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¤ AUGUSTINE (Aurelius Augustinus, "St. Augustine") (354-430 A.D.) A Father of the church, writer,
philosopher and key figure in the development of Christianity in the 4th and 5th centuries. Born in the
Algerian town of Thagaste, son of a landowner and a devoutly Christian mother, Saint Monica,
Augustine was educated at Carthage. He eventually taught and came to the attention of the pagan
philosopher SYMMACHUS. Educationally, he aspired to be a man of letters, terminating a marriage and
abandoning a son for more ambitious associations. When he was 18, he followed his intellectual
curiosities and read Cicero's Hortensius (now lost). He tried to follow the Manichaeist sect, which
promised wisdom in a Gnostic fashion, but it proved ultimately unsatisfactory. As a teacher in 384, he
traveled to Rome but finally settled in Milan, where he began a long relationship and friendship with the
local bishop, the formidable AMBROSE. Two years later, Ambrose introduced him to the wide circle of
Christian Neoplatonists of the city.
Augustine found a spiritual home. Although he still lacked the capacity to differentiate Christian
theology and Neoplatonic thought, in August of 386 he was baptized by Ambrose. As he wrote in his
Confessions, it was through Neoplatonism that he came to a full appreciation of Christianity. Returning to
Thagaste, Augustine attempted to live as a recluse. His reputation among the Christian intellectuals,
however, brought about his forced ordination into the priesthood of Hippo in 391. The elderly bishop of
that diocese needed an assistant. In 395 Augustine was named as his successor to the see.
Just as Augustine's life was altered by the Hortensius, so was the church changed by the new bishop.
Writing and continuing his scholarship, he spearheaded the spread of Christianity in Africa, in the face of
paganism and numerous heretical sects. The Manichaeans fell before him; the Donatists were condemned at
Carthage in 411; he reproached Pelagianism in 412.
Augustine was a prolific writer. His Confessions, an autobiographical account of his youth that recounted
everything until the death of his mother in 387, was a demonstration of his intense curiosity and quest for
knowledge. De Doctrina Christiana (397) examined scholarship and the manner in which it was to be
pursued from the perspective of Christianity and the Scriptures. Philosophy and thought were to be
studied only to achieve a greater understanding of the Gospels and the meaning of God's Will. His
greatest work, The City of God (413-426), defended the Christianization of Rome, refuting paganism's
ancient claim to the city. The City of God extended its concerns to the next world, where the elect and the
doomed would be separated. Augustine is ranked with Ambrose, Gregory I and Jerome as one of the
Four Fathers of the church.
¤ AUGUSTODONUM
Capital of the Gallic tribe, the Aedui. Augustodonum was built by the Aedui
following their defeat by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars, circa 56 B.C. The previous capital was the
stronghold of Bibracte, but with Caesar's victory it was abandoned, and Augustodonum was built in its
place. It was also called Autun. In 21 A.D., the Gallic rebel, Sacrovir, used the city as his headquarters
for his unsuccessful rebellion against Rome. Augustodonum was located in the Aedui territory near the
Loire River.
¤ AUGUSTUS (Gaius Octavian) (63 B.C.-14 A.D.) First emperor of Rome and founder of a Roman state
that endured for centuries.
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