Octavius 20.6 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Each nation honoured its founders and benefactors, who later became gods.

Latin text · CSEL 2:29

denique et antequam commerciis orbis pateret et antequam gentes ritus suos moresque miscerent, unaquaeque natio conditorem suum aut ducem inclytum aut reginam pudicam sexu suo fortiorem aut alicuius muneris uel artis repertorem uenerabatur ut ciuem bonae memoriae: sic et defunctis praemium et futuris dabatur exemplum.

English · Claude translation

Indeed, before the world was opened up by trade and before the nations mixed their rites and customs, each nation venerated its founder, or a famous leader, or a chaste queen braver than her sex, or the discoverer of some gift or art, as a citizen of good memory: so a reward was given to the dead and an example to those to come.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:29 · 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. 20.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/20/6/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 20.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/20/6/).