Octavius 37.10

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

Summary: Office and noble birth mean nothing; only virtue distinguishes people.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:53

fascibus et purpuris gloriaris? uanus error hominis et inanis cultus dignitatis, fulgere purpura, mente sordescere. nobilitate generosus es? parentes tuos laudas? omnes tamen pari sorte nascimur, sola uirtute distinguimur.

English · Claude translation

Do you glory in the fasces and the purple? It is a vain error of man and an empty worship of rank to shine in purple and be sordid in mind. Are you noble by birth? Do you praise your parents? Yet we are all born with equal lot; we are distinguished by virtue alone.

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:53 · 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. 37.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/37/10/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 37.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/37/10/).

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