Octavius 38.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Christians enjoy flowers, but do not wear crowns on their heads.

Latin text · CSEL 2:53–54

quis autem ille qui dubitat, uernis indulgere nos floribus, cum carpamus et rosam ueris et lilium et quicquid aliud in floribus blandi coloris et odoris est? his enim et sparsis utimur mollibus ac solutis et sertis colla conplectimur. sane quod caput non coronamus, ignoscite: auram bonam floris naribus ducere, non occipitio capillisue solemus haurire.

English · Claude translation

And who is he who doubts that we enjoy the flowers of spring, since we pluck both the rose of spring and the lily and whatever else among flowers is of pleasing colour and scent? For we use these both scattered loose and soft, and we clasp our necks with garlands. Pardon us, indeed, that we do not crown the head: we are accustomed to draw in the pleasant scent of a flower with our nostrils, not to inhale it with the back of the head or the hair.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:53–54 · 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. 38.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/38/2/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 38.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/38/2/).