Octavius 19.8

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

Summary: Even atomists and Epicurus acknowledged a supreme nature.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:26

quid? Democritus, quamuis atomorum primus inuentor, nonne plerumque naturam quae imagines fundat et intellegentiam deum loquitur? Straton quoque et ipse naturam? etiam Epicurus ille, qui deos aut otiosos fingit aut nullos, naturam tamen superponit.

English · Claude translation

What of Democritus? Though the first inventor of atoms, does he not often speak of nature, which pours out images, and of intelligence as God? Strato too says nature. Even that Epicurus, who imagines the gods either idle or non-existent, nevertheless places nature above them.

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:26 · 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.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 19.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/19/8/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 19.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/19/8/).

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