Octavius 31.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Pagan promiscuity and child exposure make unknowing incest likely.

Latin text · CSEL 2:44–45

merito igitur incestum penes uos saepe deprehenditur, semper admittitur. etiam nescientes, miseri, potestis in inlicita proruere: dum Venerem promisce spargitis, dum passim liberos seritis, dum etiam domi natos alienae misericordiae frequenter exponitis, necesse est in uestros recurrere, in filios inerrare. sic incesti fabulam nectitis, etiam cum conscientiam non habetis.

English · Claude translation

Rightly, then, incest is often detected among you and always committed. Even without knowing it, wretches, you can rush into what is unlawful: while you scatter your lusts promiscuously, while you beget children everywhere, while you often expose even those born at home to the mercy of others, you must necessarily come back upon your own and stray into your own children. So you weave the story of incest even when you are not conscious of it.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:44–45 · 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

Ethics

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 31.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/31/4/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 31.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/31/4/).