Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 21.9

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

Summary: Deified kings like Romulus and Juba were honoured, not truly believed to be gods.

Latin text · CSEL 2:30

Otiosum est ire per singulos et totam seriem generis istius explicare, cum in primis parentibus probata mortalitas in ceteros ipso ordine successionis influxerit, nisi forte post mortem deos fingitis, et perierante Proculo deus Romulus, et Iuba Mauris uolentibus deus est, et diui ceteri reges, qui consecrantur non ad fidem numinis, sed ad honorem emeritae potestatis.

English · Claude translation

It is idle to go through them one by one and unfold the whole series of that family, since the mortality proved in the first parents has flowed into the rest by the very order of succession; unless perhaps you invent gods after death, and Romulus is a god by the perjury of Proculus, and Juba is a god because the Moors wish it, and the other kings are deified, who are consecrated not to profess belief in their divinity but to honour the power they have held.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:30 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • Julius Proculus swore that he had seen Romulus taken up to heaven.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 21.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/21/9/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 21.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/21/9/).

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