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 connec tion 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 result of his ar rival being that John, bishop of Jerusalem, was induced to summon at his capital in June 455 a synod at which Orosius communicated the decisions of Carthage and read such of Augustine's writings against Pelagius as had at that time appeared.
Success, however, was scarcely to be hoped for amongst Orien tals who did not understand Latin, and whose sense of reverence was unshocked by the question of Pelagius, et quis est milli Augustinus? All that Orosius succeeded in obtaining was John's consent to send letters and deputies to Innocent of Rome ; and, after having waited long enough to learn the unfavorable decision of the synod of Diospolis or Lydda in December of the same year, he returned to north Africa, where he is believed to have died.
The earliest work of Orosius, Consultatio sive commonitorium ad Augustinum de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum, ex plains its object by its title; it was written soon after his arrival in Africa, and is usually printed in the works of Augustine along with the reply of the latter, Contra Priscillianistas et Origenistas liber ad Orosium. His next treatise, Liber apologeticus de arbitrii libertate, was written during his stay in Palestine, and in connec tion with the controversy which engaged him there. It is a keen but not always fair criticism of the Pelagian position from that of Augustine. The Historiae adversum Pagans was undertaken at the suggestion of Augustine, to whom it is dedicated.
Nearly two hundred mss. of the Historiae have survived. A free abridged translation by King Alfred is still extant. The editio princeps of the original appeared at Augsburg (1471), and has been super seded by C. Zangemeister, who has edited the Hist. and also the Lib. apol. Besides the Old and New Testaments, Orosius appears to have consulted Caesar, Livy, Justin, Tacitus, Suetonius, Florus and a cos mography, attaching also great value to Jerome's translation of the Chronicles of Eusebius.