It was used systematically for the first time only about the year 400, by the Iberian historian Orosius.

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.

Paulus Orosius ’ s masterpiece is Historiae Adversus Paganos, the only history book that he wrote, which allow us to gain an insight into the historiographical methodology of the Spanish priesthood.

Paulus Orosius is not only a widely studied author he also described his own thoughts on his historical methodology in some of the prologues to the volumes that comprise his “ Histories ”.

This is normal given Orosius ’ s origins, but it can be thought of not only as patriotism but also as Hispanism.

Based on the comments of Orosius that the larger ships in Antony's fleet were only as high as the quinqueremes ( their deck standing at ca.

* Orosius, Seven Books of History Against the Pagans 6. 9 ( Latin only )

By the 5th century only a few authors seem aware of him: Sidonius Apollinaris, who admires him, and Orosius, who alternately derides him as a fool and borrows passages ( including many that are otherwise lost ) from his works.

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.

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.

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.

The first twenty-one chapters, covering the period before the mission of Augustine, are compiled from earlier writers such as Orosius, Gildas, Prosper of Aquitaine, the letters of Pope Gregory I, and others, with the insertion of legends and traditions.

Chapter 3. 6 quotes Tacitus, Varro, Valerius Maximus, Orosius, Frontinus, Strabo, Caesar, Columella, Plutarch, Josephus, Diodorus Siculus, Photius, Xiphilinus, Zonaras, Seneca, Petronius, Juvenal, Philo, Celsus, the authors of the Acts of the Apostles and of the pseudo-gospels of Nicodemus and St. James, and Claudius himself in his surviving letters and speeches.

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.

* Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos I. ii. i.

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.

Denis Van Berchem, of the University of Geneva, proposed that Eucherius ' presentation of the legend of the Theban legion was a literary production, not based on a local tradition ; by isolating its hagiographic conventions from the anachronisms of local narrative elements, he sought to demonstrate that Eucherius derived his formulas from Lactantius and Orosius and that the decimation was an anachronism: the practice of decimation had not been practiced for at least a century ( see Ammianus Marcellinus for Julian's misinterpretation of decimation ) and that service by Christians in the legions before Emperor Constantine I was relatively rare.

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.

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.

And being on that blessed pilgrimage in the sacred city of Rome and seeing its great and ancient monuments and reading the great deeds of the Romans as described by Virgil, Sallust, Lucan, Livy, Valerius, Orosius, and other masters of history ...

The chief authorities on the career of Alaric are: the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both contemporary, neither disinterested ; Zosimus, a historian who lived probably about half a century after Alaric's death ; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation in 551, basing his work on The Trojan War.

King Alfred's ( Alfred the Great ) translation of Orosius ' history of the world uses Angelcynn (- kin ) to describe England and the English people ; Bede used Angelfolc (- folk ); there are also such forms as Engel, Englan ( the people ), Englaland, and Englisc, all showing i-mutation.

Caesar himself mentions few place-names ; and although the battle is called after Pharsalos, four ancient writers – the author of the Bellum Alexandrinum ( 48. 1 ), Frontinus ( Strategemata 2. 3. 22 ), Eutropius ( 20 ), and Orosius ( 6. 15. 27 ) – place it specifically at Palaepharsalos.

The sources Orosius used have been investigated by Teodoro de Mörner ; 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.

12 ; Auctor ad Herennium i. 21 ; Aurelius Victor, De viris illustribus, 73 ; Orosius v. 17 ; Cicero, Pro Balbo, 21, 48, Brutus, 62, De oratore, ii.

The evidence of other ancient sources points to two possible periods during the reign of Claudius: either during his first regnal year ( AD 41 ; so Dio Cassius, Roman History 60. 6. 6 ), or during his ninth regnal year ( 49 ; so Orosius, Historia 7. 6. 15f ).

103, 117 ; Cassius Dio 37. 1-2 ; Eutropius 6. 14 ; Festus 16 ; Orosius 6. 4. 8 ) and is identified with the Artag (), Arik ( არიკ ), Rok ( როკ ), or Aderk ( ადერკ ), of the medieval Georgian annals.

However, this idea is flawed as authors writing immediately after Orosius ’ s death use the name Paulus.

Schematic map showing all the journeys made by Paulus Orosius. It is thought that Paulus Orosius lived in Gallaecia ( northwest Hispania ) until 409, but after that time and up until 415, there is no concrete information regarding his life.

In reality, it would seem that Orosius ’ s main task was to assist Jerome and others against Pelagius, who, after the synod of Carthage in 411, had been living in Palestine, and finding some acceptance there.

Given that Saint Stephen ’ s relics were uncovered on 26 December 415, Orosius must have departed from Palestine after that date.

Very little information is available regarding the life of Paulus Orosius after the publication of his Histories.

However, there is no news of Orosius after 417 and it seems unlikely that such an active author would go six years without publishing anything new.

The long prevalent estimation of Priscillian as a heretic and Manichaean rested upon Augustine, Turibius of Astorga, Leo the Great and Orosius ( who quotes a fragment of a letter of Priscillian's ), although at the Council of Toledo in 400, fifteen years after Priscillian's death, when his case was reviewed, the most serious charge that could be brought was the error of language involved in a misrendering of the word innascibilis (" unbegettable ").

However, neither bishop attended for unrelated reasons and Orosius had left after consultation with Bishop John.

Although the battle of 48 BC is called after Pharsalos, four ancient writers-the author of the Bellum Alexandrinum ( 48. 1 ), Frontinus ( Strategemata 2. 3. 22 ), Eutropius ( 20 ), and Orosius ( 6. 15. 27 )-place it specifically at Palaepharsalos.

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.

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

This divides historians into those that view him as biased and others that reject this criticism and justify his approach by saying that Orosius viewed history in the same way as Christians view life.

For the same library he translated in 1854 Pauli's Life of Alfred the Great, with Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Orosius.

In this work, which furnishes a valuable if prejudiced description of life in fifth century Gaul, Salvian deals with the same problem that had moved the eloquence of Augustine and Orosius: why were these miseries falling on the empire?

Jordanes stated that Getae are the same as the Goths, on the testimony of Orosius Paulus.

During 5th and 6th centuries, several writers ( Marcellinus Comes, Orosius, John Lydus, Isidore of Seville, Procopius of Caesarea ) used the same ethnonym Getae to name populations invading the Eastern Roman Empire ( Goths, Gepids, Kutrigurs, Slavs ).

Jordanes wrote that “ Getae ( Dacians ) are the same with Goths, on the testimony of Orosius Paulus ”