Orosius

Paulus Orosius (c. 385, † 418 ), was in Hispania (possibly in Braga in the province Galaecia ) born late antique historians and Christian theologian.

Life and work

As a Christian priest Orosius showed interest in the debate over the Priscillianism that raged in his country of birth, and it is possible that he visited in Hippo in 413 or 414 due to its Augustine. After he had remained some time in Africa as his student, he was sent by him 415 with a letter to the church father Jerome to Palestine, then to Bethlehem.

The ostensible purpose of his mission (apart from a pilgrimage and perhaps the acquisition of relics ) was to obtain further instruction from Jerome on the issues raised by the Priscillianern and Origenists; but apparently actually Orosius should bring Jerome and others against Augustine's opponent, Pelagius in position, who lived since the Synod of Carthage in 411 Palestine and there found some acceptance.

The result of Orosius ' arrival was that John, Bishop of Jerusalem, was prompted, at his residence in June 415 to convene a synod, reported on the Orosius on the decisions of Carthage and of Augustine's writings leave those sections dealing directed against Pelagius. Success was hardly to be expected in the Eastern Christians, who often poorly understood Latin and their sense of piety previously by Pelagius ' quis est mihi Augustinus et question? had been touched.

Everything Orosius reached, was John's commitment to a letter and sent an embassy to Rome to send to the local Bishop Innocent I.. After he had waited long enough to take the unfavorable decisions of the Synod of Lydda Diospolis or December of the same year note Orosius returned to North Africa, where he is believed to have died. After Gennadius he brought recently discovered relics of St. Stephen the Martyr from Palestine to Minorca, where they were used in the conversion of the Jews.

The earliest work of Orosius, Consultatio immersive Commonitorium ad Augustinum de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum explains his goal in the title; it was written soon after his arrival in Africa, and is usually printed in the works of Augustine before its response Contra Priscillianistas et Origenistas liber ad Orosium.

His next treatise, Liber de Apologeticus arbitrii libertate he wrote during his stay in Palestine and in connection with the controversy that occupied him there. It is a sharp and not always fair criticism of Pelagianism from the standpoint of Augustine from.

Orosius ' by far the most famous work, the Historiae adversum Pagano was on Augustine's begun suggestion, to whom he dedicated the font. When Augustine suggested this task, he had already begun his dedicated work, De Civitate Dei, and there are then many of the same arguments that were elaborated by his disciple Orosius further - especially the tried through the story of " proof" that the world through the appearance of Christianity had not become worse. The project had become necessary because had multiplied due to the obvious decline of the Western Roman Empire for about 400, and in particular since the conquest of Rome by Alaric I in 410 the voices that made the move away from the old gods for the difficult position responsible. Augustine and Orosius concern was to show that the Romans had been made in earlier times of disaster, which is why Christianity is not to blame for the current problems, their importance is also sometimes downplayed.

In this work, was also a section that dealt with the cosmography. He has also been published as a separate work, often together with a cosmography of Julius Honorius. She was widely used and was used by many later writers, so of Jordanes, Isidore of Seville, the Venerable Bede, Adam of Bremen, Honorius Augustodunensis, Otto of Freising and others.

The work of Orosius, a kind of chronicle of disasters that are of mankind happen until the year 417, the earliest example of systematic use of the yearly counting from urbe condita has been (even if calculated by Varro count much earlier used by authors such as Livy was ). The work is unfortunately little accurate and not instructive; there is also no reason to literary comment. The work, however Historiae was the first attempt to write the history of the world from decidedly Christian perspective as a story led by God humanity. His intention is in the eyes of the " Orthodox " and its value, and the Hormesta, Ormesta or Ormista, as it is also called, without having to know why, quickly reached a great popularity. Nearly two hundred manuscripts of this work have been preserved, including a free and abridged translation for the British king Alfred ( Old English text with the Latin original, edited by H. Sweet, 1883). The sources Orosius which made ​​use of, were identified by Theodor von Mörner: next to the Old and New Testaments, he seems especially Caesar, Livy, Junianus Justin, Tacitus, Suetonius, Florus and a cosmography used and also great emphasis on Jerome's translation of the to have laid Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea.

The "History " of Orosius was as Kitāb Hurūšiūš ( 'Book Orosius ') translated into Arabic and later became one of the sources of Ibn Khaldun. The dating of this translation is uncertain, traditionally a translation is adopted on or even by Al - Hakam II of Córdoba, but the editor Mayte Penelas advocates because of some places in the Ahbar Muluk al -Andalus ( ' The deeds of the kings of al - Andalus ') of Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al historiographer - Razi ( 'el moro Rasis ') for an earlier translation, and assumed - also because Christian interpolations - that at this among others Mozarabic a judge was involved.

Editions and translations

Editions

• Paulus Orosius: Commonitorium de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum. ed Georg Schepss. In: Corpus of the Latin Church Fathers Vol 18, Vienna, 1889, pp. 149-157.
• Paulus Orosius: Historiarum adversum Pagano libri VII Edit v. Carl Zangmeister. In: Corpus of the Latin Church Fathers Vol 5, Vienna 1882, pp. 149-157. 2nd edition, Hildesheim 1967, 1-600.
• Paulus Orosius: Liber contra Apologeticus Pelagianos. Edit v. Carl Zangmeister. In: Corpus of the Latin Church Fathers Vol 5, Vienna 1882, pp. 149-157. 2nd edition, Hildesheim 1967, 601-664.
• The Old English Orosius, ed by Janet Bately ( = Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series 8 ). Oxford etc. 1980. ISBN 0-19-722406-7.
• Mayte Penelas: Kitāb Hurūšiūš ( Traducción árabe de las ' Historiae adversus Pagano ' de Orosio ). In: Fuentes Arábico - Hispanas, 26, Madrid 2001 ( with Arabic text edition of the obtained ).

Translations

• A. T. Fear ( translator's ): Orosius. Seven books of history against the pagans. Liverpool 2010.
• Adolf Lippold (ed. and translator's ): Orosius. The ancient world history in a Christian perspective. 2 vols 1985/86