Octavius 23.1

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

Summary: Children learn myths from parents, school, and poets, who harm the truth.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:32

Has fabulas et errores et ab inperitis parentibus discimus, et quod est grauius, ipsi studiis et disciplinis elaboramus, carminibus praecipue poetarum, qui plurimum quantum ueritati ipsi sua auctoritate nocuerunt.

English · Claude translation

"These fables and errors we both learn from ignorant parents and, what is more serious, we ourselves work them up in our studies and schooling, above all in the songs of the poets, who by their authority have done the greatest possible harm to the truth.

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:32 · 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.

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR: "n" for "ri".): inpentis → inperitis.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 23.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/23/1/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 23.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/23/1/).

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