Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 5.4

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

Summary: Caecilius is indignant that uneducated Christians claim certainty about matters philosophers still debate.

Latin text · CSEL 2:7

itaque indignandum omnibus, indolescendum est audere quosdam, et hoc studiorum rudes, litterarum profanos, expertes artium etiam sordidarum, certum aliquid de summa rerum ac maiestate decernere, de qua tot omnibus saeculis sectarum plurimarum usque adhuc ipsa philosophia deliberat.

English · Claude translation

So all should be indignant, all should be pained, that certain people, and those untrained in study, strangers to letters, without skill even in the meaner crafts, dare to decide anything certain about the universe and its majesty, about which philosophy itself, with its many sects, has been deliberating through all these ages up to now.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:7 · 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. 5.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/4/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 5.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/4/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage