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History Against the Pagans by Orosius

Background and Biography
Background and Biography

Excerpts
English from Fear (2010)

5. Four cities in Asia, Elea, Myrina, Pitane, and Cyme along with two in Greece, those of the Opuntii and Oriti,154 were destroyed by an earthquake that also ruined three cities in Galatia. At Rome, the Pantheon was struck by lightning and burnt down, while an earthquake in Antioch almost levelled the entire city.155
Footnotes

154 Opus, the chief city of the Opuntian Locrians, is perhaps the modern Kardhenitza in modern Greece. Oricum, a port in Illyricum, is the modern Erikha in Albania.

155 The destruction of the Golden House is drawn from Jerome, Chronicle, A Abr. 2120. Orosius tries nobly to absolve his compatriot and hero, Trajan, from the blame of initiating a persecution in his account. The earthquake in Asia and Greece is taken from Jerome, Chronicle, A Abr. 2121. Orosius disingenuously elides this with the earthquake in Galatia to make God’s vengeance seem the greater. In fact, Jerome dates the earthquake in Galatia and the burning of the Pantheon six years after the Asian earthquake, A Abr. 2127 (= AD 113), and gives a third date for the earthquake at Antioch, A Abr. 2130.

Chronology
Year Reference Corrections Notes
110 CE At Rome, the Pantheon was struck by lightning and burned down, while an earthquake in Antioch almost leveled the entire city. none
  • Lightning struck and burned the Pantheon in 110 AD according to these two references - here and here
  • Fear (2010:343 n. 154) notes that Orosius was using Jerome's Latin translation of Eusebius' Chronicon as a source and deliberately mis-dated certain events in this part of his book, including the burning of the Pantheon and the earthquake at Antioch, in service of a theological agenda.
Seismic Effects
  • At Rome, the Pantheon was struck by lightning and burned down, while an earthquake in Antioch almost leveled the entire city.
Locations
  • Antioch
Sources
Sources

Online Versions and Further Reading
References

Notes
Calendars used by Orosius