Octavius 28.10 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The obscene charges reflect the pagans' own sexual vices.

Latin text · CSEL 2:42

etiam ille, qui de adoratis sacerdotis uirilibus aduersum nos fabulatur, temptat in nos conferre quae sua sunt. ista enim inpudicitiae eorum forsitan sacra sint, apud quos sexus omnis membris omnibus prostat, apud quos tota inpudicitia uocatur urbanitas, qui scortorum licentiae inuident, qui medios uiros lambunt, libidinoso ore inguinibus inhaerescunt, homines malae linguae etiam si tacerent, quos prius taedescit impudicitiae suae quam pudescit.

English · Claude translation

Also he who tells fables against us about the worship of the priest's genitals tries to transfer to us what is his own. For these things may perhaps be the sacred rites of the impurity of those among whom every sex is prostituted in every member, among whom all impurity is called refinement, who envy the licence of harlots, who lick men in the middle, who cling with lustful mouth to the groin, men of evil tongue even if they were silent, who grow weary of their impurity before they are ashamed of it.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:42 · 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.

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 28.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/28/10/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 28.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/28/10/).