Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 9.6

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

Summary: Caecilius describes the rumoured Christian banquet that ends in the lamp being knocked over.

Latin text · CSEL 2:13–14

et de conuiuio notum est; passim omnes locuntur, id etiam Cirtensis nostri testatur oratio. ad epulas sollemni die coeunt cum omnibus liberis, sororibus, matribus, sexus omnis homines et omnis aetatis. illic post multas epulas, ubi conuiuium caluit et incestae libidinis ebriatis feruor exarsit, canis, qui candelabro nexus est, iactu offulae ultra spatium lineae, qua uinctus est, ad impetum et saltum prouocatur.

English · Claude translation

And about their banquet it is well known; everyone speaks of it everywhere; the speech of our man from Cirta also testifies to it. On a solemn day they gather for a feast with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and every age. There, after much feasting, when the banquet has grown warm and the heat of incestuous lust has flared up in the drunken, a dog that is tied to the lampstand is provoked to rush and leap by a morsel thrown beyond the length of the cord by which it is bound.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:13–14 · 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
Eucharist

Notes

Translation notes

  • "Our man from Cirta" is Marcus Cornelius Fronto, the orator from Cirta in Numidia, whose speech against the Christians is lost.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 9.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/9/6/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 9.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/9/6/).

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