Orosius wrote the first Christian Universal History, ""Historiarum adversus paganos libri septem."" It has been thought to be a supplement to the ""City of God,"" ""Civitate Dei,"" especially the third book, in which St. Augustine attempts to prove that the Roman Empire suffered as many disasters before as after Christianity was received. It was a common argument among the pagans that the abandonment of the worship of their deities had led to the general break-up of the Roman Empire and all its attendant evils. St. Augustine was annoyed by the persistence of this argument and hoped that a...