Octavius 5.13

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

Summary: Harvests are ruined at random: either truth is hidden or blind chance rules.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:9

ecce arbusta frugifera, ecce iam seges cana, iam temulenta uindemia imbri corrumpitur, grandine caeditur. adeo aut incerta nobis ueritas occultatur et premitur, aut quod magis credendum est, uariis et lubricis casibus soluta legibus fortuna dominatur.

English · Claude translation

See, the fruit-bearing trees, see, the crop already white, the vintage already heady, are spoiled by rain, cut down by hail. So either the truth is hidden and kept down, uncertain to us, or, what is more to be believed, Fortune, freed from laws, rules through varied and slippery chances."

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:9 · 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. 5.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/13/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 5.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/5/13/).

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