Information AboutOrosius |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT OROSIUS | |
| 385 births | |
| 420 deaths | |
| ancient roman christianity | |
| theologians | |
| orosius | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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BIOGRAPHY Having entered the Christian Priesthood , he took an interest in the Priscillian ist Controversy then going on in his native country. He went to visit and consult with Augustine at Hippo (now Annaba in Algeria ) in 413 or 414, possibly in connection with this controversy. After staying for some time in North Africa as the disciple of Augustine, he was reportedly sent by him in 415 to Palestine with a letter of introduction to Jerome , then living in Bethlehem . The ostensible purpose of his mission (apart from the typical intent of pilgrimage and perhaps relic-hunting) was that he might gain further instruction from Jerome on the points raised by the Priscillianists and Origen ists; in reality, however, it would seem, his business was to stir up and assist Jerome and others against Pelagius , who, since the Synod of Carthage in 411, had been living in Palestine , and finding some acceptance there. The result of his arrival was that John, bishop of Jerusalem , was induced to summon at his capital in June 415 a synod at which Orosius communicated the decisions of Carthage and read such of Augustine's writings against Pelagius as had at that time appeared. Success, however, was scarcely to be hoped for amongst Orientals who did not understand Latin , and whose sense of reverence was unshocked by Pelagius's famous question, ''Et quis est mihi Augustinus?'' ("Who is Augustine to me?") All that Orosius succeeded in obtaining was John's consent to send letters and deputies to Pope Innocent I of Rome ; and, after having waited long enough to learn the unfavourable decision of the synod of Diospolis or Lydda in December of the same year, he returned to north Africa, where he is believed to have died. According to Gennadius he carried with him recently discovered relics of the Protomartyr Stephen from Palestine to Minorca , where they were reported to be useful in successful attempts to convert members of the Jew sh community to Christianity. HIS WORK The earliest work of Orosius, ''Consultatio sive commonitorium ad Augustinum de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum'', explains its object by its title; it was written soon after his arrival in Africa, and is usually printed in the works of Augustine along with the reply of the latter, ''Contra Priscillianistas et Origenistas liber ad Orosium''. His next treatise, ''Liber apologeticus de arbitril libertate'', was written during his stay in Palestine, and in connection with the controversy which engaged him there. It is a keen but not always fair criticism of the Pelagian position from that of Augustine. The ''Historiae adversum Paganos'' was undertaken at the suggestion of Augustine, to whom it is dedicated. When Augustine proposed this task he had already planned and made some progress with his own ''De civitate Dei''; it is the same argument that is elaborated by his disciple, namely, the evidence from history that the circumstances of the world had not really become worse since the introduction of Christianity. The work, which is thus a pragmatical chronicle of the calamities that have happened to mankind from the fall down to about , ''Volgarizzamenti del Due e del Trecento'', Torino 1953 and in Cesare Segre , ''La prosa del Duecento'', Milano-Napoli 1959); a still unreleased XIV century Aragonese translation comes from Bono Giamboni 's Italian translation. The sources Orosius used have been investigated by T. de Morner; besides the Old and New Testaments, he appears to have consulted Caesar , Livy , Justin , Tacitus , Suetonius , Florus and a cosmography, attaching also great value to Jerome 's translation of the Chronicles of Eusebius . The history of Orosius was translated into Arabic during the reign of Al-Hakam II of Córdoba . It later became one of the sources of Ibn Khaldun in his history. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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