Octavius 8.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Even famous atheist philosophers never gained real authority.

Latin text · CSEL 2:11–12

sit licet ille Theodorus Cyrenaeus, uel qui prior Diagoras Melius, cui atheon cognomen adposuit antiquitas, qui uterque nullos deos adseuerando timorem omnem, quo humanitas regitur, uenerationemque penitus sustulerunt: numquam tamen in hac inpietatis disciplina simulatae philosophiae nomine atque auctoritate pollebunt.

English · Claude translation

Let it be that famous Theodorus of Cyrene, or Diagoras of Melos before him, to whom antiquity gave the surname 'atheist', both of whom, by asserting that there are no gods, did away entirely with all the fear by which humankind is governed, and with veneration: yet never in this school of impiety will they prevail by the name and authority of a pretended philosophy.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:11–12 · 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. 8.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/8/2/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 8.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/8/2/).