Definition: Orosius, a contemporary of Augustine, wrote a history called Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, which in much smaller form, Augustine had asked him to write as a companion to one of his two major works, City of God. Augustine wanted Orosius to show that Rome wasn't worse off since Christianity. Orosius' history covers the history of man from the beginning. It covers a broad geographic area as well, that area depicted in Agrippa's map for Augustus. It is filled with rhetorical flourishes and was popular in the Middle Ages, although its lack of accuracy makes it less palatable today.
The first name Paulus was first ascribed to Orosius by Jordanes and may be wrong.
Orosius used Livy, the Gallic Wars, Eutropius, and the 2nd Century writer of epitomes Florus, for his history of the Roman Republic. For the East, Greece, and Carthage, he used the Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, Herodotus, and Eusebius. For the Imperial era, he used Eusebius, Florus, Eutropius, Tacitus, Suetonius and Rufinus, as well as oral sources and his own memory.
Source: The Historians of Late Antiquity, by David Rohrbacher.
Occupation: Historian
Also Known As: Paulus Orosius
