Toynbee "Oròsio, Pàulo"
Paulus Orosius, the historian, a Spanish priest, born towards the end of cent. iv; he visited Augustine at Hippo in 413 or 414, and, after staying for a time in Africa as his disciple, he was sent by Augustine, in 415, to Jerome in Palestine; after attending a synod at Jerusalem, at which he arraigned Pelagius for heresy, he returned to N. Africa, where he is believed to have died -- the date of his death is unknown. His best-known work is the Historiae ad versum Paganos (in seven books), written at the suggestion of Augustine (to whom it was dedicated, and to whose De civitate Dei it was intended to be subsidiary) to prove by the evidence of history that the condition of the world had not grown worse since the introduction of Christianity, as the pagans asserted. This work, which attained a wide popularity under the title Ormista (supposed to represent Or[osii] M[undi] ist[ori]a), was translated into Anglo-Saxon (in a free and abridged version) by Alfred the Great and into Italian (towards the beginning of cent. xiv) by Bono Giamboni (the translator of Brunetto Latini's Trésor, as well as of the De re militari of Vegetius, and the Formula honestae vitae of Martinus Dumiensis).

Orosius, to whom D. was largely indebted, not only for his knowledge of ancient history but also for many of his favourite theories and arguments about the divine institution of the Roman Empire, is mentioned by name seven times in D.'s works, Paulo Orosio, Conv. III. xi. 3; Paulus Orosius, V.E. II. vi. 7; Orosius, Mon. II. iii. 13, Mon. II. viii. 3, Mon. II. viii. 5, Mon. II. x. 4; Quest. 54. He is undoubtedly referred to (notwithstanding the divergence of opinion among the commentators) in the passage, [Par. x. 118-120]:

Ne l'altra piccioletta luce ride
quello avvocato de' tempi cristiani
del cui latino Augustin si provide.

Thus he is included among the great doctors of the Church (Spiriti sapienti) who are placed in the Heaven of the Sun [Augustino_2: Sole, Cielo del]; the title avvocato de' tempi cristiani points almost unquestionably to the author of the Historiae adversum Paganos, in which, written as it was to vindicate Christianity, the phrase 'Christiana tempora' occurs so frequently as to make the point of D.'s allusion sufficiently obvious. Benvenuto, however, although in his commentary on this passage he speaks of Orosius as 'defensor temporum Christianorum' and refers to his book, yet inclines to think that the allusion is to Ambrose; he says:

Ad evidentiam istius literae est notandum quod litera ista potest verificari tam de Ambrosio quam de Orosio. De Ambrosio quidem, quia fuit magnus advocatus temporum Christianorum, quia tempore suo pullulaverunt multi et magni haeretici; contra quos Ambrosius defensavit ecclesiam Dei, immo et contra Theodosium imperatorem fuit audacissimus; et ad eius praedicationem Augustinus conversus fuit ad fidem, qui fuit validissimus malleus haereticorum. Potest etiam intelligi de Paulo Orosio, qui fuit defensor temporum Christianorum reprobando tempora pagana, sicut evidenter apparet ex eius opere quod intitulatur 0rmesta mundi, quem librum fecit ad petitionem beati Augustini, sicut ipse Orosius testatur in prohemio dicti libri. . . .Et hic nota quod quamvis istud possit intelligi tam de Orosio quam de Ambrosio, et licet forte autor intellexerit de Orosio, cui fuit satis familiaris, ut perpendi ex multis dictis eius, tamen melius est quod intelligatur de Ambrosio, quia licet Orosius fuerit vir valens et utilis, non tamen bene cadit in ista corona inter tam egregios doctores.

D. mentions Orosius, together with Frontinus, Pliny, and Livy, as a 'master of lofty prose', V.E. II. vi. 7; his authority is quoted for the computation of the period between the reign of Numa Pompilius and the birth of Christ at about 750 years, Conv. III. xi. 3 (ref. to {Orosius. Hist. IV. xii. 9}); his statement that Mt. Atlas is in Africa, Mon. II. iii. 13 ({Orosius. Hist. I. ii. 11}); his account of the reigns of Ninus and Semiramis in Assyria, Mon. II. viii. 3 ({Orosius. Hist. I. iv. 1-8}; {Orosius. Hist. II. iii. 1}); and of the conquests of Vesoges, king of Egypt, and of his repulse by the Scythians, Mon. II. viii. 5 ({Orosius. Hist. I. xiv. 1-4}); Livy's account of the combat between the Roman Horatii and the Alban Curiatii, confirmed by that of Orosius, Mon. II. x. 4 ({Orosius. Hist. II. iv. 9}); O.'s description of the boundaries of the habitable world, Quest. 54 ({Orosius. Hist. I. ii. 7}, {Orosius. Hist. I. ii. 13}).

Besides the above passages, in which D. expressly names Orosius as his authority, there are many others in which he was indebted to him; in several instances he wrongly quotes Livy as his authority instead of O. [Livio]. There is little doubt that Orosius was the chief source of D.'s information about the following: Ninus and Semiramis, [Inf. v. 54-60] ({Orosius. Hist. I. iv. 4}; {Hist. II. iii. 1}) [Nino_1: Semiramis]; Alexander the Great, [Inf. xii. 107] ({Orosius. Hist. III. vii. 5}, {Orosius. Hist. III. xviii. 10}, {Orosius. Hist. III. xx. 4}, {Orosius. Hist. III. xx. 5} ff., {Orosius. Hist. III. xxiii. 6}) [Alessandro_2]; Cyrus and Tomyris, [Purg. xii. 55-57]; Mon. II. viii ({Orosius. Hist. II. vi. 12}, {Orosius. Hist. II. vii. 6}) [Ciro: Tamiri]; the persecution of the Christians by Domitian, [Purg. xxii. 83-84] ({Orosius. Hist. VII. x. 1}) [Domiziano]; the victories of Julius Caesar in the Civil War, [Par. vi. 61-72] ({Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 2-3}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 6}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 18}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 22}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv. 25}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xv.28-29}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xvi. 3}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xvi.6-7}) [Aquila_1: Cesare_1], Sardanapalus, [Par. xv. 107-108] ({Orosius. Hist. I. xix. 1}) [Sardanapalo]; the defeat of the Romans at Cannae and the production of the heap of gold rings (taken from the bodies of the slain) by Hannibal's envoy in the senatehouse at Carthage, Conv. IV. v. 19; [Inf. xxviii. 10-11] ({Orosius. Hist. IV. xvi. 5-6}) [Annibale: Canne: Scipione_1].

D. was evidently also indebted to Orosius for his theories and arguments about Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem, as the avenger of the crucifixion of Christ by the Jews, [Purg. xxi. 82-84]; [Par. vi. 92-93] ({Orosius. Hist. VII. iii. 8} {Orosius. Hist. VII. ix. 9}) [Tito]; the universal peace under Augustus at the time of the birth of Christ, [Par. vi. 80-81]; Conv. IV. v. 8; Mon. I. xvi. 1-2 ({Orosius. Hist. I. i. 6}, {Orosius. Hist. III. viii. 3}, {Orosius. Hist. III. viii. 5}, {Orosius. Hist. III. viii. 7-8}; {Orosius. Hist. VI. xvii. 10}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xx. 1-2}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xxii. 1}, {Orosius. Hist. VI. xxii. 5}; {Orosius. Hist. VII. i. 11}, {Orosius. Hist. VII. ii. 15-16}, {Orosius. Hist. VII. iii. 4}) [Augusto_2: Iano]; Christ's assertion of His human nature by being included in the census under Augustus, whereby He became a Roman citizen, Mon. II. viii. 12-13, Mon. II. xi. 6; Epist. vii. 14, Epist. xi. 3 ({Orosius. Hist. VI. xxii. 6-8}; {Hist. VII. iii. 4}) [Augusto_2: Cristo]. [See P. Toynbee, SR, pp. 121-136.]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press