Commodian — De Saeculi Istius Fine
The trumpet gives a sign in heaven when the Lion is lifted, and suddenly darkness comes with heaven’s crash. The Lord casts down his eyes that the earth may tremble, and cries out that all in the world may hear: “Behold, I have long been silent, bearing your things so long!” Together they cry out, wailing late, groaning; there is howling, weeping, nor is space given to the unjust: what will a mother do for the nursing child when she herself is burned? In flame of fire the Lord will judge the unjust; but the fire will not touch the just — rather it will leave them. They linger under one, but a part will weep in the sentence. So great will be the heat that the stones themselves melt; in lightning the winds meet, heaven’s wrath rages, so that wherever the impious flees, he is seized by fire; there will be no help, nor ships of the sea. Yet the flame burns the Median and Parthian nations for a thousand years, as bodies burn for the saints. For from there after a thousand years they are handed to Gehenna, and the fabric whose they were is burned with them.
Latin
D at tuba caelo signum sublato leone, E t fiunt subito tenebrae cum caeli fragore. S ummittit oculos Dominus, ut terra tremescat, A cclamat ut et audiant omnes in orbem: E cce diu tacui sufferens tanto tempore uestra! C onclamant pariter plangentes sero gementes, U lulatur, ploratur, nec spatium datur iniquis: L actanti quid faciet mater, cum ipsa crematur? I n flamma ignis Dominus iudicabit iniquos: I ustos autem non tanget ignis, sed immo delinquet. S ub uno morantur, sed pars in sententia flebit. T antus erit ardor, ut lapides ipsi liquescant, I n fulmine coeunt uenti, furit ira caelestis, U t, quacumque fugit, impius occupetur ab igne; S uppetium nullum erit, nec nauticae puppes: F lamma tamen gentes Medi Parthique feruent I n annis mille, ut feruunt corpora sanctis. N am inde post annos mille gehennae traduntur, E t fabrica cuius erant cum ipsa cremantur.