Oration to the Greeks 28 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Human laws contradict each other, allowing among some peoples what others forbid, such as incest and pederasty.

Greek text · Otto 6:112

Διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τῆς παρʼ ὑμῖν κατέγνων νομοθεσίας. Μίαν μὲν γὰρ ἐχρῆν εἶναι καὶ κοινὴν ἁπάντων τὴν πολιτείαν· νυνὶ δὲ ὅσα γένη πόλεων τοσαῦται καὶ τῶν νόμων θέσεις, ὡς εἶναι τὰ παρʼ ἐνίοις αἰσχρὰ παρά τισι σπουδαῖα. Νομίζουσι γοῦν Ἕλληνες φευκτὸν εἶναι τὸ συγγίνεσθαι μητρί, κάλλιστον δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν ἐπιτήδευμα παρὰ τοῖς Περσῶν μάγοις· καὶ παιδεραστία μὲν ὑπὸ βαρβάρων διώκεται, προνομίαις δὲ ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων ἠξίωται, παίδων ἀγέλας ὥσπερ ἵππων φορβάδων συναγείρειν αὐτῶν πειρωμένων.

English · Claude translation

For this reason I also condemned your legislation. There ought to be one common polity for all; but as it is, there are as many codes of law as there are kinds of cities, so that what is shameful among some is honorable among others. The Greeks, for instance, think intercourse with one's mother is to be shunned, but among the Persian magi that practice is thought most honorable. Pederasty is prosecuted by the barbarians, but the Romans have granted it privileges, and they try to gather herds of boys like grazing horses.

About this passage

Source

Otto 6:112 · Johann Carl Theodor Otto, ed., Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos, Corpus apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi 6 (Jena: Mauke, 1851) · Greek text: J. C. T. Otto, Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos (Corpus apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi 6, 1851), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Otto, CorpApol 6. 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), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Otto (1851); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Tatian, Or. Graec. 28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tatian-oration/28/).

Plain text

Tatian, Or. Graec. 28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tatian-oration/28/).