Octavius 37.12 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The theatre teaches adultery and dishonours the gods; pagans weep at fictional deaths but demand real ones.

Latin text · CSEL 2:53

in scenicis etiam non minor furor et turpitudo prolixior: nunc enim mimus uel exponit adulteria uel monstrat, nunc eneruis histrio amorem dum fingit, infligit: idem deos uestros induendo stupra, suspiria, odia dedecorat, idem simulatis doloribus lacrimas uestras uanis gestibus et nutibus prouocat: sic homicidium in uero flagitatis, in mendacio fletis.

English · Claude translation

In the theatrical shows too there is no less madness and more extended shamefulness: for now a mime either expounds or displays adulteries, now an effeminate actor, while he feigns love, inflicts it; the same man dishonours your gods by attributing to them debaucheries, sighs, hatreds; the same man, by feigned sorrows, provokes your tears with vain gestures and nods. So you demand homicide in reality and weep at it in fiction.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:53 · 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. 37.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/37/12/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 37.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/37/12/).