Sophia Scriptura

Church History 9.9.3

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Maxentius hid in Rome relying on sorcery, while Constantine defeated his armies and approached the city.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:433–434

Μαξεντίου δῆτα μᾶλλον ταῖς κατὰ γοητείαν μηχαναῖς ἢ τῇ τῶν ὑπηκόων ἐπιθαρσοῦντος εὐνοίᾳ, προελθεῖν γε μὴν οὐδʼ ὅσον πυλῶν τοῦ ἄστεος ἐπιτολμῶντος, ὁπλιτῶν δʼ ἀνηρίθμῳ πλήθει καὶ στρατοπέδων λόχοις μυρίοις πάντα τόπον καὶ χώραν καὶ πόλιν, ὅση τις ἐν κύκλῳ τῆς Ῥωμαίων καὶ Ἰταλίας ἀπάσης ὑπʼ αὐτῷ δεδούλωτο, φραξαμένου, ὁ τῆς ἐκ θεοῦ συμμαχίας ἀνημμένος βασιλεὺς ἐπιὼν πρώτῃ καὶ δευτέρᾳ καὶ τρίτῃ τοῦ τυράννου παρατάξει, εὖ μάλα τε πάσας ἑλὼν, πρόεισιν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ὅσον τῆς Ἰταλίας, ἤδη τε αὐτῆς Ῥώμης ἄγχιστα ἦν·

English · Claude translation

Maxentius trusted rather in the devices of sorcery than in the loyalty of his subjects, and did not dare to go even a little way beyond the gates of the city, but fortified every place, region, and city around Rome and all Italy that he had enslaved with a countless multitude of soldiers and innumerable companies of troops. The emperor, relying on the alliance of God, attacked the tyrant's first, second, and third battle lines, took them all with ease, advanced over the greater part of Italy, and was already very close to Rome itself.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:433–434 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. 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 Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (line-break hyphen left in the digital text): λό- χοις → λόχοις.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.9.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/9/3/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.9.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/9/3/).

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