Octavius 11.1

Minucius Felix · Octavius · ca. 197–250 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Caecilius ridicules the Christian belief that the world will end in fire.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:15

Quid? quod toto orbi et ipsi mundo cum sideribus suis minantur incendium, ruinam moliuntur, quasi aut naturae diuinis legibus constitutus aeternus ordo turbetur aut rupto elementorum omnium foedere et caelesti conpage diuisa moles ista, qua continetur et cingitur, subruatur.

English · Claude translation

"What of the fact that they threaten the whole earth and the world itself with its stars with a conflagration, and plan its ruin, as if either the eternal order of nature, established by divine laws, could be disturbed, or, the league of all the elements being broken and the heavenly framework split apart, this mass by which it is contained and girded could be overthrown?

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:15 · Karl Halm, ed., M. Minucii Felicis Octavius; Iulii Firmici Materni Liber de errore profanarum religionum, CSEL 2 (Vienna: Gerold, 1867), 1–56 · Latin text: K. Halm (CSEL 2, 1867), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in CSEL 2. 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 Latin text of CSEL 2; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Divided there by chapter only.
Topics: Eschatology

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 11.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/11/1/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 11.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/11/1/).

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