# Poems ascribed to Cyprian (Sodom, Jonah, To a Senator, On Easter, To Flavius Felix) - Author: Anonymous - Latin title: *Carmina* - Date: 4th-5th cent. (disputed) (disputed) - Source: Wilhelm von Hartel, ed., S. Thasci Caecili Cypriani opera omnia, part 3: Opera spuria, CSEL 3.3 (Vienna: Gerold, 1871), 289-325 (Latin text: Hartel, CSEL 3.3, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/ - Passages: 34 ## Poem 2 (Sodoma), lines 1–23 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-2-1 - Source: CSEL 3.3:290lines 1–23 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: After the flood and the covenant of the rainbow, a new impiety arises in Sodom, whose sexual vice the poet calls worse than the most savage pagan cruelties. ### Latin text Iam Deus omnipotens primaeui crimina saecli Vindice diluuio cunctis aboleuerat undis, Quot caelum spargit, terra euomit, expuit aequor, Hactenus et liquido poenas decernere pactus Excidio, quotiens hiemem conduceret aer, Frenandis uarium pluuiis mandauerat arcum Purpureo et uiridi signantem nubila limbo. Iridis in nomen, propria est quae fibula nimbis. Sed recidiua hominum pariter cum gente secunda Impietas iterumque mali noua pullulat aetas, Supplicio iam non imbres sortita, sed ignes : Sic Sodomum meruit tellus ardentibus uri Roribus et finis portendere signa futuri. Effera luxuries illic inimica pudori Instar legis erat, fugeret quam praescius hospes, Ante penes Scythicas uel apud Busiridis aras Exoptans per sacra necem caestuque cruorem Subdere Bebrycio, Libycas satiare palaestras, Ante etiam Circaea nouas per pocula formas Sumere, quam laesum Sodomis amittere sexum. Pulsabant caelum inuidia conubia (monstra), Incestu parili generis natura rebellis In sese, laesumque uiri cum corpore nomen. ### English translation (Claude) Already God almighty had blotted out the crimes of the primeval age with the avenging flood, with all the waters that the sky scatters, the earth vomits up, the sea spits out; and, having covenanted from then on not to decree punishments by a liquid destruction, whenever the air should gather a storm, he had appointed the varied bow for restraining the rains, marking the clouds with a hem of purple and green, under the name of Iris, which is the clasp proper to the clouds. But the impiety of men, springing up again together with the second race, and a new age of evil sprouts once more, allotted now for punishment not rains but fires: so the land of Sodom deserved to be burned by blazing dews and to foreshow the signs of the end to come. There savage luxury, the enemy of modesty, was as good as law; a forewarned guest would flee it, preferring at the Scythian altars or at the altars of Busiris to seek death through sacrifice, and with the boxing glove to yield his blood to the Bebrycian, or to glut the Libyan wrestling grounds, preferring even, through Circe's cups, to take on new shapes, rather than lose his violated sex in Sodom. Unions (monstrosities!) beat upon heaven with ill will; with like incest, nature rebelled against its own kind, against itself, and the name of man was violated along with his body. ### Scripture references - Gen 9:11: allusion, high confidence - Gen 9:13–15: allusion, high confidence - Gen 19:4–5: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - This poem (Sodoma) is one of the poems printed among the spurious works of Cyprian (Hartel, CSEL 3.3); it is not by Cyprian, and its author and date are uncertain. - Lines 6–8: the rainbow of Gen 9:13–15, given the classical name of Iris. Lines 16–19: classical figures of cruelty (the Scythian altars of Tauris, Busiris of Egypt, Amycus king of the Bebrycians who forced strangers to box, Antaeus of Libya who wrestled them, and Circe who changed men into beasts). ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 2.1 (CSEL 3.3:290lines 1–23; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1). ## Poem 2 (Sodoma), lines 24–48 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-2-24 - Source: CSEL 3.3:290lines 24–48–291 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Two angels come to Sodom, where Lot receives them hospitably; when the men of the city demand them, Lot pleads that their lust is against nature. ### Latin text Tempore sed certo Deus omnia prospeculatus, Iudicat iniustos patiens, ubi criminis aetas Cessandi spatium frustrata coegerat iram. Iamque dies ultrix aderat: duo de grege missi. Angelico forma iuuenes qui spiritus ambo Diua ministeria, ut Domini mandata iubebant, Succedunt Sodomis. illic de stirpe piorum Transuena Loth aequi sapiens iustique colonus Vnus erat meminisse Deum: solet utilis arbor In siluis latitare feris uelut hospite fructu. Is tunc pro porta residens (uix moenia adibant Caelicolae) quamquam diuinos inscius ultro Aduocat adpellat patrio ueneratur honore Hospitioque uocat, longe stabulare parantes: Enisus longis precibus, pia pignera mensae Officiumque probum studio dispungit amico. Nox requiem dederat, lux soluerat altera noctem, Et Sodoma in foribus strepitat cum lege pudenda. Loth contra supplex: ne uos male pasta libido Incendat iuuenes istam foedare iuuentam: Luxu quo genitura uacat ? quo semina frustra? Quo nullae nuptant animae, non lustra colentes, Non stabulis reduces, non undis subter hiantes, Nec quae pennarum modulis prope nubila pendent, Nec quae per terras protracto corpore manant. ### English translation (Claude) But at a fixed time God, who had foreseen all things, judges the unjust in patience, when the age of crime had frustrated the space given for ceasing and had compelled his anger. And now the avenging day was at hand: two sent from the host, youths in angelic form, both of them spirits, on divine service, as the Lord's commands enjoined, come up to Sodom. There, of the stock of the pious, Lot, a newcomer, wise in equity and a dweller in justice, was the one man to remember God: so a fruitful tree is wont to lie hidden in wild woods, its fruit a guest there. He then, sitting before the gate (the heaven-dwellers were scarcely reaching the walls), though unaware that they were divine, of his own accord calls to them, addresses them, honors them with a father's reverence, and invites them to lodge, though they meant to put up far off; prevailing by long entreaties, he discharges with friendly zeal the holy pledges of the table and the honest duty of a host. Night had given rest, the next light had dissolved the night, and Sodom clamors at the doors with its shameful law. Lot, facing them, a suppliant: “Let not ill-fed lust inflame you young men to defile this youth: to what end a lust in which begetting is void? to what end seed in vain? To such no living creatures are wed: not those that haunt the lairs, not those that come back to the stalls, not those that gape beneath the waves, nor those that hang near the clouds with the measured beat of wings, nor those that flow over the earth with their bodies stretched out. ### Scripture references - Gen 19:1–5: allusion, high confidence - Gen 19:7: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Lines 22–25: Lot argues that no animal of land, water, or air mates in this way. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 2.24 (CSEL 3.3:290lines 24–48–291; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-24). ## Poem 2 (Sodoma), lines 49–73 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-2-49 - Source: CSEL 3.3:291lines 49–73–292 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Lot offers his daughters instead of his guests; the mob turns on him, but the angels pull him inside and strike the crowd blind. ### Latin text Omne genus nixu genuit, est femina coniunx Omnibus, et numquam cuiquam nisi femina mater. Nunc si fax iuuenalis auet uastare pudorem, Sunt intus natae biiuges mihi, nubilis aetas, Virginitas in fiore tumens, iam debita messi, Digna cupido uiris, tulerit qua uestra uoluntas: Dedo pater proque hospitibus pensabo dolorem. Vulgus ad haec demens: quisnam tu, quantus, et unde Qui nostris dominere animis legesque recondas? Transuena non rector Sodomorum iugera libras. Nunc igitur tute ipse lues, quod nostra cupido est Pro natis proque hospitibus: satis unus in omnes. Dicta et facta simul: uulgi mora nulla furentis. Turbidus hiberno ceu uoluitur impete torrens, Riuorum innumeros uno pede subuehit amnes: Si qua illic arbor rapidis offenditur undis, Haud mansura diu quantum radice licebit Crinitas durare moras, ubi subter adesam Perdit humum circumfosso iam caudice pendens, Huc illuc certam differt incerta ruinam. Haud aliter Loth in media uertigine uulgi Nutabat uinci prope iam: sed diua potestas Subuenit, angelici iuuenes de limine raptum Restituunt tectis: demens sed uulgus ibidem Poenarum auspiciis interdum lumine multant. ### English translation (Claude) Every kind has brought forth by its striving; the female is the mate of all, and never is anyone's mother other than a female. Now if youthful passion is eager to lay waste to modesty, I have two daughters inside, of marriageable age, their virginity swelling in flower, already due for the harvest, a desire worthy of men; take them wherever your will may lead: I, their father, give them up, and for my guests I will bear the grief.” At this the crazed crowd: “Who are you, how great, and from where, to lord it over our minds and lay down laws? A newcomer, not a ruler, you weigh out the acres of Sodom. Now therefore you yourself shall pay for what our desire is, in place of daughters and guests: one is enough for all.” Said and done at once: no delay in the raging mob. As a torrent rolls on in a wintry onrush and carries countless streams of brooks in one course: if any tree there is struck by the rushing waters, not to stand for long, so far as its root will allow its hairy fibers to hold out in delay, when, the ground eaten away beneath, it loses its soil and hangs with its trunk now dug around, this way and that, unsteady, it puts off its certain fall: just so Lot in the midst of the mob's whirl was tottering, almost overcome now; but divine power came to help: the angelic youths snatch him from the threshold and bring him back inside; and the crazed crowd, right there, as a first omen of punishment, they strike with loss of sight. ### Scripture references - Gen 19:8–11: allusion, high confidence ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 2.49 (CSEL 3.3:291lines 49–73–292; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-49). ## Poem 2 (Sodoma), lines 74–98 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-2-74 - Source: CSEL 3.3:292lines 74–98–293 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The angels warn Lot of the coming judgment; his sons-in-law laugh, and at dawn the angels lead Lot's family out, granting his request to flee to the small town of Segor (Zoar). ### Latin text Tum decreta Dei reserant, dignam affore poenam De caelo Sodomis, ipsum meruisse salutem Iustitiae titulo: quin ergo accingeris istinc Festinare fugam pariterque educere si quem Gentis habes: nos exitium iam inducimus urbi. Loth generos citus alloquitur, sed dura hominum mens Credere despexit monitum risitque timorem. Tempore mox quo lux tenebras iam scindere temptat Et bicolor caeli facies de nocte dieque est Instabant iuuenes Chaldaeam educere gentem Ex Sodomis iustamque domum donare saluti: Eia age Loth exsurge tuamque adsume iugalem Et natas duplices atque hinc exterminus ito Praeueniens Sodomum poenas. manibus quoque amicis Producunt trepidos et ibidem cetera mandant: Serua Loth animam neu uisum in terga retrorsum Vertere forte uelis coeptum uel sistere gressum, In montem. propera. timuit Loth ardua tardo. Ereptare gradu, caelestes ne prius irae Opprimerent illos: alios deposcere portus Aggreditur, paruam quam contra aspexerat urbem. Huc, inquit, fuga sit, certe uix moenibus extat, Nec longe, nec magna mihi. fauere pauenti, Vrbis et ipsius pariter cessere salutem: Segor inde loco nomen uox barbara nouit. ### English translation (Claude) Then they unlock God's decrees: a fitting punishment would come from heaven upon Sodom; he himself had deserved salvation by right of justice: “Why then do you not gird yourself to hasten your flight from here, and bring out with you any of your family you have? We are now bringing destruction on the city.” Lot quickly speaks to his sons-in-law, but the hard mind of men scorned to believe the warning and laughed at his fear. Soon, at the time when light already tries to cleave the darkness and the face of the sky is two-colored, of night and of day, the youths pressed to lead the Chaldean family out of Sodom and to grant the just household salvation: “Come now, Lot, rise up, take your wife and your two daughters, and go from here an exile, getting ahead of Sodom's punishment.” And with friendly hands they lead out the trembling ones and there give them the rest of their orders: “Save your life, Lot, and do not choose to turn your gaze backward, or halt the step you have begun: to the mountain; hurry.” Lot feared to clamber up the heights with his slow step, lest heaven's anger overtake them first: he sets about asking for another haven, a small city that he had seen over against them. “Let our flight be here,” he says, “it surely scarcely stands out by its walls, not far, and not great for me.” They favored the frightened man and granted salvation to the city itself as well: hence the barbarian tongue knew the place by the name Segor. ### Scripture references - Gen 19:12–22: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Segor is the Latin form of Zoar (Gen 19:22). ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 2.74 (CSEL 3.3:292lines 74–98–293; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-74). ## Poem 2 (Sodoma), lines 99–122 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-2-99 - Source: CSEL 3.3:293lines 99–122–294 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Fire and sulphur fall on Sodom, which the poet calls the truth behind the fable of Phaethon, and Lot's wife, looking back, becomes a pillar of salt that still stands. ### Latin text Tunc Loth ingreditur Segor, simul exoritur sol, Vltimus ille quidem Sodomis, iam incendia feruens Iratus toto radios armauerat igni. Aemula subseritur caligo, includere lucem Coeptans atque globos confuso intexere caelo. Fumantes coeunt nubes, nouus inruit imber, Sulphura cum flammis, flagrat cahos, aestuat aether, Exustus crepitat liquidis ardoribus aer. Hinc habet in falsum de uero fabula famam, Solis progeniem currus optasse paternos Nec ualuisse lenem puerum frenare superbos Solis equos, arsisse orbem: tunc fulmine raptum Aurigam, inlicitum planctum mutasse sorores. Viderit Eridanus, si qua illic populus albet, Si quis ibi senio plumat modulatior ales. Hic aliter uersae maerent miracula formae. Namque comes coniuncx eheu male tunc quoque legis Femina diuinae patiens ad murmura caeli Audaces oculos nequiquam pone retorsit, Non habitura loqui quod uiderat: et simul illic In fragilem mutata salem stetit ipsa sepulcrum Ipsa et imago, sibi formam sine corpore seruans: Durat adhuc etenim nuda statione sub aethra, Nec pluuiis dilapsa situ nec diruta uentis: ### English translation (Claude) Then Lot enters Segor, and at once the sun rises, the last indeed for Sodom, already glowing with fires; in anger it had armed its rays with all its flame. A rival gloom creeps in beneath, attempting to shut in the light and to weave masses into the confused sky. Smoking clouds gather, a new rain rushes down, sulphur with flames; chaos blazes, the upper air seethes, the scorched air crackles with liquid burnings. From this the fable has its false report drawn from the truth, that the Sun's offspring desired his father's chariot and that the gentle boy could not rein the proud horses of the Sun, that the world burned; that then the charioteer was snatched away by lightning, and his sisters changed their forbidden lament. Let the Eridanus see to it, if any poplar grows white there, if any more tuneful bird grows its plumes there in old age. Here the marvels of another changed form mourn. For his companion and wife, alas, ill then too with the law, a woman, hearing the divine rumblings of heaven, in vain turned her bold eyes behind, never to speak of what she had seen; and at once there, changed into fragile salt, she stood, herself her own tomb and herself her own image, keeping her shape without a body: for she endures still, in her bare station under the open sky, neither dissolved by rains through decay nor torn down by winds; ### Scripture references - Gen 19:23–26: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Ovid, Metam. 2.1-380 (Ovid): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Lines 9–15: the myth of Phaethon, who drove the Sun's chariot and set the world on fire, was struck down by Jupiter, and was mourned by his sisters, who were turned into poplars by the river Eridanus (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2); the 'tuneful bird' is the swan into which Cycnus was changed. The poet presents the myth as a distorted memory of Sodom. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 2.99 (CSEL 3.3:293lines 99–122–294; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-99). ## Poem 2 (Sodoma), lines 123–148 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-2-123 - Source: CSEL 3.3:294lines 123–148–296 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet describes the burnt land of Sodom, its ash-filled fruit, and the lifeless Dead Sea, which yields only bitumen. ### Latin text Quin etiam si quis mutilauerit aduena formam, Protinus ex sese suggestu uulnera complet. Dicitur et uiuens alio iam in corpore sexus Munifico solitos dispungere sanguine menses. Iamque urbes nusquam Sodomum, gens impia nusquam, Tota rogus regio est: hinc atro horrore fauillae Hincque situ cano cineres incendia signant. Nullus arat frustra piceas fuligine glebas. Occidit illa prior species, quam prospiciens Loth Discretus patruo dites delegerat agros. Semiperempta etiam si qua illic iugera laetas Autumni conantur opes, facile optima esse Promittunt oculis pira persica et omnia mala, Donec carpere aues: nam protinus indice tactu Soluitur in cinerem uacui fallacia pomi. Sic igitur caelo pariter terraque sepultis Nec mare uiuit ibi, mors est maris ipsa maris pax, Qua nullos animat per anhela uolumina fluctus Quaque etiam patrio numquam suspirat ab austro Quaque caret proferre aliquam de gurgite gentem Squamicutem uel leuicutem uel cortice saeptam, Vel crispam concham aut duplici conpagine clusam. Solum illic propria metitur de fruge bitumen, Exusti fuligo maris, quod uiuidus ardor Subter stagna coquens de sulphuris et salis aestu Temperat inque picem terris dat habere marinam : ### English translation (Claude) indeed, if any stranger mutilates her form, at once, welling up from herself, she fills up the wounds. It is even said that, living now in another body, her sex still discharges its customary months with bountiful blood. And now nowhere are the cities of Sodom, nowhere the impious people; the whole region is a pyre: here with the black horror of ash, there with the hoary rust of cinders they mark the burning. No one ploughs, in vain, the clods pitchy with soot. That former beauty has perished which Lot, looking out, when he parted from his uncle, had chosen as rich fields. Even if some half-destroyed acres there attempt the glad wealth of autumn, they readily promise the eyes that pears, peaches and all apples are of the best, until one longs to pluck them: for at once, at the betraying touch, the deceit of the empty fruit dissolves into ash. Thus then, heaven and earth buried alike, not even the sea lives there; death is the sea's very peace: by it the sea stirs no waves in panting rolls, by it the sea never sighs from its native south wind, by it the sea lacks the power to bring forth any race from its depths, scaly-skinned or smooth-skinned or enclosed in a shell, or the crinkled conch, or that shut within a double fastening. Only bitumen is harvested there as its own crop, the soot of the burnt sea, which a lively heat, cooking it beneath the pools from the heat of sulphur and salt, tempers, and gives the lands to have a pitch from the sea: ### Scripture references - Gen 13:10–11: allusion, high confidence - Gen 19:28: echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Lines 9–10: Lot's choice of the plain when he parted from Abraham (Gen 13:10–11). - Line 14: the text reads aues, which may mean 'birds' or (from aueo) 'you long'; translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 2.123 (CSEL 3.3:294lines 123–148–296; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-123). ## Poem 2 (Sodoma), lines 149–166 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-2-149 - Source: CSEL 3.3:296lines 149–166–297 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet tells of the Dead Sea's bitumen and its strange buoyancy, and concludes that Sodom's punishment is a lasting warning to the nations to fear the one Lord. ### Latin text Inuehitur proprio sub tempore pingue crematae Virus aquae, spumaeque cutis super aequora nigrae Texitur. appellant quis est ea captio mercis, Adclinantque lenes laterum libramine lembos, Vt semel inpositam doceant conscendere uenam: Nam sese iam sponte leuans donabit inerti Nauigio pessumque dabit prae munere largo, Ni plaga contigerit qua menses femina uestit. En aliud monstrum pelagi de clade notatur: Cuncta illic inuita natant: natura recessit Mergendis stata corporibus. si denique testam Luciferam nare instituas qua spiritus ignis, Velificabit apex flammae, si flamma perempta est, Ibit subter aquas destructio naufraga lucis. Hae Sodomum et Gomorum signatae in saecula poenae Gentibus iniustis, corda in quis dura timorem Deseruere Dei, caelestia iura uereri Inque unum rerum Dominum sperare docebunt. ### English translation (Claude) at its own season the rich venom of the burnt water is carried in, and a skin of black foam over the waters is woven. Those whose trade is that catch call it in, and tilt their light boats with a balancing of their sides, so as to teach the vein, once laid on, to climb aboard: for, raising itself now of its own accord, it will give itself to the idle boat and will sink it to the bottom with its large bounty, unless that cloth touches it with which a woman clothes her months. Lo, another wonder of the sea is noted from the disaster: everything there floats against its will; the nature fixed for sinking bodies has withdrawn. If, finally, you set a light-bearing lamp to float, where the breath of the fire is the tip of the flame will sail; if the flame is put out, the shipwrecked wreck of light will go beneath the waters. These punishments of Sodom and Gomorrah, marked out for the ages, will teach the unjust nations, from whose hard hearts the fear of God has departed, to revere heaven's laws and to hope in the one Lord of all things. ### Scripture references - Jude 1:7: echo, medium confidence - 2 Pet 2:6: echo, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Tacitus, Hist. 5.6 (Tacitus): echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - Line 3: appellant is translated 'call it in' by sense; the construction is uncertain. - Line 8: the belief that bitumen yields only to menstrual cloth is also reported by classical writers (e.g. Tacitus, Histories 5.6). ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 2.149 (CSEL 3.3:296lines 149–166–297; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-149). ## Poem 3 (Jonah), lines 1–24 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-3-1 - Source: CSEL 3.3:298lines 1–24 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: After Sodom the poet turns to Nineveh: God warns before he strikes, but Jonah, knowing God's mercy, flees rather than preach a doom that may not come, and goes to Joppa. ### Latin text Post Sodomum et Gomorum uiuentia funera in aeuum, Et cinerum senio signata incendia poenae, Et frustra solis oculis nascentia poma, Et pariter facti mortem maris et salis illic, Si quid homo est poenam mutato corpore seruans, Paene alios ignis superi decusserat imbris Vrbs aequi iustique uiam transgressa Niniue. Nam quis subuersae menti metus ? omnia uulgo Poenarum documenta uacant ubi possidet error. At bonus et nostri patiens et plectere serus Omnipotens Dominus nullam iaculabitur iram, Ni prius admoneat durataque pectora pulset, Praesagos agitans augusta mente prophetas. Iamque Niniuitum meritis mandarat Ionan Praefari exitium Dominus : sed conscius ille Parcere subiectis et debita cedere poenae Supplicibus facilemque boni, cessabat abire, Ne uanum caneret, cessura pace minarum. Mox fuga consilium, si qua est tamen ista facultas, Euitare Deum Dominique euadere dextram, Quo subter totus trepidans compescitur orbis. An ratio est quod agit sancto de corde prophetes? Litoris in labio portu celeberrima fido Vrbs oras Cilicum contra libratur Ioppe. ### English translation (Claude) After Sodom and Gomorrah, funerals living through the ages, and burnings of punishment marked by the hoariness of ashes, and fruits that spring up in vain for the eyes alone, and likewise the death of the sea, and the salt that was made there, if a human being is something that keeps its punishment in a changed body: the fire of a rain from above had almost struck down another, Nineveh, a city that had transgressed the way of equity and justice. For what fear has a perverted mind? To the crowd all lessons of punishment are empty where error holds possession. But the good Lord almighty, patient with us and slow to strike, will hurl no anger unless he first warns and beats upon hardened hearts, stirring up prophets, foreknowing, by his august mind. And now the Lord had commanded Jonah to foretell destruction to the Ninevites for their deserts; but he, knowing that the Lord spares the submissive and remits punishment owed to suppliants and is easily moved to goodness, delayed to go, lest he sing in vain, the threats giving way to peace. Soon flight was his plan, if that is indeed in any way possible, to avoid God and escape the Lord's right hand, beneath which the whole trembling world is held in check. Or is there reason in what the prophet does from his holy heart? On the lip of the shore, most famous for its trusty harbor, facing the coasts of the Cilicians, lies the city Joppa. ### Scripture references - Jonah 1:1–3: allusion, high confidence - Jonah 4:2: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 6.853 (Virgil): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - This poem (De Iona, or Niniue) is one of the poems printed among the spurious works of Cyprian (Hartel, CSEL 3.3); it is not by Cyprian, and its author and date are uncertain. - Line 16: 'to spare the submissive' echoes Virgil, Aeneid 6.853. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 3.1 (CSEL 3.3:298lines 1–24; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/3-1). ## Poem 3 (Jonah), lines 25–49 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-3-25 - Source: CSEL 3.3:298lines 25–49–299 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jonah sails for Tarsus, but a sudden storm darkens the sky and batters the ship while the sailors struggle and throw the cargo overboard. ### Latin text Inde igitur Tarsos properus rate poscit Ionas, Eiusdem per stagna dei: nec denique mirum, Si Dominum in terris fugiens inuenit in undis. Paruula nam subito maculauerat aera nubes, Vellere sulphureo de semine concita uenti, Paulatimque globum pariens cum sole cohaesit, Deceptumque diem caliginis agmine clusit. Fit speculum caeli pelagus, niger ambitus undas Inficit, in tenebras ruit aether et mare surgit: Nec quicquam medium est, fluctus dum nubila tangit, Atria uentorum, quos omnes turbine miscet. Diuersus furor in profugum frendebat Ionan. Vna ratis certamen erat caeloque fretoque, Tunditur hinc illinc, tremit omnis silua sub ictu Fluctifrago, subter concussae spina carinae Palpitat, antemnae stridens labor horret ab alto, Ipse etiam infringi dubitans inflectitur arbor. Nauticus interea gemitus timor omnia temptat Pro rate proque anima: spiras mandare morantis, Oblaqueare mithram, clauorum stringere nisus, Vellere luctantes, impellere pectore gyros: Pars maris interni puteum grauem odore uicissim Egregie rapiunt, tum merces atque onus omne Praecipitant certantque pericula uincere damnis. Tum miserae uoces ad singula fragmina ponti, ### English translation (Claude) From there, then, Jonah in haste seeks Tarsus by ship, over the waters of the same God; and indeed no wonder if, fleeing the Lord on land, he found him in the waves. For suddenly a tiny cloud had stained the air, roused from a sulphurous seed by the fleece of the wind, and little by little, bringing forth a mass, it closed with the sun and shut in the deceived day with a column of darkness. The sea becomes a mirror of the sky; a black circuit stains the waves; the upper air rushes into darkness and the sea rises: nor is there anything between, as the wave touches the clouds, the halls of the winds, all of which it mingles in a whirlwind. Varied fury gnashed against the fugitive Jonah. The one ship was the contest of sky and sea; it is beaten this way and that; all its timber trembles under the wave-breaking blow; below, the spine of the shaken keel throbs; the screeching toil of the yard shudders from on high; the mast itself, uncertain whether to break, is bent. Meanwhile the sailors' groaning fear tries everything for the ship and for life: to pay out the coils of the cable, to unlace the girding band, to tighten the strain of the tillers, to haul at the struggling ropes, to push the capstan round with their chests: some, in turn, vigorously bail out the well of the inner sea, heavy with stench, then they hurl overboard the wares and all the cargo and strive to overcome the perils by their losses. Then wretched voices at each crash of the sea, ### Scripture references - Jonah 1:3–5: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Lines 19–21 use technical sailing terms (spiras, mithram, clauorum, gyros) whose exact sense is uncertain; translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 3.25 (CSEL 3.3:298lines 25–49–299; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/3-25). ## Poem 3 (Jonah), lines 50–73 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-3-50 - Source: CSEL 3.3:299lines 50–73–300 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The sailors pray to their gods while Jonah sleeps, a figure of the Lord's death; the captain wakes him, the lot falls on him, and he confesses that he is fleeing the God who made heaven and earth. ### Latin text Expansantque manus nullorum ad numina diuum, Quos maris et caeli uis non timet, haud minus illos Puppibus abstrusos irato turbine mergens. Nescius haec reus ipse cauo sub fornice puppis Stertentem inflata resonabat nare soporem, Iam tunc in somno Domini formando figuram. Hunc simul undisecae qui cogit munia prorae Pace soporatum placida, requiete superbum . Institit inpulsans: quid, ait, discrimine in isto? Somnia nare canis? tantoque in turbine portum Solus habes? en uncia operit, spes unica diuum est. Tu quoque, quisque tibi Deus est, dic uota precesque Indigetans patrium supplex inflectito numen. Exin quis culpae proprior, quis causa procellae Discere sorte placet, nec sors mentitur Ionan. Tunc rogitant: quis et unde hominum, quis denique rerum, Quo populo, qua sede cluis? famulum ille fatetur Praetimidumque Dei, qui caelum sustulit alte, Qui terram posuit, qui totum corpore fudit: Ipsius et sese profugum causasque reuelat. Deriguere metu quid nos igitur tibi culpae? Quid fore nunc ? quonam placabimus aequora pacto? Namque magis multoque magis freta saeua tumebant. Tum Domini uates ingestu spiritus infit: ### English translation (Claude) and they spread out their hands to the powers of gods that are nothing, whom the force of sea and sky does not fear, drowning them no less in angry whirlwind, hidden away as they are in the sterns. Unaware of this, the guilty one himself, under the hollow vault of the stern, was sounding out a snoring sleep with puffed-out nose, already then in sleep forming a figure of the Lord. Him, slumbering in calm peace, proud in his rest, the one who directs the duties of the wave-cutting prow pressed upon, nudging him: “What,” he says, “in this peril do you sing dreams through your nose? And in such a whirlwind do you alone have a harbor? Look, it is overwhelming us; the one hope is in the gods. You too, whoever your god is, speak vows and prayers, and, calling on him, bend your ancestral deity as a suppliant.” Then they decide to learn by lot who is nearer the guilt, who is the cause of the storm; and the lot does not lie about Jonah. Then they ask: “Who are you, and from where among men, what in short is your business, of what people, from what home are you called?” He confesses himself the servant who deeply fears God, who raised the heavens on high, who set the earth in place, who poured out the whole mass of things, and he reveals that he is His fugitive, and why. They stiffened with fear: “What fault of yours, then, is ours? What will happen now? By what pact shall we calm the waters?” For the cruel straits were swelling more and much more. Then the Lord's prophet, at the prompting of the spirit, begins: ### Scripture references - Jonah 1:5–11: allusion, high confidence - Matt 12:40: echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Line 6: Jonah's sleep is read as a figure of Christ (compare Matt 12:40). - Line 11: the text reads en uncia operit, which is probably corrupt; translated by sense ('it is overwhelming us'). - Line 19: literally 'who poured out the whole with body'; the sense is uncertain. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 3.50 (CSEL 3.3:299lines 50–73–300; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/3-50). ## Poem 3 (Jonah), lines 74–105 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-3-74 - Source: CSEL 3.3:300lines 74–105–301 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Jonah tells the sailors to throw him overboard; after praying not to be guilty of his blood they do so, the sea grows calm, and Jonah, swallowed alive by the sea-monster, becomes a sign of the Lord's victory over death. ### Latin text En ego tempestas, ego tota insania mundi, In me, inquit, uobis aether ruit et mare surgit, In me terra procul, mors proxima, nulla Dei spes. Quin dato praecipitem causam, nauemque leuantes Vnum onus hoc magnum pelago iactate uolenti. Ast illi frustra nituntur uertere cursum In reditum, nec clauus enim torqueri sinebat, Dura nec antemnae mutari libra uolebat. Postremo ad Dominum: ne nos in mortis hiatum Vnam animam propter dederis nec sanguine iusto Respersisse uelis, si sic tua dextera ducit. Iamque illic imo exoriens e gurgite cetus Squamosum conchis euoluens corporis agmen, Vrguebat propius concusso marmore fluctus, Sponte dei praedam rapiens, quam puppis ab arce Prouolutatam limosis faucibus hausit, Viuentemque dapem longam properauit in aluum, Cumque uiro caeli rabiem pelagique uorauit. Sternitur aequoris unda, resoluitur aetheris umbra. Hinc fluctus, illinc flatus redduntur amici, Securamque uiam placida signante carina Candida caeruleo florent uestigia sulco. Nauita tum Domino laetus uenerando timorem Sacrificat grates, tum portus intrat amicos. Nauigat et uates alio susceptus Ionas Nauigio fluctusque secat sub fluctibus imis, Viscera uelificans, anima spirante ferina, Conclusus neque tinctus aquis, maris intimus exter, Inter semesas classes resolutaque putri . Corpora digestu, sua iam iam funera discens. In signum sed enim Domini quandoque futurus, Non erat exitio, sed mortis testis abactae. ### English translation (Claude) “Look, I am the storm, I am the whole madness of the world; because of me,” he says, “the upper air falls upon you and the sea rises, because of me land is far off, death very near, no hope from God. Rather, throw the cause headlong, and, lightening the ship, cast this one great burden into the willing sea.” But they strive in vain to turn their course back toward return, for the tiller would not let itself be turned, nor would the hard balance of the yards be changed. At last, to the Lord: “Do not give us into the gaping jaws of death for the sake of one soul, nor will that we be spattered with righteous blood, if your right hand leads thus.” And now there, rising from the deepest abyss, a sea-monster, rolling out the scaly column of its body with its shells, was pressing nearer on the waves, the marble surface shaken, seizing at God's will the prey which, rolled down from the height of the stern, it swallowed with its slimy jaws, and it hurried the living feast down into its long belly, and with the man it devoured the rage of sky and sea. The wave of the sea is laid flat, the shadow of the sky dispersed. On this side the waves, on that the winds are made friendly again, and as the keel marks out a safe path in the calm, white tracks bloom in the blue furrow. Then the sailor, glad, sacrifices to the Lord his reverent fear and his thanks, then enters friendly harbors. And the prophet Jonah sails too, taken up by another vessel, and cuts the waves beneath the lowest waves, sailing in entrails, a beast's breath breathing for him, shut in and not wetted by the waters, inmost in the sea and outside it, among half-eaten fleets and bodies dissolved by putrid digestion, now learning his own funeral. But as a sign of the Lord who was one day to come, he was not for destruction, but a witness of death driven off. ### Scripture references - Jonah 1:12–17: allusion, high confidence - Matt 12:39–40: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The poem ends here in the edition. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 3.74 (CSEL 3.3:300lines 74–105–301; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/3-74). ## Poem 4 (To a Senator Who Turned from Christianity to Idolatry), lines 1–24 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-4-1 - Source: CSEL 3.3:303lines 1–24 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet rebukes a former Christian who has returned to the cult of the Great Mother, mocking her effeminate priests and their bloody rites. ### Latin text Cum te diuersis iterum uanisque uiderem Inseruire sacris priscoque errore teneri, Obstipui motus. quia carmina semper amasti, Carmine respondens properaui scribere uersus Vt te corriperem: tenebras praeponere luci Quis patiatur enim, te matrem credere magnam Posse deam dici rursusque putare colendam, Cuius cultores infamia turpis inurit? Namque sacerdotes tunicis muliebribus idem Interius uitium cultu exteriore fatentur, Idque licere putant quod non licet: unde per urbem Leniter incedunt mollita uoce loquentes, Lassatosque tenent extenso pollice lumbos Et proprium mutant uulgato crimine sexum. Cumque suos celebrant ritus, his esse diebus Se castos memorant: at si tantummodo tunc sunt Vt perhibent casti, reliquo iam tempore quid sunt? Sed quia coguntur saltim semel esse pudici, Mente fremunt, lacerant corpus funduntque cruorem. Quale sacrum est uero quod fertur nomine sanguis ? Nunc etiam didici, quod te non fecerit aetas Sed tua religio caluum, caligaque remota Gallica sit pedibus molli redimita papyro. Res miranda satis deiectaque culmine summo: ### English translation (Claude) When I saw you once more in the service of diverse and empty rites, and held fast by the ancient error, I was struck with dismay. Because you have always loved poetry, answering in a poem I have hastened to write verses to rebuke you: for who would bear darkness being preferred to light, your believing that the Great Mother can be called a goddess, and your thinking her again to be worshipped, whose worshippers foul infamy brands? For her priests in women's tunics confess by their outward dress the same inner vice, and think that lawful which is not lawful: hence through the city they walk softly, speaking in a softened voice, and hold their weary loins with outstretched thumb, and change their own sex by a crime made public. And when they celebrate their rites, on those days they say they are chaste: but if they are chaste only then, as they claim, what are they the rest of the time? But because they are forced to be modest at least once, they rage in mind, lacerate their body and pour out blood. What kind of sacred rite is it that truly goes by the name of blood? Now too I have learned that it was not age that made you bald but your religion, and that, your boot set aside, a Gallic sandal is on your feet, bound with soft papyrus. A thing marvelous enough, and cast down from the highest summit: ### Translation notes - This poem (Ad senatorem ex Christiana religione ad idolorum seruitutem conuersum) is one of the poems printed among the spurious works of Cyprian (Hartel, CSEL 3.3); it is not by Cyprian, and its author and date (probably late fourth century) are uncertain. - The Great Mother is Cybele, whose priests (the Galli) were eunuchs and gashed themselves at her festivals. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 4.1 (CSEL 3.3:303lines 1–24; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/4-1). ## Poem 4 (To a Senator Who Turned from Christianity to Idolatry), lines 25–48 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-4-25 - Source: CSEL 3.3:303lines 25–48–304 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet mocks the former consul who now serves Isis wearing the dog mask, and reproaches him for leaving the truth after he had come to know God. ### Latin text Si quis ab Isiaco consul procedat in urbem, Risus oris erit: quis te non rideat autem, Qui fueris consul, nunc Isidis esse ministrum ? Quodque pudet primo, te non pudet esse secundo, Ingeniumque tuum turpes damnare per hymnos Respondente tibi uulgo et lacerante senatu, Teque domo propria pictum cum fascibus olim, Nunc quoque cum sistro faciem portare caninam. An haec humilitas? est humilitatis imago. Aedibus illa tuis semper monumenta manebunt. Rumor et ad nostras peruenit publicus aures Te dixisse: dea, erraui, ignosce, rediui. Dic mihi si ualeas, cum talia saepe rogares Et ueniam peteres, quae tecum uerba locuta est ? Vere mente cares, sequeris qui mente carentes. Haec iterum repetis nec te delinquere sentis. Quid mereare uide: minus esses forte notandus, Si tantum hoc scires et in hoc errore maneres: At cum uericolae penetraueris ostia legis Et tibi nosse Deum paucis prouenerit annis, Cur linquenda tenes aut cur retinenda relinquis? Nilque colis, dum cuncta colis: nec corde retractas, Vera quid a falsis, quid ab umbris lumina distant. Philosophum fingis, cum te sententia mutet: ### English translation (Claude) if a consul came out of a temple of Isis into the city, he would be the laughing stock of every mouth: but who would not laugh at you, who were a consul, to be now a minister of Isis? And what shames a man the first time, you are not ashamed to be a second time, and to condemn your talent by foul hymns, the crowd answering you and the senate tearing you to pieces, and you, once painted in your own house with the fasces, now also carrying a dog's face with the sistrum. Is this humility? It is an image of humility. These monuments will always remain in your house. And public rumor has reached even our ears that you said: “Goddess, I erred, forgive me, I have come back.” Tell me, if you can: when you often asked such things and sought pardon, what words did she speak with you? Truly you lack a mind, you who follow those who lack a mind. These things you repeat again and do not feel that you are sinning. See what you deserve: perhaps you would be less to be censured if you knew only this and remained in this error: but when you had entered the doors of the truth-worshipping law and it was granted you in a few years to know God, why do you hold what should be left, or leave what should be held? And you worship nothing, while you worship everything; nor do you consider in your heart how true differs from false, light from shadows. You play the philosopher, while your opinion keeps changing you: ### Translation notes - Line 8: the mask of the dog-headed Anubis, worn in processions of Isis. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 4.25 (CSEL 3.3:303lines 25–48–304; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/4-25). ## Poem 4 (To a Senator Who Turned from Christianity to Idolatry), lines 49–73 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-4-49 - Source: CSEL 3.3:304lines 49–73 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet warns against excess and instability, quoting Virgil's Theseus, and insists that abandoning the known truth is a grave fault. ### Latin text Nam tibi si stomachum popularis monent ira, Et Iudaeus eris totusque incertus haberis. Indulge dictis, sapientia non placet alta. Omne quod est nimium contra cadit: unum operantur Et calor et frigus: sic hoc, sic illud adurit. Sic tenebrae uisum, sic sol contrarius aufert, Et pariter laedunt gelidum feruensque lauacrum: Esca alitur corpus, corpus corrumpitur esca, Vimque suam minuit, si quid protenditur ultra. Denique si sedeas, requies est magna laboris: Si multum sedeas, labor est. Maro namque poeta Pro poena posuit: sedet aeternumque sedebit Infelix Theseus. semper nocet utile longum : Prandia longa nocent, ieiunia longa fatigant. Sic nimium sapere stultum facit. 'improba secta, Me dea sic docuit, moderamen amabile dixit*. Sed tu nec sectam modo nec moderamina curas. Mens autem stabilis nullo peruertitur aestu Ipsaque simplicitas numquam mala cogitat ulla. Hinc sincera fides aeterna sede fruetur, Et dolus e contra longo cruciabitur igni. Elige quid uelis, ut digna piacula uites. Sic tamen hanc ueniam mereatur creditor inquam. Vt leue crimen erit, si nolis noscere uera: Non leue crimen erit, si cognita uera relinquas. ### English translation (Claude) for if popular anger stirs your stomach, you will be a Jew too, and be held wholly unstable. Indulge my words: lofty wisdom does not please. Everything that is too much falls the opposite way: heat and cold work one thing: this one, that one, both burn. So darkness takes away sight, so does the sun, its opposite, and cold and hot baths alike do harm: the body is nourished by food, the body is corrupted by food, and it lessens its own force if anything is stretched beyond measure. Then, if you sit, it is a great rest from labor: if you sit much, it is labor. For Maro the poet set it down as a punishment: “he sits and for ever will sit, unhappy Theseus.” What is useful always harms when long: long lunches harm, long fasts weary. So too much wisdom makes a fool. “The sect is shameless; the goddess so taught me, she said moderation is lovable…” But you care neither for a sect nor for moderation. But a stable mind is overturned by no surge, and simplicity itself never thinks any evil. Hence sincere faith will enjoy an eternal seat, and guile, on the contrary, will be tormented by long fire. Choose what you will, so as to avoid the penalties due. Yet, I say, let a believer deserve this pardon: that it will be a light crime if you do not wish to know the truth; it will not be a light crime if you abandon truths once known. ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 6.617-618 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Line 1: the text reads monent, probably for mouet ('stirs'); translated by sense. - Lines 12–13 quote Virgil, Aeneid 6.617–618. - Lines 15–16 are obscure, and the digital text marks a gap or crux after line 16; they seem to quote the senator's own excuse. Line 23 (creditor) is also uncertain; translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 4.49 (CSEL 3.3:304lines 49–73; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/4-49). ## Poem 4 (To a Senator Who Turned from Christianity to Idolatry), lines 74–85 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-4-74 - Source: CSEL 3.3:304lines 74–85–305 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet hopes that age will bring the apostate back and urges him to repent and keep faith with God so as not to fall twice. ### Latin text Sed te correctum forsan matura senectus In melius reuocat satiatum erroribus istis: Tempus enim mutat mala, digerit omnia tempus. Tunc igitur cum te consulta reduxerit aetas, Disce Deo seruare fidem, ne forte bis unum Incurras lapsum, quia uere dicitur illud: Qui pedis offensi lapidem uitare secundo Nescit et incautus iterum uexauerit artus, Imputet ipse sibi nec casibus imputet ullis. Corrige delictum fidamine, corrige mentem. Suffecit peccare semel, desiste uereri: Non erit in culpa. quem paenitet ante fuisse. ### English translation (Claude) But perhaps ripe old age, having corrected you, calls you back to the better, sated with these errors: for time changes evils, time sets all things in order. Then, therefore, when well-counseled age has led you back, learn to keep faith with God, lest you happen twice to incur the one fall, because this is truly said: he who does not know how to avoid a second time the stone his foot struck and, unwary, bruises his limbs again, let him blame himself and not blame any chance. Correct your offense by faithfulness, correct your mind. It was enough to have sinned once; stop fearing: he will not be at fault who repents of what he was before. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 4.74 (CSEL 3.3:304lines 74–85–305; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/4-74). ## Poem 5 (On Easter), lines 1–25 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-5-1 - Source: CSEL 3.3:306lines 1–25 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The cross, planted on Golgotha, is pictured as a tree whose fruit is buried and rises on the third day, grows to heaven after forty days, sends out twelve branches to the nations, and receives the Spirit's nectar after fifty days. ### Latin text Est locus ex omni medius quem credimus orbe, Golgotha Iudaei patrio cognomine dicunt: Hic ego de sterili succisum robore lignum Plantatum memini fructus genuisse salubres: Non tamen hos illis qui se posuere coloni Praebuit, externi fructus habuere beatos. Arboris haec species: uno de stipite surgit Et mox in geminos extendit brachia ramos, Sicut plena graues antemnae carbasa tendunt Vel cum disiunctis iuga sunt ab aratro iuuencis. Quem tulit hoc primo maturo semine lapsum Concepit tellus: mox hinc (mirabile dictu) Tertia lux iterum terrae superisque tremendum Extulerat ramum uitali fruge beatum. Sed bis uicenis con firmiter illo diebus Creuit in immensum caelumque cacumine summo Contigit et tandem sanctum caput abdidit alte, Dum tamen ingenti bis senos pondere ramos Edidit et totum spargens porrexit in orbem, Gentibus ut cunctis uictum uitamque perennem Praeberent mortemque mori qui posse docerent. Explicitis etiam mox quinquaginta diebus Vertice de summo diuini nectaris haustum Detulit in ramos caelestis spiritus aura: Dulci rore graues manabant undique frondes. ### English translation (Claude) There is a place which we believe to be the middle of the whole world; the Jews call it Golgotha in their ancestral speech: here I remember that a tree, cut from a barren trunk, was planted and bore saving fruits; yet it did not offer them to those settlers who planted it; outsiders had the blessed fruits. This is the tree's appearance: it rises from one stem and soon stretches out its arms into twin branches, as yards stretch heavy, full sails, or like yokes when the oxen are unyoked from the plough. What it bore first, fallen with ripe seed, the earth conceived: soon from it (wonderful to tell) the third light had again brought up, dreadful to earth and those above, a branch blessed with life-giving fruit. But after twice twenty days, firmly established in it, it grew to an immense height and touched the sky with its topmost crown, and at last hid its holy head on high, while yet it put forth twice six branches of great weight and, spreading them, extended them through the whole world, that they might offer to all nations food and life everlasting and teach that death itself can die. And soon, when fifty days had been completed, from the very summit the heavenly breath of the Spirit brought down a draught of divine nectar into the branches: the leaves dripped everywhere, heavy with sweet dew. ### Scripture references - John 19:17: allusion, high confidence - 1 Cor 15:4: allusion, medium confidence - Acts 1:3: allusion, high confidence - Acts 1:9: allusion, medium confidence - Acts 2:1–4: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:9: echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - This poem (De Pascha, also called De ligno crucis or De ligno uitae) is one of the poems printed among the spurious works of Cyprian (Hartel, CSEL 3.3); it is not by Cyprian, and its author and date are uncertain. - The allegory: the tree is the cross; its fruit is Christ, buried and raised on the third day; the forty days to the ascension; the twelve branches are the apostles; the fifty days are Pentecost. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 5.1 (CSEL 3.3:306lines 1–25; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/5-1). ## Poem 5 (On Easter), lines 26–52 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-5-26 - Source: CSEL 3.3:306lines 26–52–307 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Beneath the tree is a spring where people of every kind must wash before they may eat its fruit; those who taste it are changed, though some reject the taste. ### Latin text Ecce sub ingenti ramorum tegminis umbra Fons erat: hic nullo casu turbante serenum Perspicuis inlimis aquis, et gramina circum Fundebant laetos uario de flore colores. Hunc circum innumerae gentes populique coibant, Quam uarii. generis sexus aetatis honoris, Innuptae nuptaeque simul uiduaeque nurusque, Infantes puerique uiri iuuenesque senesque : Hic ubi multigenis flexos incumbere pomis Cernebant ramos, auidis attingere dextris Gaudebant madidos caelesti nectare fructus. Nec prius hos poterant cupidis decerpere palmis, Quam lutulenta uiae uestigia foeda prioris Detererent corpusque pio de fonte lauarent. Ergo diu circumspatiantes gramine molli. Suspiciunt alta pendentes arbore fructus: Tunc si quae ex illis delapsa putamina ramis : Et dulces multo rorantes nectare fructus, Vescuntur, ueros optantes sumere fructus: Ergo ubi caelestem ceperunt ora saporem, Permutant animos et mentes perdere auaras Incipiunt dulcique hominem cognoscere sensu. Insolitum multis stomachum mouisse saporem Vidimus et fellis commotum melle uenenum, Reiecisse bonos turbata mente sapores, Aut auide sumptum non dilexisse diuque Et male potatum tandem euomuisse saporem. ### English translation (Claude) Look: under the shade of the huge covering of branches there was a spring: here, clear, with nothing by chance troubling it, with translucent, unmuddied waters; and the grasses around poured out glad colors from varied flowers. Around it countless nations and peoples gathered, how varied in kind, sex, age, rank: unmarried and married women, widows and young brides, infants and boys, men, youths and old men: here, when they saw the branches bent and leaning with fruits of many kinds, they rejoiced to touch with eager right hands the fruits moist with heavenly nectar. Yet they could not pluck them with desirous palms until they had wiped off the muddy, foul tracks of their former road and washed their body in the holy spring. So, walking around a long while on the soft grass, they look up at the fruits hanging from the high tree: then, if any husks fell from those branches and sweet fruits dripping with much nectar, they feed on them, longing to take the true fruits: so, when their mouths had taken the heavenly taste, they change their dispositions and begin to lose their greedy minds and with a sweet sense to recognize what a human being is. We have seen the unaccustomed taste stir the stomach of many, and the venom of gall, disturbed by the honey, reject good tastes with a troubled mind, or, having taken it eagerly, not love it for long, and, having drunk it badly, at last vomit up the taste. ### Translation notes - The spring is baptism; the fallen husks seem to be the instruction given before it (the catechumenate). ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 5.26 (CSEL 3.3:306lines 26–52–307; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/5-26). ## Poem 5 (On Easter), lines 53–69 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/2-1/#p-5-53 - Source: CSEL 3.3:307lines 53–69–308 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Some relapse after touching the springs, but those who receive the truth are bathed fasting on the appointed day, cleansed of their former life, and given the way to heaven through the tree of life. ### Latin text Saepe quidem multi renouatis mentibus aegros Restituere animos et quae se posse negabant Pertulerant fructumque sui cepere laboris. Multi etiam sanctos ausi contingere fontes Discessere iterum subito retroque relapsi Sordibus et caeno mixti uoluuntur eodem. Multi uerum bono portantes pectore totis. Accipiunt animis penitusque in uiscera condunt. Ergo quique sacros possunt accedere fontes Septima lux illos optatas sistit ad undas, Tingunt in liquidis ieiunos fontibus artus: Sic demum inluuiem mentis uitaeque prioris Deponunt labem purasque a morte reducunt Inlustres animas caelique ad lumen ituras. Hinc iter ad ramos et dulcia poma salutis, Inde iter ad caelum per ramos arboris altae. Hoc lignum uitae cunctis credentibus. amen. ### English translation (Claude) Often indeed many, with renewed minds, have restored their sick souls, and endured what they said they could not, and reaped the fruit of their labor. Many too who dared to touch the holy springs went away again suddenly and, falling backward, wallow in the same filth and mire. Many, carrying the truth in a good heart, receive it with their whole souls and store it deep within. So all who are able to come to the sacred springs, the seventh light sets them at the waters they longed for; they dip their fasting limbs in the liquid springs: so at last they put off the filth of mind and the stain of their former life, and bring back from death pure, shining souls that will go to the light of heaven. Hence the way to the branches and the sweet fruits of salvation, thence the way to heaven through the branches of the high tree. This is the tree of life for all who believe. Amen. ### Scripture references - 2 Pet 2:22: echo, medium confidence - Rev 22:2: echo, medium confidence - Rev 22:14: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - Line 10: 'the seventh light' is probably the day of baptism at Easter after a week of final preparation; the reference is uncertain. - Line 6 echoes 2 Pet 2:22. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 5.53 (CSEL 3.3:307lines 53–69–308; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/5-53). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 1–25 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-1 - Source: CSEL 3.3:309lines 1–25 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet, who once sang of the seasons and the countryside, announces a higher theme: creation, the fall, death, and the eternal flames. ### Latin text Qui mihi ruricolas optaui carmine musas Et uernis roseas titulaui floribus auras Aestiuasque graues messis messis aristas, Succidi tumidas autumni uitibus uuas Et hiemis placidas laudaui semper oliuas Adque modulatas exclusi fontibus undas Frondentisque uago cecini de gramine siluas: Protinus aetherias modulabor luminis oras, Iam mihi luciferas liceat contingere musas, Pandere secretas fluuiali uertice nymphas Et laetas alio positas sub sidere siluas, Aeternasque simul memorabo carmine flammas, Vnde mare in tumidas inmensum fluctuet undas, Quae uirtus moneat solidas tremiscere terras, Et lux unde nouo praefulserit aurea mundo, Quis hominem laeto potuisset fingere limo, Vnde genus uacuo potuisset crescere saeclo, Et uaria populo quae sit uiuendi cupido, Quae creata malo primum moriendi propago, Vnde bonus roseis odorque pudorque coronis, Quid faciat laetis ut uitis aestuet uuis, Vtque noua teneris lactescant hordea culmis, Arbor ut in glaciem nigris pubescat oliuis, Germinibus uariis quis det crementa uigoris Mollibus et matrem filiorum protegat umbris. ### English translation (Claude) I who wished for country Muses in my song, and inscribed the rosy breezes with spring flowers and the heavy summer ears of the harvest, cut the swelling grapes from the vines of autumn, and always praised the peaceful olives of winter, and drew out tuneful waters from the springs, and sang of the leafy woods from the wandering grass: now at once I will sing of the ethereal shores of light; now let me reach the light-bearing Muses, unfold the secret nymphs from the river's source and the glad woods set beneath another star, and at the same time tell in song of the eternal flames, whence the immense sea surges into swelling waves, what power warns the solid earth to tremble, and whence golden light first shone on the new world, who could have fashioned man from the glad clay, whence the race could grow in the empty age, and what desire of living the people has in their variety, what lineage of dying was first created by evil, whence comes the good scent and blush of rosy crowns, what makes the vine seethe with glad grapes, and how new barley turns milky in tender stalks, how the tree ripens toward winter with black olives, who gives increase of vigor to varied seeds and protects the mother of offspring with soft shade. ### Translation notes - This poem (Ad Flauium Felicem de resurrectione mortuorum, also called De iudicio Domini) is one of the poems printed among the spurious works of Cyprian (Hartel, CSEL 3.3); it is not by Cyprian, and its author and date are uncertain. - Line 3: messis is printed twice in the digital text, probably a repetition; translated once. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.1 (CSEL 3.3:309lines 1–25; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 26–50 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-26 - Source: CSEL 3.3:309lines 26–50–310 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet will sing of the true God who made the world, and urges whoever would escape eternal fire to worship the one eternal, unbegotten, almighty God. ### Latin text Omnia nosse bonum quae sint incepta ramorum, Vt per cuncta Deum liceat agnoscere uerum, Qui lucem maria caelum terramque parauit Ornauitque nouum uariato sidere mundum Et pecudes primum et uolucres procedere iussit Et dedit aequoreas conplere piscibus undas Adque fecundatas animalibus egit harenas. Talia conpositis deducam carmina musis Salubremque nouis exponam fontibus undam Et laetum placidis uenientem nubibus imbrem, In animas hominum penitus ultroque fluentem, Excipiam plenis in nostra noualia riuis. Nunc age securam uiuamque attingite nympham Et celeres uitae facilem haurite liquorem. Si quis uelit poenas aeternae euadere flammae Ignarasque die uenturique inscius aevi Et iustae potius adipisci praemia uitae, Hunc unum meminisse Deum solumque precandum, Qui totum in libra posuit sub limine mundum, Aeternumque manens semperque futurus in aeuum, Saecula cuncta tenens, et ante saecula solus, Ingenitus sine fine Deus thronumque diuinum Solus habens caelum semper supereminet altum Omnipotens solus, cui parent omnia rerum, [Pater filius spiritus qui sunt semper in unum] ### English translation (Claude) It is good to know all things, what the beginnings of things are, so that through all things one may recognize the true God, who prepared light, seas, sky and earth, and adorned the new world with varied stars, and bade the cattle and the birds come forth first, and gave the sea waves to be filled with fish and drove living creatures over the fruitful sands. Such songs will I bring forth with the Muses set in order, and set forth the healthful wave from new springs and the glad rain coming from peaceful clouds, flowing deep and freely into the souls of men; I will receive it in full streams into our fallow fields. Come now, touch the secure and living nymph and swiftly draw the easy liquor of life. If anyone wishes to escape the punishments of the eternal flame, ignorant of the day and unaware of the age to come, and rather to gain the rewards of a just life, let him remember this one God and pray to him alone, who set the whole world in the balance beneath its threshold, and, abiding eternally and ever to be through the ages, holding all ages, and alone before the ages, unbegotten God without end, alone holding the divine throne, ever towers over high heaven, alone almighty, whom all things obey, ### Scripture references - Gen 1:1–25: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 25:41: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - Line 1: the text reads incepta ramorum ('the beginnings of branches'), probably corrupt; translated by sense. - The editor deletes the last line printed in this passage, 'Father, Son, Spirit, who are always one', which is left out of the translation. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.26 (CSEL 3.3:309lines 26–50–310; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-26). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 51–74 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-51 - Source: CSEL 3.3:310lines 51–74–311 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: God made man in his image, gave him dominion and one command; but man, urged by the woman who sinned first, broke it and fell under death. ### Latin text Qui sibi conplacitum hominem formauit in aeuum, Pastorem pecudum, dominum dedit esse ferarum Iusque dedit uolucrum pontumque solum dominandum, Qui sermone tenus potuit extendere caelum Et solidam uerbo iussit suspendere terram Ac dicto citius separauit aequoris undam, Hanc manibus caram dilexit fingere formam Decoramque suam uoluit inesse figuram, Spiritu uiuificam adflauit uultibus auram. Immemor ille Dei, temere conmittere tanta, Nec ultra monitum quicquam contingeret: unum, Vnde malum sciret et unde dinosceret aequum Protinus, inlicitum uetuit contingere pomum. Quanta Deus homini permisit munera mundi Et praedulce sui signauit pignus amoris, Vtilia et cara tribuit mandata salutis, Sub dicione dedit terras animamque uiuentem, Pinnatumque genus pecudes genus omne ferarum Et genus aequoreum animalia cuncta natantum. Sed quoniam primo transgressus crimine legem Iam iam primus homo Domini mandata mutabat, Coniuge cuncta mala suadente morte peribat. Nam peccati malum conmisit femina primum Prodidit adque suum decepit lege maritum. ### English translation (Claude) who formed man, pleasing to himself, for the ages, gave him to be shepherd of the cattle and lord of the wild beasts, and gave him rule over the birds, and the sea and the land to govern; who by speech alone could stretch out the sky, and by a word bade the solid earth hang, and quicker than said separated the sea's wave; this form, dear to him, he loved to fashion with his hands, and willed his own comely likeness to be in it; by his Spirit he breathed a life-giving breath into his face. He, unmindful of God, rashly committed so great a thing, though warned to touch nothing beyond: one thing, whence he would know evil and whence discern the right, the forbidden fruit, God at once forbade him to touch. How great were the gifts of the world God granted to man, and marked them as a most sweet pledge of his love, gave him useful and dear commands for his salvation, gave the lands under his dominion and every living soul, the winged race, the cattle, every kind of wild beast, and the race of the sea, all creatures that swim. But because, having first transgressed the law by a crime, the first man now was altering the Lord's commands, his wife urging all evils, he was perishing in death. For the woman first committed the evil of sin and betrayed her husband and deceived him from the law. ### Scripture references - Gen 1:26–28: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:7: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:16–17: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:6: allusion, high confidence - 1 Tim 2:14: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Lines 10–13 are loosely constructed in the Latin; translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.51 (CSEL 3.3:310lines 51–74–311; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-51). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 75–99 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-75 - Source: CSEL 3.3:311lines 75–99–312 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Through Eve's sin and the serpent's envy death and evil spread; God, dwelling in unapproachable light, keeps souls after death in darkness or refreshment until the resurrection and judgment. ### Latin text Eua persuasa male patefecit limina leto Et sibi cum genere creauit funera toto. Hinc (nefas infaustum) mors emanauit in aeuum. Inde magis facinus facile percrebruit altum, Agricolaeque labor agitauit saeuius annum. Callidus hoc zelo serpens iniecit iniquo. Inde magis populi multa conmissa malorum Et nefanda malis pepererunt semina factis. Idcircoque Deus solus, cui summa potestas, Et super alta tenens summa fastigia caeli, Altus inaccessam habitans in saecula lucem Praeteritique memor et praescius ante futuri, Progeniem meriti decretum seruat in aeuum: Et cunctas animas quae corpora tarde gubernant Et ratione mouent hominem uagante per artus, Vt primum posito membrorum pondere cedunt Terrenisque leues resolutae nexibus ibunt Ac proprias repetent diuersis partibus oras, Illicet occultis alias includi tenebris, Ast alias laetis reuocari protinus auris, Seruari penitus decreta ad praemia legis, Donec t iterum ortis resurgant corpora membris : Nunc homines primae pensare faenora uitae Iudicesque Dei memores astare priorum, Expectare suam suo quemque ex crimine poenam. ### English translation (Claude) Eve, wickedly persuaded, opened the doors to death and created funerals for herself together with her whole race. Hence (unhallowed misfortune!) death flowed out through the ages. Thence crime spread more easily and deeply, and the farmer's labor drove the year more harshly. The cunning serpent cast this in with wicked envy. Thence all the more did the peoples commit many evils, and abominable seeds brought forth evil deeds. And therefore God alone, who has the highest power, and holds the highest summits above the lofty sky, dwelling on high in inaccessible light through the ages, mindful of the past and knowing the future beforehand, keeps for ever the decree of desert for the race: all souls that slowly govern bodies and move the human being by reason wandering through the limbs, as soon as they lay down the weight of the limbs and depart, and go light, released from earthly bonds, and seek again their own shores in different parts, forthwith some are shut in hidden darkness, but others are at once called back to glad breezes, kept wholly for the rewards decreed by the law, until … bodies rise again with their limbs restored: then men will weigh the interest of their first life, and stand before God their judge, mindful of the past, each to await his own punishment for his own crime. ### Scripture references - Gen 3:1–6: allusion, high confidence - Gen 3:17–19: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 5:12: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Tim 6:16: allusion, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Wis 2:24 (Wisdom of Solomon): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Line 22: the editor marks the text as corrupt at this point. - Lines 23–25 are loosely constructed in the Latin; translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.75 (CSEL 3.3:311lines 75–99–312; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-75). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 100–125 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-100 - Source: CSEL 3.3:312lines 100–125–313 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The God who made all things from nothing can surely raise the dead, however they perished, as dead seed rises in a new harvest. ### Latin text Funditus aut pecorum sine nomine t pondere flatu, Incassumue Dei finiendo t fundere flatum. An Deus omnipotens, cuius sub nutu reguntur Omnia, non ualeat post mortem reddere uitam Aut aliquid rerum Dominus non posse uidetur? Si potuit tenebris claram excludere lucem Adque omnem uerbo potuit conponere molem, Omnia de nihilo potente uoce parare, Cur non ex aliquo possit conpingere notam, Quae fuerat quondam, quae uixerat ante figura, Adsimilemque suae iubeat resurgere formam? Cum sint cuncta Dei, reddet magis omnia tellus, Iussa. reuocabit quidquid contexerat olim. Si quem forte rogis aboleuit flamma sopitum, Aut aliquem caecis deiecerat aequor in undis, Si cuiusque famem satiarunt uiscera piscis, Aut fixere ferae crudelia funera membris, Alitibus iacuit raptato corpore sanguis: Vltima nec Domino negabunt funera quemquam, Adparere Deo uiuos de morte necesse est Resumptisque suis homines astare figuris. Semina sic uersis creduntur arida terris Et penitus fixis putrescunt mortua sulcis, Inde reparatis animatur culmus aristis Et iterum uiuis flauescunt fortia granis Consurguntque nouae uario cum faenore messes. ### English translation (Claude) or wholly, like cattle, without a name … breath, or in vain … to pour out God's breath by ending. Can God almighty, by whose nod all things are ruled, be unable to give back life after death, or does the Lord seem unable to do anything? If he could shut out bright light from darkness, and could compose the whole mass by a word, make all things from nothing by his mighty voice, why could he not, out of something, fashion the known shape that once was, the form that lived before, and bid it rise again like its own shape? Since all things are God's, the earth will all the more give back all, when commanded; she will call back whatever she once covered. If the flame perhaps consumed someone laid asleep on the pyre, or the sea threw someone down into its blind waves, if anyone has fed the hunger of a fish's belly, or wild beasts have pierced his limbs with a cruel death, or his blood has lain for the birds, his body snatched away: not even the last of deaths will refuse anyone to the Lord; men must appear living before God from death and stand with their own shapes taken back. So seeds are entrusted dry to the turned earth and, fixed deep in the furrows, rot dead; then the stalk is quickened with ears renewed, and again they grow golden, strong, with living grains, and new harvests rise with varied interest. ### Scripture references - Gen 1:3: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 20:13: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 15:36–38: allusion, high confidence - John 12:24: echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Lines 1–2: the editor marks the text as corrupt in both lines; the sense, which completes the previous passage, is uncertain. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.100 (CSEL 3.3:312lines 100–125–313; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-100). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 126–149 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-126 - Source: CSEL 3.3:313lines 126–149–314 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Day and night, the phoenix and the trees show renewal; at the divine voice the Judge comes with countless angels, and the earth trembles to give back the dead. ### Latin text Sidera cuncta cadent, iterum renata lucescent, Et dies in densam moritur cum lumine noctem, Occidit inque diem nox rebus luce retectis Ac dies alta suis iterum resurgit in astris. Solque cadit supero splendorifer lumine claro, Lux perit umbrato uenienti uespere mundo Et remeat toto renouatque gaudia saeclo: Sic cremata suo uiuit de funere foenix Extemploque suo uolucris resurgit e busto. Et nudata foliis suo tempore fructicat arbor Adque iterum pomi curuat ex germine ramos. Ergo ut ad uocem mundo tremente diuinam Et penitus motis uirtutibus aeris alti Tunc fragor insolitus et maxima murmura caeli Promouente Deo, ueniente iudice mundi: Protinus innumeri concurrunt ire ministri, Conuallantque Deum cum maiestate caelesti, Angelica late descendunt agmina turbis. Omnes nuntii Dei, quibus est diuina facultas Praecipua et forma, uirtutes spiritus omnes. Igneus his uigor est, rutilantia corpora, caeli Vis diuina micat: hinc totus intonat aether, Hinc trepidans terra penitus uniuersa remugit Parturiens homines, quos reddere iussa debebit. ### English translation (Claude) All the stars will set, and will shine again reborn, and day dies with its light into thick night; night sets into day as things are uncovered by light, and high day rises again among its stars. The splendor-bearing sun sets from on high with clear light, the light perishes as evening comes and shades the world, and it returns and renews joy for the whole age: so the phoenix, burned, lives from its own funeral, and at once the bird rises from its own pyre. And the tree stripped of its leaves puts out shoots in its season and again bends its branches from the bud of fruit. So, when at the divine voice, the world trembling and the powers of the high air deeply shaken, then an unaccustomed crash and the greatest rumblings of the sky, God advancing, the judge of the world coming: at once countless ministers rush together to go, and surround God with heavenly majesty; angelic hosts descend far and wide in throngs, all the messengers of God, who have divine power pre-eminent, and beauty, all the powers of spirit. Their vigor is fiery, their bodies glowing; heaven's divine force flashes: hence the whole upper air thunders, hence the trembling earth bellows back from its depths, entire, in labor with the men whom, by command, she must give back. ### Scripture references - Matt 24:29–31: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 25:31: allusion, high confidence - 1 Thess 4:16: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Line 8: the phoenix, which was believed to be reborn from its own ashes, was a common early Christian image of the resurrection (compare 1 Clem. 25). ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.126 (CSEL 3.3:313lines 126–149–314; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-126). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 150–173 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-150 - Source: CSEL 3.3:314lines 150–173–315 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: At God's command the tombs open, bodies are rebuilt and souls restored, and every age, nation and rank rises and stands before him. ### Latin text Mirantur comites, turbantur denique nimbi, Astra mirata pauent subito uirtutis ab alto Hinc iubente Deo facile cum uoce potentis. Continuo ruptis per omnia regna sepulcris Omnis humus latis effundit hiatibus ossa Viuentisque patens populos eructat harena. Haerent membra conus, nectuntur ossa medullis Consertique regunt spirantia corpora nerui Et simul infusae mouentur sanguine uenae, Dimissaeque cauis animae redduntur apertis, Organa quaeque sua repetunt surgentia cuncta. (Pro miranda fides) hinc omnis pullulat aetas, Pullulat antiqua mortuorum puluere turba. Matres adque uiri repetita luce resurgunt, Magnanimi iuuenes pueri innuptaeque puellae Defunctique senes animis uiuentibus adstant Infantumque gemens resonat uagitibus orbis. Con uariae gentes ueniunt de sedibus imis, Eoumque manus et quas uidet ultima tellus, Quae colunt medias deuexo in climate zonas Rifeasque tenent pruinosi sideris arces: Omnis adest pauidus finis cuiusque colonus, Rusticus et miles, posito diademate reges, Pauperi permixtus aequali in agmine diues. ### English translation (Claude) His companions marvel, the clouds at last are troubled, the stars, amazed, quake at once at the power from on high, God commanding, easily, with the voice of the Mighty One. At once, the tombs burst open through all the kingdoms, all the ground pours out bones from wide chasms, and the sand, opening, belches forth living peoples. Limbs cling together, bones are knit with marrow, and interlaced sinews govern the breathing bodies, and at the same time veins, filled again, move with blood, and the souls that had been sent away are given back to the opened hollows, and all the organs, rising, seek again each its own. (O faith to be marveled at!) hence every age sprouts forth, the ancient crowd of the dead sprouts from the dust. Mothers and husbands rise with light restored, great-hearted youths, boys and unmarried girls, and old men long dead stand by with living souls, and the world resounds, groaning with the wailing of infants. Varied nations come together from the lowest seats, and the bands of the East, and those whom the farthest land sees, those who inhabit the middle zones in the sloping clime and hold the Riphaean heights under the frosty star: every settler of every border is present, afraid, the peasant and the soldier, kings with their crowns laid aside, the rich man mingled with the poor in one even column. ### Scripture references - Ezek 37:7–10: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:52: echo, medium confidence - Rev 20:12–13: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 6.306-308 (Virgil): echo, high confidence ### Translation notes - Line 7: the text reads conus, probably corrupt; translated by sense. - Lines 15–17 echo Virgil's description of the dead in the underworld (Aeneid 6.306–308, 426–427). ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.150 (CSEL 3.3:314lines 150–173–315; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-150). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 174–199 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-174 - Source: CSEL 3.3:315lines 174–199–316 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The Lord sits enthroned among martyrs, prophets and priests, separates the just from the wicked, and sends the just to an eternal land of light. ### Latin text Altus ubique tremor, precibus nunc ingemit orbis Tendentesque manus populi clamore mirantur. Ipse sedens Dominus eminenti lumine clarus Et praepotens cunctis micat in uirtutibus ignis Excelsoque throno caelesti sede coruscat Martyribus septus, numero candente uirorum Beatisque suis comitatus uatibus extat, Clara quibus niueis effulgent tempora taeniis. Iamque sacerdotes nitidis in uestibus adsunt Gestantes rutilas praemia uitae coronas Submissisque omnes genibusque reflexis adorant: Solus agios sanctusque Deus uox omnibus una est. Hinc Dominus geminam iubebit sistere plebem: Imperat et iustos numero discerni malorum Indutosque iubet deuicta morte uigorem Semper inexstinctam habere luminis auram, Ire per antiqua semper florentia regna, Ditia per nemora, semper amoena uireta, Degere perpetuam praeclaro in corpore uitam. Est locus Aeoliis Domino dilectus in oris, Lux ubi clara nitet spiratque salubrior aura Aeternaque dies adque inmutabile tempus Et secreta Deo regio ditissima campis Beataque nimis sereno in cardine sedes, Semper aer laetus semperque in luce futurus, Lenis et adspirans uitalia flamina uentus. ### English translation (Claude) Deep trembling everywhere; now the world groans in prayer, and the peoples, stretching out their hands, marvel with shouting. The Lord himself, seated, bright with surpassing light, and all-powerful, flashes like fire among all the powers, and gleams on a lofty throne in the heavenly seat, hedged about by martyrs, a shining number of men, and he stands accompanied by his blessed prophets, whose temples shine with snowy fillets. And now priests are present in gleaming garments, carrying glowing crowns, the rewards of life, and all, bowing down with bent knees, adore: “Holy, holy, God alone” is the one voice of all. Then the Lord will bid the twofold people stand: he commands the just to be separated from the number of the wicked, and bids them, clothed with strength, death conquered, have for ever the unquenched breath of light, go through the ancient, ever-flowering kingdoms, through rich groves, ever pleasant green places, and spend everlasting life in a glorious body. There is a place on the Aeolian shores, beloved by the Lord, where clear light shines and a healthier air breathes, and eternal day and unchangeable time, and a region set apart for God, very rich in fields, and a seat exceedingly blessed in a serene quarter, the air ever glad and ever to be in light, and a gentle wind breathing life-giving gusts. ### Scripture references - Rev 4:2–4: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 4:8: echo, medium confidence - Matt 25:31–34: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Line 12: agios is the Greek word for 'holy', kept in the Latin. - Line 20: 'Aeolian' may be a slip for Eoiis, 'eastern'; the place is uncertain. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.174 (CSEL 3.3:315lines 174–199–316; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-174). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 200–224 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-200 - Source: CSEL 3.3:316lines 200–224–317 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The land of the blessed is full of matchless flowers, gems, spices, gold and trees. ### Latin text Omnifero fert aequa solo praediuite tellus: Florea libratis conflagrat purpura pratis. Omnia praerutila miscent non inuida lucem, Flos alium laetus suo lumine uestit amictum. Hinc rosea niueo uariantur semine rura, Et roseis niuea crispantur floribus arua. Nescias illa quibus suauescant pulchrius arua Aut quibus aetheria spiret felicius aura, Quia melior specie uel quis praecellat honore. Numquam florigenis similes nascuntur in hortis Lilia nec nostris floruerunt talia campis, Nec sic nota rubet mox aut rosa panditur alba, Purpura nec Tyrio sic est incocta rubore. Gemma coloratis fulget speciosa lapillis, Prasinus inde nitet, illinc carbunculus ardet, Smaragdusque lapis micantia lumina fundit. Hic et odoriferis nascuntur cinnama uirgis Et uiridi laetum folio confragrat amomum. Hic iacet ingenitum radiati luminis aurum, Et nemora alta tenens florenti uertice caelum, Virentisque grauant uberrima germina ramos. Nulla suos similes porrexit India lucos, Non ita densa leuat uiridis cacumina pinus, Nec sic alta comas crispat uibrata cupressus, Nec uernus melius floret cum tempore ramus. ### English translation (Claude) the very rich land bears all things equally from its all-bearing soil: flowery purple blazes in the level meadows. All things, very bright, mingle their light without envy; one glad flower clothes another's mantle with its own light. Here rosy fields are varied with snowy seed, and snowy fields are curled with rosy flowers. You would not know with which flowers the fields are more beautifully sweet, or with which they breathe more happily in the heavenly air, which is better in appearance or which excels in honor. Never are such lilies born in flower-bearing gardens, nor have such flowered in our fields, nor does the familiar rose blush so, or the white one open, nor is purple so steeped in Tyrian red. The gem shines, beautiful with colored stones, the prase gleams on this side, the carbuncle burns on that, and the emerald stone pours out flashing lights. Here too cinnamon grows on fragrant twigs, and glad amomum is fragrant with green leaf. Here lies gold, inborn, of radiant light, and high groves that hold the sky with flowering top, and the richest buds weigh down the green branches. No India has put forth groves like these, nor does the green pine raise its tops so thick, nor does the cypress so curl its high, quivering foliage, nor does a branch flower better in springtime. ### Scripture references - Gen 2:11–12: echo, low confidence - Rev 21:19–20: echo, low confidence ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.200 (CSEL 3.3:316lines 200–224–317; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-200). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 225–249 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-225 - Source: CSEL 3.3:317lines 225–249–318 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: In the land of the blessed the trees never fade, honey and milk flow, four rivers spring from one fountain, there is no night, and no evil, fear or toil can enter. ### Latin text Hic aliter celsae florent in uertice nigrae Aeternumque uirent solae sine grandine siluae. Nulla cadunt folia, nullus flos tempore defit: Robore conpacta uirent t cacumina, purpurat arbor. Sed puto flos ille rosa est, rubor aequus in illo, Sic speciem talem foliis adspirat odorum. Stat cum flore nouis arbor pulcherrima pomis Vitalemque frugem felicia robora densant. Mella uiridatis confragrant pinguia ramis, Lac etiam plenis manat potabile riuis. Vitam spirat ibi quidquid pia terra uirescit, Beat usque simul quidquid de germine floret, Adque solum pulchrae redolet medicabile cretae. Fons illic placido perfundit agmine campos, Quattuor inde rigant partitam flumina terram Ver puto semper agit uestitus floribus aether. Non frigus uariat hiberni sideris auras, Nec, radiata micat pressis caloribus aestas, Caelum luce sua serenas temperat auras : Et reficit fetam meliore flamine terram. Nox ibi nulla, suas defendunt astra tenebras, Iraeque insidiaeque absunt et dira cupido, Exclususque metus pulsaeque a limine curae. Hinc malus extremas relegatur exul in oras, Beatosque labor uetitus contingere fines. ### English translation (Claude) Here, otherwise, the … flourish on the top, and the woods alone, without hail, are green for ever. No leaves fall, no flower fails in its season: the tops are green, compacted with strength; the tree is purple. But I think that flower is the rose, the even blush in it, so does it breathe such beauty of fragrances into its leaves. The fairest tree stands with flower and with new fruits, and the happy trunks thicken with life-giving fruit. Rich honey is fragrant on the greening branches, milk too flows drinkable in full streams. Whatever the holy land greens forth breathes life there, whatever flowers from the bud continually blesses, and the soil smells of beautiful, healing chalk. A spring there floods the fields with its calm stream; from it four rivers water the divided land. I think the upper air, clothed with flowers, keeps ever spring. Cold does not vary the breezes with a winter star, nor does summer flash, rayed with pressing heat; the sky with its own light tempers the serene breezes and refreshes the fruitful earth with a better breath. There is no night there; the stars keep away their darkness, and anger and plots are absent, and dread desire, and fear is shut out and cares driven from the threshold. Thence the wicked man is banished, an exile, to the farthest shores, and toil is forbidden to touch the blessed borders. ### Scripture references - Gen 2:10: allusion, high confidence - Exod 3:8: echo, medium confidence - Rev 21:25: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 22:5: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 22:2: echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Line 1: the text reads nigrae, probably corrupt; the noun is uncertain. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.225 (CSEL 3.3:317lines 225–249–318; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-225). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 250–274 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-250 - Source: CSEL 3.3:318lines 250–274–319 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The pious, the merciful and the honest rejoice and praise God in the land of the blessed; then the wicked come forward, lamenting their crimes. ### Latin text Hic prisca fides electa in sede quiescit. Iustitia gaudens aeterno in foedere uiuit Et secura salus placidis laetatur in aruis Semper uictura semperque in luce futura. Hic quicumque pius aequique bonique colonus, Quique Deum metuit innoxia mente tonantem Adque suos coluit sacra pietate parentes Et coluit sanctam semper sine crimine uitam, Aut inopem quotiens opibus solatus amicis Adque laborantes nimium subuenit egenos, Pauperis adiutor, solitus saluare pupillos, Eruit et nocitos, subuenit crimine pressis, Hospitibus carae tribuit sua pignera mensae, Omnia diuinis gessit sua munera iussis, Non aliquem nocuit, non aliena cupiuit: Illi exultantes diuinis laudibus omnes Orantesque simul referunt ad sidera uoces, Psallentes Domino celebrant per gaudia grates Beatamque uiam nuntiis comitantibus ibunt. Postquam haec Dominus felicia dona peregit Et iustos pariter aeterna in regna remisit: En miseranda uenit lugens sua crimina turba: Fit gemitus, maerent lacrimis ardentibus omnes Testanturque sua crebris ululatibus acta, Flammea pro meritis instantia tela tremiscunt. ### English translation (Claude) Here ancient faith rests in the chosen seat, Justice, rejoicing, lives in an eternal covenant, and secure salvation is glad in peaceful fields, ever to live and ever to be in light. Here whoever was a pious tiller of equity and goodness, and who feared God the Thunderer with innocent mind, and honored his parents with holy devotion, and lived a holy life always without crime, or whenever he consoled the needy with friendly wealth and came to the aid of the overburdened poor, helper of the poor man, accustomed to save orphans, and rescued the injured, and came to the aid of those pressed by false charges, gave guests the dear pledges of his table, did all his duties by divine commands, harmed no one, coveted nothing of another's: all these, exulting in divine praises and praying together, raise their voices to the stars, psalming to the Lord they give thanks with joy, and will go the blessed way with messengers accompanying them. After the Lord has accomplished these happy gifts and has sent the just together into the eternal kingdoms: lo, the wretched crowd comes, lamenting its crimes: groaning arises, all mourn with burning tears and bear witness to their deeds with constant howling; they tremble at the fiery darts pressing upon them for their deserts. ### Scripture references - Matt 25:34–40: allusion, medium confidence - Exod 20:12: echo, low confidence ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.250 (CSEL 3.3:318lines 250–274–319; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-250). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 275–299 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-275 - Source: CSEL 3.3:319lines 275–299–320 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The angels forbid the wicked to pray, and they are reproached for ignoring God's gifts in creation, rejecting him, and killing his messengers, and are sentenced to fire. ### Latin text Angeli corripiunt iam iam prohibentque precari Et prohibent seras paenitentiae fundere uoces, Iamque precum uenia flamma ueniente negatur. O miseri, quotiens uobis diuina potestas Innotuit, quotiens maiestas cognita ueri ? Audistis sonitus, uidistis fulgura caeli, Assidue pluuias uentorum et grandinis iras Experti, quotiens noctesque diesque serenos: Tempora fecunda dabant Dei munera uobis, Ver abunde rosas, frugibus nec defuit aestas, Autumnus uaria praebebat mitia poma, Semper hiems laetas glacialis fregit oliuas. Cuncta Deus tribuit, bonitas nec defuit ulla, Nec per tanta Deum genus omne sciuit humanum. Terra Deum tremuit, pontus Dei nutu pependit Et fluuius siccis trepidus refluxit harenis, Et genitura Deum per omnia laeta fatetur. Vos tamen hunc Dominum caeli terraeque negastis, Et iustos potius crudeli caede necastis Praeconesque Dei plerique saepe fugastis. Veritas in uobis pro crimine semper inhaesit. Et ideo fructum capietis sementis iniqui: Non scitis ecce diem, quem uos ridere soletis. Ibitis in tenebras ignis et sulphuris altas Ardendo saeuas passuri doloribus iras. ### English translation (Claude) Angels now seize them and forbid them to pray, and forbid them to pour out late cries of repentance, and now pardon for prayers is denied as the flame comes on. “O wretched ones, how often did divine power make itself known to you, how often was the majesty of the truth known? You heard the sounds, you saw the lightnings of heaven, you constantly experienced rains, the angers of winds and hail, so often nights and serene days: the fruitful seasons gave you the gifts of God, spring gave roses in abundance, nor did summer lack crops, autumn offered varied mellow fruits, icy winter always broke the glad olives. God gave all things, nor was any goodness lacking, yet through all these things the whole human race did not know God. The earth trembled at God, the sea hung at God's nod, and the river, trembling, flowed back over dry sands, and creation, glad, confesses God in all things. Yet you denied this Lord of heaven and earth, and killed the just instead with cruel slaughter, and many of you often put the heralds of God to flight. The truth always clung to you as if it were a crime. And therefore you will reap the fruit of an unjust sowing: you do not know: behold, the day you are accustomed to laugh at. You will go into the deep darkness of fire and sulphur, to suffer, burning, cruel wrath with pains.” ### Scripture references - Acts 14:17: allusion, medium confidence - Rom 1:20–21: allusion, medium confidence - Exod 15:8: echo, medium confidence - Josh 3:16: echo, medium confidence - Matt 23:34–37: allusion, medium confidence - Gal 6:7–8: echo, medium confidence - Rev 21:8: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Lines 15–16: the sea standing at God's command and the river turning back recall the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.275 (CSEL 3.3:319lines 275–299–320; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-275). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 300–326 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-300 - Source: CSEL 3.3:320lines 300–326–322 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The Lord sends the wicked into eternal fire; the elements turn to flame, and the poet describes the fiery place of punishment at the end of the earth. ### Latin text Hos aeternae iubet Dominus discedere poenae, Ire sub ardores semper sine fine gehennae, Vrgeri molem per stagna torrentia flammae. In flammas conuerti iubet elementa minantis Adque omnem caeli descendere nubibus ignem. Tunc auidus rapidos excludit tartarus ignis, Adque procellosis fluctuabunt aequora flammis, Totaque uiuentis confundet terra fauillis, Flammeos et sulcos aer uibrabit iratus, Adque omnibus facibus torrens armabitur orbis, Impetu tartareo prendent incendia mundum. Illi praecipitem pulsi tolluntur in aestum, Hinc fugiunt, illinc cursu referuntur acuto. Obuia fit saeua flammae fugientibus ira, Agnoscuntque suam iam iam de crimine poenam. Iamque qua a nullo tellus possessa colono Et maris extremis pressa sub fine profundo, Qua sol emenso radio definit Olympum Ortaque transacto conduntur sidera mundo : Gliscit aer densis abstrusa luce tenebris, Vltima secretis stagna flammantia riuis. Est natura loci signatis ignea poenis, Et palus inferni candens ardoribus ima Intonat horrificis, fretum poenale, caminus Aestuat et rapido turbatur uertice flammans, In tormenta ruens fluctuanti gurgite flumen Torrida se cuncta caeno miscetur harena. ### English translation (Claude) These the Lord commands to depart to eternal punishment, to go under the burnings of Gehenna ever without end, to be pressed down, a mass, through the torrent pools of flame. He commands the threatening elements to be turned into flames, and all the fire of heaven to descend from the clouds. Then greedy Tartarus shuts out its swift fires, and the seas will surge with stormy flames, and the whole earth will confound the living with ashes, and the angry air will brandish fiery furrows, and the burning world will be armed with every torch; with a Tartarean onrush the fires will seize the world. They, driven headlong, are lifted into the surge; they flee this way, and are carried back that way in sharp course. The fierce wrath of the flame meets them as they flee, and now they recognize their punishment for their crime. And now, where the earth is possessed by no settler, and pressed beneath the farthest bounds of the deep sea, where the sun, its ray having run its course, ends Olympus, and the risen stars are hidden when the world has passed, the air grows thick with darkness, its light hidden, the last pools flaming with secret streams. The nature of the place is fiery, marked out for punishments, and the swamp of the underworld, glowing in its depths with burnings, thunders horribly, a strait of punishment; the furnace seethes, and, flaming, is churned with a rapid whirl, a river rushing into torments with surging flood; the scorched sand, all of it, is mixed with the mire. ### Scripture references - Matt 25:41: allusion, high confidence - Matt 25:46: allusion, high confidence - 2 Pet 3:10–12: allusion, medium confidence - Rev 20:14–15: allusion, medium confidence ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.300 (CSEL 3.3:320lines 300–326–322; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-300). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 327–352 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-327 - Source: CSEL 3.3:322lines 327–352–323 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: In the place of punishment the wicked weep and gnash their teeth and confess their sins: idolatry, adultery, child-killing, robbery, murder, poisoning and theft. ### Latin text Huc captiua gemens mittetur turba malorum Arsurumque (nefas) scelerati corporis agmen. Magnus plangor ibi fletu sociante clamorem, Et stridor rapidus, ululatus inde dolentum Exsurget de flamma procul altusque sonoras Ignis et ardentis gemitus consurget in auras. Tunc humana mali pendet commissa propago, Incipientque preces ad caelum tendere seras. Adque Deum nunc nosse uolent, quem nosse nolebant. Illic quisque suae fatebitur effera uitae Nocentesque manus et saeuas crimine mentes Adque infanda sui testabitur effera uitae. Iam primum quicumque Deum male senserat ante Et uaga mentito coluisset numine saxa Adque cruentatas signis sacrauerat aras Et picturatas timuit sine uoce figuras Ac falsi tenuis adorauit numinis umbras, Et quemcumque malus seduxit protinus error, Si quis adulter erat, natos quicumque necarat, Si quocunque malo quis conscia mente uiuebat Aut rapto grassatus erat aut fraude clientis, Si quis humano suas maculabat sanguine palmas Adque latebrosa miscebat morte uenena, Tunc si quis uacuo celabat pectore furta Aut alieni mali lucro gaudebat iniquo, Admisit quicumque nefas quodcumque malorum. ### English translation (Claude) Hither the captive, groaning crowd of the wicked will be sent, and (unhallowed!) the column of the criminal body, to burn. Great lamentation there, weeping joined with clamor, and quick gnashing; the howling of those in pain will rise from the flame afar, and the fire, deep and resounding, and the groaning of the burning will rise into the air. Then the human race pays for the evil it committed, and they will begin to stretch late prayers to heaven, and will now wish to know God, whom they would not know. There each will confess the savage things of his life, the guilty hands and minds savage in crime, and will testify to the unspeakable things of his savage life. First whoever had thought ill of God before and worshipped wandering stones with a false deity and had consecrated bloody altars to images and feared painted figures without voice and adored the thin shades of a false deity, and whomever evil error at once led astray; if anyone was an adulterer, whoever had killed his children, if anyone lived with a conscience guilty of any evil, or had marauded by robbery or by defrauding a client, if anyone stained his palms with human blood and mixed poisons with lurking death, then if anyone hid thefts in an empty breast, or rejoiced in the unjust gain of another's misfortune, whoever committed any wickedness of the wicked. ### Scripture references - Matt 13:42: allusion, high confidence - Matt 8:12: echo, medium confidence - Rev 21:8: echo, medium confidence - 1 Cor 6:9–10: echo, low confidence ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.327 (CSEL 3.3:322lines 327–352–323; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-327). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 353–377 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-353 - Source: CSEL 3.3:323lines 353–377–324 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The prophets foretold this judgment; Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones shows the resurrection to come, so all should know and fear the true Lord who holds power over life and death. ### Latin text Altus ardor eos igni torquebit amaro, Suppliciumque dabunt uiuente funere cuncti, Sic hominum totam maerentes f seruare turbam. Haec adeo sancti quotiens cecinere prophetae, Spiritu saepe Dei moniti dixere futura? [Nemo suas (miserum) nemo eheu praebuit aures.] Sic Deus omnipotens uoluit sua praemia nosci Adque minas positae *** per talia legis, Mittendo plures caelestia uerba clamantes. Denique iussu Dei conpegit ossa prophetes Et stupuit mota subito non sponte sepulcra, Cineribus creta t iacuisse corpora passis, Surgere tunc uiuos anima ueniente miratus Et cum uoce sua ad caelum tendere palmas. [Gratanturque Deo et uictori talia Christo.] Illi quidem tumulos repetiere silentes Seruandique Dei diei cessere futuro: Paulisper iussit retineri cubilibus imis, Donec ille dies conpleto tempore magnus Adueniat. cuncti Dominum cognoscite ueram, Qui solus animam faciat contendere lucem Eandemque potest in tartara trudere poenae Et cui cuncta patet uitae mortisque potestas. Posse Deo, nam uelle satis est, factumque dicendo Ille meus solus metuendus sensibus imis. ### English translation (Claude) Deep burning will torture them with bitter fire, and all will pay the penalty in a living death, thus … the whole crowd of men, mourning. Have not the holy prophets so often sung these things, often warned by the Spirit of God, and foretold what was to come? Thus God almighty willed his rewards to be known and the threats of the law laid down *** by such things, sending many to cry out heavenly words. Then, at God's command, the prophet put bones together, and was astonished at the tombs suddenly moved, not of themselves, that bodies … had lain in scattered ashes; he marveled that then they rose living as the soul came, and with their voice stretched their palms toward heaven. They indeed went back to their silent tombs and yielded to the future day of God, to be kept for it: he bade them be held for a little while in their deepest beds, until that great day, its time completed, should come. All of you, know the true Lord, who alone can make the soul strive toward the light, and can likewise thrust it into the Tartarus of punishment, and to whom all power of life and death lies open. For God, to will is enough to be able, and it is done by speaking: he alone is to be feared by me in my inmost senses. ### Scripture references - Ezek 37:1–10: allusion, high confidence - Deut 32:39: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - Line 3 and line 11: the editor marks the text as corrupt; line 7: the digital text marks a gap. - The editor deletes two lines printed in this passage, 'No one (alas!), no one, alas, gave ear' and 'And they give thanks to God and to Christ the victor for such things'; both are left out of the translation. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.353 (CSEL 3.3:323lines 353–377–324; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-353). ## Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 378–406 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-1/#p-6-378 - Source: CSEL 3.3:324lines 378–406–325 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: The poet urges his readers to repent while there is time, to wash away their guilt, keep the new life, and pray, so as to reach the eternal rewards. ### Latin text Et quoniam leto cursus concluditur omnis, Quicumque est hodie, secum sua uita feretur. Et ideo dum uita manet, dum carpere lucem, Dum paeniteri licet, prius quam terminus aeui Occupet incautos et nescia lumina soluat Vltimus ille dies mortis qui lege tenetur : Quod primum superest, carae uigilate saluti Et faciles certique bonum in deflectite cursum. Post errata suis et pressa piacula sacris Postque uagae nimium quos uexare procellae Rectas adite uias et flamina laeta tenete. Hinc laetis prius animis repellite crimen, Et concreta diu proluatur pectore culpa, Tunc conmissa mali mites abolete nefanda Aeternisque Deum precibus placate tremendum, Pessima cuncta. bonis cedant, mortalia uiuis. Conseruate nouam iam iam sine crimine uitam Et seruate pias ueroque in nomine mentes. Ac ueniam primis supplices rogate delictis. Iam iam pura piis maturescant corda colonis, Innocuasque manus precibus adtollite iustis Laudibus et faciles diuinis reddite uoces. Incipiantque bonis uerisque adsuescere mentes, Diuinaeque magis celebrentur munera legis, Et memorate bona simulque inuadite facta. Sordida uilescant olim conmissa malorum, Et meliora piis flagrabunt omnia uobis, Horrendisque simul liberatur uita periclis Adque aeterna suis ueniet ad praemia uotis. ### English translation (Claude) And since every course is concluded by death, whoever lives today will carry his life with him. And therefore, while life remains, while you may enjoy the light, while you may repent, before the end of time seizes you unawares, and that last day of death, which is held by law, closes your unknowing eyes: what remains first, watch over your dear salvation, and, ready and sure, turn your course toward the good. After errors, and after sins checked by holy rites, and after the storms that have harried you, wandering, too long, take the right ways and hold to the glad breezes. Hence with glad souls first drive away crime, and let the long-hardened guilt be washed from your breast, then, gentle, abolish the unspeakable evils you have committed, and appease the dreadful God with unceasing prayers. Let all the worst things yield to the good, mortal things to the living. Keep now the new life without crime, and keep your minds pious and in the true name. And as suppliants ask pardon for your former offenses. Now let pure hearts ripen in pious tillers, and lift innocent hands in just prayers, and render voices ready for divine praises. And let your minds begin to grow used to things good and true, and let the gifts of the divine law be celebrated the more, and remember good things and at once take hold of good deeds. Let the sordid evils once committed grow worthless, and all better things will blaze for you, the pious, and at once life is freed from dreadful perils and will come, by its prayers, to the eternal rewards. ### Scripture references - 1 Tim 2:8: echo, medium confidence - 2 Cor 6:2: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - Line 9 seems to refer to baptism or penance ('holy rites'); the sense is uncertain. ### Citation (SBL) Ps.-Cyprian, Carm. 6.378 (CSEL 3.3:324lines 378–406–325; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ps-cyprian-carmina/6-378).