Octavius 25.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Rome was founded by criminals, and Romulus murdered his brother.

Latin text · CSEL 2:35

nonne in ortu suo et scelere: collecti et muniti immanitatis suae terrore creuerunt? nam asylo prima plebs congregata est: confluxerant perditi, facinerosi, incesti, sicarii, proditores, et ut ipse Romulus imperator et rector populum suum facinore praecelleret, parricidium fecit. haec prima sunt auspicia religiosae ciuitatis.

English · Claude translation

Did they not at their origin gather together in crime and grow strong, protected by the terror of their own savagery? For the first populace was assembled in an asylum: the ruined, the criminal, the incestuous, assassins, traitors had flowed together; and, so that Romulus himself, their commander and ruler, might surpass his people in crime, he committed fratricide. These are the first auspices of the religious city.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:35 · 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. 25.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/25/2/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 25.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/25/2/).