He relied heavily on Orosius ' Historiarum Adversum Paganos ( 5th century AD ) and Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicon ( early 5th century AD ) as did Orosius.

Church sources claim Orosius ' lack of fluency in Greek rendered him unconvincing and John's Eastern background made him more willing to accept that humans did not have inherent sinfulness.

The visit to Palestine had a double purpose: Orosius wanted to discuss a number of theological topics with Saint Jerome, particularly those relating to the soul ’ s origins, and Saint Augustine wanted closer ties with the thinker and to gather information regarding the Priscillianists, Origenists and the Pelagian heresy.

It not only describes Orosius journey to Africa, but also summarises the beliefs of Priscillianism and Origenism, and it asks for Saint Augustine ’ s advice regarding these theological issues, thereby exposing some of Orosius ’ s theological doubts.

The book is the result of a theological debate during which Archbishop John II accused Orosius of heresy due to his idea that man cannot remain free of sin, not even with the help of divine intervention.

In order to meet with them Orosius travelled to cities on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Hippo Regius and Alexandria.

Basically the problem is that it is not completely certain if he used this name or if he was simply called Orosius and whether Paulus has been added with the passing of time.

Despite the scarcity of sources, if his date of birth is accepted as that given above or at least within the window between 375 and 385 it can be seen that Orosius grew up during a period of cultural flourishing along with Hydatius and the Ávitos.

The classical theories suggest that Orosius belonged to a family with good social standing, which would have allowed him to gain a good education.

This date means that Orosius had a window of 5 years for his collaboration with Saint Augustine before he travelled to Palestine.

In his book Commonitorium, which was published in 414, Orosius talks of his arrival, his meeting with Saint Augustine etc.

What is certain is that once Orosius had left the Iberian Peninsula he was certain that his destination was Hippo ( now Annaba in Algeria ), and a meeting with Saint Augustine, who was the greatest thinker of his time.

In 415 Saint Augustine entrusted Orosius with the task of travelling to Palestine to meet with the thinker Saint Jerome who at that time was living in Bethlehem.

Orosius met with Pelagius on Saint Augustine ’ s behalf and he represented the orthodox party against the Pelagians at the Synod of Jerusalem that was held in June 415.

Orosius had a confrontation with the Archbishop of Jerusalem, John II at the synod, in which Orosius was accused of heresy in front of the entire conclave.

The idea for Orosius ’ s great work, Historiae Adversus Paganos, was born during this reencounter with Saint Augustine.

In fact, this idea has recently been given a new lease of life by M. P. Annaud-Lindet, although with the proviso that Orosius wrote the book during his return journey from Palestine.

This lack of information regarding Orosius could be due to cooling of relations with Saint Augustine, who never makes any clear unambiguous references to Orosius ’ s " Histories " once they have been published.

Its chronology is littered with the same grey areas as Orosius ’ s biography.

The date of the book is not our main focus here, what is more important is Orosius ’ s objective in responding to Saint Augustine ’ s request by writing a book aimed at proving that Rome ’ s decadence – it should be remembered that Rome was sacked by Alaric I in 410 – had nothing at all to do with the fact that the Romans had relatively recently converted to Christianity.

Orosius ’ s basic innovation in dealing with the four empires theory was to introduce Carthage between Macedonia and Rome, which is something that scholars such as García Fernández point out as one of Orosius ’ s defining and definitive acts.

Paulus Orosius ( born c. 375, died not before 418 ), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a priest, Christian historian, theologian and student of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

In addition, Orosius is mentioned in letters written by Saint Augustine.

This idea is supported by Orosius ’ s own works and two letters written by Saint Augustine, the 166th and the 169th.

It is known for certain that in 415 Saint Augustine referred to Paulus Orosius as " a young priest ", which means that at that time he could not have been older that 40, as he was young, and he had to be older than 30, as he was a priest.

This assumes that when Orosius met Saint Augustine he was 32 years old, that is, he had been an ordained priest for two years.

Contemporary histories indicate that from an early age Orosius was loquacious and erudite, alluding to statements to this effect made by both Saint Augustine and Pope Gelasius I.

From his arrival Orosius formed part of a team that worked alongside Saint Augustine.

This indicates that Saint Augustine had a great deal of faith in Orosius as relations between Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome had not always been good.

Orosius ’ s first act on meeting Saint Jerome was to hand him the correspondence that he had brought from Saint Augustine.

This implies that the journey was always conceived of as a return journey as Orosius would have to deliver the letters from Saint Jerome back to Saint Augustine.

In parallel to this, the relics of Saint Stephen were uncovered at the end of 415 and part of the find was given to Orosius in order that he could take it back to Braga.

Support for these dates comes from the fact that the Liber Apologeticus does not mention Orosius ’ s work as a historian, and the prologue refers to Book XI of the City of God by Saint Augustine, which was not published until 416.

The Commonitorium and the Histories are a response, at least in their origins, to the direct influence that Saint Augustine exercised over Orosius. Although Paulus Orosius ’ s most important book was the Historiae Adversus Paganos, his other two surviving books must also be taken into account: Commonitorium and Liber Apologeticus.

In fact, even Casimiro Torres Rodríguez, one of the main scholars of Orosius ’ s life, indicates that Paulus might be his Christian name and Orosius his native name, a theory that cannot be entirely dismissed.

* Originated in La Coruña ( Brigantia ): this is a relatively new theory solely based on the fact that Orosius twice mentioned it in the geographical section of his Histories.

* Originated in Brittany: like the previous theory the supporting data for this theory rests on the fact that Orosius had some knowledge of this area.

In fact, despite the lack of agreement regarding all other aspects of Orosius ’ s life, including his biography and his works, most experts agree on the universalist nature of this work, including classicists such as Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo and even more modern historians such as Torres Rodríguez.

In fact, during the narration of their histories the four empires develop in the same way and there are a number of striking parallels between them that are markedly different from Rome, which Orosius praises.

Examples of this tendency include narratives of events in the “ Histories ”, that occurred in Braga or the fact that Orosius himself was charged with transporting the reliquaries of Saint Stephen.

However, from a historiographical point of view this approach led to some inconsistencies, as, in order to bring the reader round to his point of view, Orosius sometimes described myths and legends as if they were historic fact.