Octavius 28.5

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

Summary: If the charges were real, courts would demand confessions of the crimes, not denials of the name.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:41

adgnoscitisne eadem nos sensisse et egisse, quae sentitis et geritis? cum si ratio, non instigatio daemonis iudicaret, urguendi magis, non ut diffiterentur se Christianos, sed ut de incestis stupris, de inpiatis sacris, de infantibus immolatis faterentur.

English · Claude translation

Do you recognize that we thought and did the same things that you think and do? Whereas, if reason and not the incitement of a demon were judging, they should rather have been pressed, not to deny that they were Christians, but to confess about incestuous debaucheries, impious rites, and infants sacrificed.

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:41 · 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: Persecution

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 28.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/28/5/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 28.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/28/5/).

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