Sophia Scriptura

Church History 9.7.8

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: The rescript credits the gods with good harvests and protection from war, plague, storm, and earthquake, which it says often struck before.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:427

τίς γὰρ οὕτως ἀνόητος ἢ νοῦ παντὸς ἀλλότριος εὑρεθῆναι δύναται ὃς οὐκ “αἴσθεται τῇ φιλαγάθῳ τῶν θεῶν σπουδῇ συμβαίνειν μήτε τὴν γῆν τὰ παραδιδόμενα αὐτῇ σπέρματα ἀρνεῖσθαι, τὴν τῶν γεωργῶν ἐλπίδα κενῇ “προσδοκίᾳ σφάλλουσαν, μηδʼ αὖ ἀσεβοῦς πολέμου “πρόσοψιν ἀνεπικωλύτως ἐπὶ γῆς στηρίζεσθαι, καὶ “φθαρείσης τῆς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ εὐκρασίας αὐχμῶντα “τὰ σώματα εἰς θάνατον κατασύρεσθαι, μηδὲ “ἀμέτρων ἀνέμων πνεύμασι τὴν θάλασσαν κυμαίνου- “σαν κορυφοῦσθαι, μηδέ γε καταιγίδας ἀπροσδοκή “τους καταρρηγνυμένας ὀλέθριον χειμῶνα “ ρειν, ‘ρειν, ἔτι τοίνυν μήτε τὴν τροφὸν “μητέρα γῆν, ἀπὸ τῶν κατωτάτω λαγόνων ἑαυτῆς “ἐν φοβερῷ τρόμῳ καταδυομένην, μηδέ γε τὰ ἐπι- “κείμενα ὄρη χασμάτων γινομένων καταδύεσθαι, “ἅπερ πάντα καὶ τούτων ἔτι χαλεπώτερα κακὰ “τούτου πολλάκις γεγονέναι οὐδεὶς ἀγνοεῖ.

English · Claude translation

For who can be found so foolish or so devoid of all sense as not to perceive that it is by the benevolent care of the gods that the earth does not refuse the seeds entrusted to it, disappointing the farmers' hope with empty expectation; that the sight of impious war is not planted on the earth unhindered, and that bodies are not dragged down to death, parched, when the good balance of the sky is corrupted; that the sea is not swollen and heaved up by the blasts of immoderate winds; that unexpected hurricanes do not burst forth and bring destructive storms; and further that the earth, our nurse and mother, does not sink from her lowest depths in fearful trembling, nor the mountains upon her sink into opening chasms? No one is unaware that all these evils, and others still worse, have often happened before this.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:427 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Notes

Translation notes

  • The digital text is defective at “bring destructive storms” (“ ρειν, ‘ρειν, probably ἐπιφέρειν); translated from the sense.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.7.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/7/8/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.7.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/7/8/).

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