“ The work, which is thus a pragmatical chronicle of the calamities that have happened to mankind from the fall down to the Gothic period, has little accuracy or learning, and even less of literary charm to commend it ”

“ OROSIUS, PAULUS (fl. 415) , historian and theologian, was born in Spain (possibly at Braga in Galicia) towards the close of the 4th century. Having entered the Christian priesthood, he naturally took an interest in the Priscillianist controversy then going on in his native country, and it may have been in connexion with this that he went to consult Augustine at Hippo in 413 or 414. After staying for some time in Africa as the disciple of Augustine, he was sent by him in 415 to Palestine with a letter of introduction to Jerome, then at Bethlehem. ”

“ The “sources” made use of by Orosius have been investigated by T. de Mörner (De Orosii vita ejusque hist. libr. vii. adversus Paganos, 1844) ; 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. ”