the least blood, with no combat, and almost without slaughter.

¹⁸ superest ut obtrectatores nostros molitionum suarum paeniteat ueritatique erubescant Deumque uerum et solum, qui potest omnia, credant timeant diligant et sequantur, cuius omnia, et quae mala putant, bona esse didicerunt.

¹⁸ It remains that our detractors repent of their machinations and blush before the verity, and that they believe, fear, love, and follow the true and sole God, who can do all things, from whom they have learned that all things—even those which they deem evils—are good.

¹⁹ Explicui adiuuante Christo secundum praeceptum tuum, beatissime pater Augustine, ab initio mundi usque in praesentem diem, hoc est per annos quinque milia sescentos decem et octo, cupiditates et punitiones hominum peccatorum, conflictationes saeculi et iudicia Dei quam breuissime et quam simplicissime potui, Christianis tamen temporibus propter praesentem magis Christi gratiam ab illa incredulitatis confusione discretis. ²⁰ ita iam ego certo et solo, quem concupiscere debui, oboedientiae meae fructu fruor; de qualitate autem opusculorum tu uideris qui praecepisti, tibi adiudicanda si edas, per te iudicata si deleas.

¹⁹ I have explicated, with Christ aiding, according to your precept, most blessed father Augustine, from the beginning of the world up to the present day, that is, through 5,618 years, the desires and punishments of sinful men, the conflicts of the age and the judgments of God, as briefly and as simply as I could, yet with the Christian times, on account of the more present grace of Christ, separated from that confusion of incredulity. ²⁰ Thus now I enjoy the fruit of my obedience—sure and sole, which I ought to have desired; but as to the quality of the opuscules, do you see to it, you who commanded: to be adjudged to you if you publish, judged by you if you delete.