Late Antique Historiography

Histories

Title(s):
  • Histories
  • Historiae
    (Historiae, Histories)
  • Historiae adversus paganos
    (Historiae adversus paganos, Histories against the pagans)
Author:
Period covered:
Creation-417
Language:
Latin
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Secular history (general)
Remarks:
Orosius composed his history at the behest of Augustine and pursues the argument that current events, in particular the sack of Rome in 410, are less bad than assumed by contemporaries, especially when compared to the evils of pre-Christian times. The history had an enormous success, especially in the Middle Ages.
Edition - Translation:
  • C. Zangemeister (1882) Pauli Orosii Historiarum adversum paganos libri VII: Accedit eiusdem liber apologeticus (Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 5). Vienna.
  • M.-P. Arnaud-Lindet (1990-1991) Orose: Histoires. Three Volumes (Collection des Universités de France). Paris.
  • A. Lippold, A. Bartalucci, G. Chiarini (1976-1986) Orosio: Le storie contro i pagani. Two Volumes (Scrittori greci e latini). Milan.
  • A. Fear (2010) Orosius: Seven books of history against the pagans (Translated texts for historians, 54). Liverpool.
  • I. Raymond (1936) Seven books of history against the pagans: The apology of Paulus Orosius. New York.
  • E. Sanchez Salor (1982) Orosio: Obras completas. Madrid.
  • A. Lippold (1985) Orosius: Die antike Weltgeschichte in christlicher Sicht. Zürich.
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • M. Gassman (2017) 'The Roman kings in Orosius’ « Historiae adversum paganos'. Classical Quarterly 67: 617-630.
  • H.W. Goetz (1980) Die Geschichtstheologie des Orosius. Darmstadt.
  • V. Leonard (2021) In defiance of history. Orosius and the unimproved past. London.
  • P. Martínez Cavero (2002) El pensamiento histórico y antropológico de Orosio (Antigüedad y cristianismo, 19). Murcia.
  • A.H. Merrils (2005) History and geography in Late Antiquity (Cambridge studies in Medieval life and thought, 4.64). Cambridge.
  • P.L. Schmidt (2020) 'Paulus Orosius' in: Jean-Denis Berger, Jacques Fontaine, Peter Lebrecht Schmidt (eds.), Die Literatur im Zeitalter des Theodosius (374-430 n. Chr.). Volume 1. Munich: 729-747.
  • C. Torres Rodríguez (1985) Paulo Orosio: Su vida y sus obras. La Coruna.
  • P. Van Nuffelen (2012) Orosius and the rhetoric of history. Oxford.