Octavius 14.4

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

Summary: Listeners are easily misled by eloquence.

BothLatinEnglish

Latin text · CSEL 2:18–19

id accidere pernotum est auditorum facilitate, qui dum uerborum lenocinio a rerum intentionibus auocantur, sine dilectu adsentiuntur dictis omnibus nec a rectis falsa secernunt, nescientes inesse et in incredibili uerum et in uerisimili mendacium.

English · Claude translation

It is very well known that this happens through the easiness of hearers, who, while they are drawn away from the substance of things by the allurement of words, assent without discrimination to everything said and do not separate false from right, not knowing that there is truth even in the incredible and falsehood in the probable.

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:18–19 · Karl Halm, ed., M. Minucii Felicis Octavius; Iulii Firmici Materni Liber de errore profanarum religionum, CSEL 2 (Vienna: Gerold, 1867), 1–56 · Latin text: K. Halm (CSEL 2, 1867), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in CSEL 2. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 2; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Divided there by chapter only.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/14/4/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/14/4/).

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