travelling to Bethlehem at the time of a Roman census, that Jesus
had been enrolled as a Roman citizen soon after his birth (Seven
Books of Histories Against the Pagans6.22)! Orosius’ account of
early Christianity in the period before Constantine concentrated
on persecutions, but much more than Eusebius he interpreted
these persecutions in terms of biblical analogies. The ten perse-
cutions that he identified in this period had in turn prompted
divine retribution on sinful Romans that Orosius equated with the
ten plagues visited on Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let Moses
and the Israelites return to the promised land (Seven Books of
Histories Against the Pagans7.26–7; cf. Exodus7–12).
It is not hard to see why Orosius’ history should cause
modern historians of the ancient world to throw up their hands
in despair at his lack of rigour. Yet in spite of these objections,
Orosius’ view of history was to enjoy enormous success, even
more so than Augustine’s (Hay 1977: 22–3). For much of the
middle ages it provided the standard history of the ancient world,
and thus of early Christianity. It was endlessly quoted and
excerpted, and so frequently copied that there are some two
hundred known manuscripts of the work. It was even translated
into Anglo-Saxon – an endeavour once thought to have been
undertaken by none other than king Alfred the Great himself
(Bately 1980: lxxiii–lxxxi).
Although in many respects the middle ages depended on
late antique accounts – Eusebius, Rufinus, Orosius – for its know-
ledge of the early Christian period, this is not to say that medieval
Christendom produced no scholarship of its own on the subject.
Far from it: early Christianity continued to exercise fascination
throughout the middle ages, above all as an era of heroic martyrs
whose fortitude was held up to ordinary Christians as a paragon
of exemplary piety. Under the guidance of church leaders, martyrs
remained the focus of cult activities: their shrines were destina-
tions of pilgrimages and the anniversaries of their martyrdoms
became important feast days (Brown 1981). As part of the elab-
oration of such cults, there was great demand for stories about
the sufferings and miracles of the martyrs, to the extent that
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