Octavius 30.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Human sacrifice has been practised by many peoples, including the Romans.

Latin text · CSEL 2:43–44

Tauris etiam Ponticis et Aegyptio Busiridi ritus fuit hospites immolare, et Mercurio Gallis humanas uel inhumanas uictimas caedere, Romanis Graecum et Graecam, Gallum et Gallam sacrificii loco uiuentes obruere, hodieque ab ipsis Latiaris Iuppiter homicidio colitur, et quod Saturni filio dignum est, mali et noxii hominis sanguine saginatur.

English · Claude translation

Among the Taurians of Pontus too, and for the Egyptian Busiris, it was the rite to sacrifice strangers; and among the Gauls to slay human, or rather inhuman, victims to Mercury; among the Romans to bury alive a Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gallic man and a Gallic woman, in place of a sacrifice; and to this day Jupiter Latiaris is worshipped by them with homicide, and, as befits the son of Saturn, is fattened with the blood of a wicked and guilty man.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:43–44 · 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. 30.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/30/4/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 30.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/30/4/).