Octavius 25.6

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

Summary: Rome is great not by piety but by unpunished sacrilege.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:36

totiens ergo Romanis inpiatum est quotiens triumphatum, tot de diis spolia quot de gentibus sunt tropaea. igitur Romani non ideo tanti, quod religiosi, sed quod inpune sacrilegi.

English · Claude translation

So as often as the Romans triumphed, so often they committed impiety; there are as many spoils taken from gods as trophies taken from nations. The Romans, then, are not so great because they are religious, but because they are sacrilegious with impunity.

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:36 · 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. 25.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/25/6/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 25.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/25/6/).

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