Octavius 12.6

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

Summary: Christians deny themselves life's pleasures and gain nothing hereafter.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:17

non floribus caput nectitis, non corpus odoribus honestatis: reseruatis unguenta funeribus, coronas etiam sepulcris denegatis, pallidi trepidi, misericordia digni, sed nostrorum deorum. ita nec resurgitis miseri nec interim uiuitis.

English · Claude translation

You do not bind your heads with flowers, you do not grace your bodies with perfumes; you reserve ointments for funerals, you even refuse garlands to tombs, pale, trembling, worthy of pity, but the pity of our gods. So, wretched men, you neither rise again nor live in the meantime.

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:17 · 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. 12.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/12/6/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 12.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/12/6/).

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