Lactantius — Divine Institutes 7.25
These are the things the prophets say will be: whose testimonies and words I have not thought it necessary to set down, since it would be endless and the measure of a book would not take so great a multitude of matters, with so many saying like things by one Spirit, and also lest disgust come to readers if I heaped what was gathered and translated from all, and further so that the very things I said I might confirm not by our writings but most of all by others' and teach that the sealed truth is held not only among us but even among those who hunt us, which they refuse to acknowledge. But if anyone wants to know these things more carefully, let him drink from the source itself and he will find more wonders than we have embraced in these books.
Perhaps someone now asks when those things we have spoken will be. I have already shown above that when six thousand years are completed that change must happen, and that highest day of the extreme close is already drawing near. What of the signs that still sustain human affairs and the circle of the lands? That is the city which still holds all things up, and we must pray and adore the God of heaven — if nevertheless his fixed things and decrees can be deferred — lest sooner than we think that abominable tyrant come who will attempt so great a crime and dig out that light, at whose destruction the world itself is going to fall. Now let us return to carrying out the rest that will follow next.
Latin
Haec sunt quae a prophetis futura dicuntur: quorum testimonia et uerba ponere opus esse non duxi, quoniam esset infinitum nec tantam rerum multitudinem mensura libri caperet tam multis uno spiritu similia dicentibus simulque ne fastidium legentibus fieret, si ex omnibus collecta et translata congererem, praeterea ut ea ipsa quae dicerem non nostris, . sed alienis potissimum litteris confirmarem doceremque non \' modo aput nos, uerum etiam aput eos ipsos qui nos insectantur, ueritatem consignatam teneri, quam recusent adgnoscere. si quis autem diligentius haec uoluerit scire, ex ipso fonte hauriat et plura quam nos in his libris conplexi sumus admirabilia reperiet.
Fortasse quispiam nunc requirat quando ista quae diximus sint futura. iam superius ostendi conpletis annorum sex milibus mutationem istam fieri oportere et iam propinquare summum illum conclusionis extremae diem. de signis quae praedicta sunt a prophetis licet noscere: praedixerunt enim signa, quibus consummatio temporum et expectanda sit nobis in dies singulos et timenda. quando tamen conpleatur haec summa, docent ii qui de temporibus scripserunt, colligentes ex litteris sanctis et ex uariis historiis quantus sit numerus annorum ab exordio mundi. qui licet uarient et aliquantum numeri eorum summa dissentiant, omnis tamen expectatio non amplius quam ducentorum uidetur annorum. etiam res ipsa declarat lapsum ruinamque rerum breui fore, nisi quod incolumi urbe Roma nihil istius uidetur esse metuendum. at uero cum caput illut orbis occiderit et ῥύμη esse coeperit, quod Sibyllae fore aiunt, quis dubitet uenisse iam finem rebus humanis orbique terrarum? illa est ciuitas quae adhuc sustentat omnia, precandusque nobis et adorandus est deus caeli, si tamen statuta eius et placita differri possunt, ne citius quam putamus tyrannus ille abominabilis ueniat, qui tantum facinus moliatur ac lumen illut effodiat, cuius interitu mundus ipse lapsurus est. nunc ad cetera exequenda redeamus quae deinceps secutura sunt.