Editing Orosius (section)

=== Narrative ===
The narrative ability of Orosius should also not be overlooked.  The author had a clear objective: that the Christians be defended from the non-Christian Roman's accusations that the sacking of Rome in 410 was a reprimand because the Christians had forsaken the city's traditional pantheon of gods.<ref name="alonso376">Alonso Ñúñez, José Miguel, "La metodología…", p. 376.</ref>

Orosius's narrative abilities in forwarding this argument therefore went beyond the pessimism/optimism duality that was discussed in the previous section. His basic idea is that the past is always worse than the present, because it is always further from the true religion.<ref name="alonso376"/>

The fact that he had clear objectives ensured that he wrote his stories with a definite end in mind. Therefore, there are events that he narrated with little detail and others that he presents in full detail. Orosius never seems lacking in sources of information, he even affirms that an historian should be selective with those he has, it rather seems that this difference in level of detail reflects the emphasis that he wants to place on reinforcing his ideas.<ref name="alonso377"/>

The fact that his writing has a moral objective and apologist agenda means that he focuses on unusual events, such as the suffering of the general population during wartime.<ref name="alonso379"/> This selection of facts, in large part, enables him to write about patriotism, for example, as he always pays a lot of attention to events in Hispania.