Da Costantino ai Vandali: aspetti della visione orosiana della storia

Orosius’ providentialistic vision was often criticized because it was considered limited, elementary, ideologized. This paper aims to demonstrate, throught two examples (the murder of Crispus, Constantine’s son, and the attacks of the Barbarians against the empire), that Orosius perfectly knew some fundamental questions posed by history to the Christians and that he showed the ability to understand the historical dynamics: according to Orosius, the prime mover of history is God, but man’s free will, as devil’s intervention, can influence events; moreover, he realized the painful tension between the must be of every Christian and the weakness of the human nature. In conclusion, his work shows attention, not always recognized by the modern scholars, to the escatological aspects of his thought.