Text
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 1.1:
Nearly all writers of history (Greek as well as Latin) who have perpetuated in their various works the deeds of kings and peoples for the sake of forming an enduring record have commenced their histories with Ninus, the son of Belus and king of the Assyrians. Indeed, these historians with their very limited insight would have us believe that the origin of the world and the creation of man was without beginning. Yet they definitely state that kingdoms and wars began with Ninus, as if forsooth the human race had existed up to that time in the manner of beasts and then, as though shaken and aroused, it awoke for the first time to a wisdom previously unknown to it. … From Adam, the first man, to Ninus, whom they call “The Great” and in whose time Abraham was born, 3184 years elapsed, a period that all historians have either disregarded or have not known. But from Ninus, or from Abraham, to Caesar Augustus, that is, to the birth of Christ, which took place in the forty-second year of Caesar’s rule, when, on the conclusion of peace with the Parthians, the gates of Janus were closed and wars ceased over all the world, there were 2015 years. During this later period, whether one considers the men of action or the historians, the labours of all of them, both literary and active, were lavishly expended.
Source (list of abbreviations)
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 1.1
Bibliography
| Raymond 1936, 32 | Raymond, Irving W. Seven Books of History against the Pagans. The Apology of Paulus Orosius. New York: Columbia University Press 1936. |
Amar Annus
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