ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 focuses on Orosius’s construction of time in the Historiae. The text casts its vision over more than 5,600 years and orders the events of history according to its own typology. The grand scope of Orosius’s Christianizing vision details how empires rise and fall, how historical events work in parallel with one another, and it positions landmarks of global human activity in relation to the foundation of the city of Rome and the Incarnation of Christ. The Incarnation is the ultimate measure of history, around which the past gathers, the present is understood, and the future determined. The computation of the past in these purposeful ways underpins Orosius’s agenda, to promote Christianity through the comparison of times. This chapter examines Orosius’s innovative organization of time in two sections. Part one explores the philosophy of time, examining abstract notions of the periodization, division, and continuation of time. It concentrates on the organization of world history around empire, with the rise and fall of the Babylonian, Macedonian, and Carthaginian empires culminating in the Roman empire, which is preordained for the coming of Christ. Part two focuses on Orosius’s specific dating and systems for recording time. It examines his technical dating and explores how numerous methods such as ab urbe condita (‘from the founding of the City’) as well as consular and Olympiad dating are synthesized into Christian history.
