Inter febres morbosque reipublicae: Orosius on Roman Wars in Hist. 3, 8
War, Peace and Resilience in the Ancient World Narratives - Marinella Ceravolo
Elisa Manzo
Description
The Historiae adversus paganos, written by Orosius in the early fifth century CE, have their core in the humanae miseriae, that derive from Adam’s sin and that God constantly punishes. Orosius specifically emphasizes the bellorum miseriae, collecting all the wars that followed one another over time (from the Assyrian king Nino to 416 CE). Among many examples, this paper will be focusing on Chapter 8 of Book 3 of Orosius’s Historiae, that has long been overlooked. It consists of Orosius’s reflection on Roman wars before the Pax Augusta, with a specific focus on the Punic Wars. The author compares the belligerent state in which Rome was raging to a dread disease. Such a health condition prevented the Romans from lucidly analysing their situation, and recourse to pagan gods fomented their malaise. Only after the Pax Augusta could Rome recover from that disease, the cure for which came directly from God.