Octavius 13.1

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

Summary: Caecilius commends Socrates' refusal to speculate about the heavens.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:17

Quamquam si philosophandi libido est, Socraten, sapientiae principem, quisque uestrum tantus est, si potuerit, imitetur. eius uiri, quotiens de caelestibus rogabatur, nota responsio est: quod supra nos, nihil ad nos.

English · Claude translation

"Yet if you have a desire to philosophize, let any of you who is great enough imitate, if he can, Socrates, the prince of wisdom. That man's answer, whenever he was asked about heavenly things, is well known: 'What is above us is nothing to us.'

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.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 13.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/13/1/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 13.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/13/1/).

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