Lactantius, Divine Institutes 7.25
These are the things the prophets foretell: I did not think it necessary to set forth their testimonies and words, because that would be endless, and the scope of a book cannot contain so vast a multitude of matters, with so many speaking in similar ways by one Spirit; moreover I wished to avoid wearying readers by collecting and translating everything. My further purpose was to confirm and teach the very things I say not only among us, but even among those who attack us, that the confirmed truth stands firm, though they refuse to recognize it. If anyone wishes to know these matters more diligently, let him draw from the very source, and he will find wonders beyond what we have embraced in these books.
Perhaps someone now asks when the things we spoke of will come to pass. I have already shown that this transformation must occur when six thousand years are completed, and that the final day of the ultimate consummation is already drawing near. We may recognize the signs the prophets foretold; they announced signs by which the consummation of the ages is to be expected and feared by us day by day. As for when this full measure is completed, those who wrote on chronology teach us, gathering from the sacred writings and from various histories how great the number of years is from the world's beginning. Though they vary and their totals disagree somewhat, every expectation nevertheless appears to be no more than two hundred years. The reality itself also declares that the collapse and ruin of all things will come soon, unless the fact that Rome still stands means nothing of this seems to be feared. But when that head of the world has fallen and the stream has begun to flow, as the Sibyls say it will, who doubts that the end of human affairs and of the world itself has already arrived? That city is the one that still sustains all things, and the God of heaven must be prayed to and adored by us, if indeed His decrees and plans can be delayed, lest that abominable tyrant come sooner than we think, who is plotting so great a crime and digging out that light by whose extinction the world itself will be ruined. Now let us return to the remaining matters that must be carried out, which will follow in due course.
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.