St. Augustine the Algerian 9783897442092, 3897442094

Table of contents :
Cover
Table of Contents
Preface
Background and Context of this Essay
Augustine and His World
Characteristics of Augustine
Augustine’s Church in Hippo – the Building
Augustine’s Church in Hippo – the Community
Five Main Characteristics of Augustine’s Work
“Augustine and Our World”
Bibliography of Titles Quoted
Appendix: Figures 1-6
Figure 1: Africa Proconsularis
Figure 2: Mosaic of the Town of Hippo
Figure 3: Lateran Fresco (Portrait of Augustine)
Figure 4: Sketch of the Basilica Pacis
Figure 5: Reconstruction of the Basilica Pacis
Figure 6: Mask of Oceanus
Short Bio-bibliography of the Author

Citation preview

Beihefte zum Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft Herausgegeben von Siegmar Döpp und Jan Radicke

Band 12

Karla Pollmann St Augustine the Algerian

Inh. Dr. Reinhilde Ruprecht e.K.

Mit 6 Abbildungen

2. Auflage Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar. © Edition Ruprecht Inh. Dr. R. Ruprech e.K. Postfach 1716, 37007 Göttingen – 2007 www.edition-ruprecht.de © Duehrkohp & Radicke Wissenschaftliche Publikationen Göttingen – 2003 Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk einschließlich seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urhebergesetzes bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Zustimmung des Verlags. Diese ist auch erforderlich bei einer Nutzung für Lehr- und Unterrichtszwecke nach § 52a UrhG.

Satz: Karla Pollmann Druck: Digital Print Group, Erlangen ISBN: 978-3-89744-209-2

Table of Contents

Preface .................................................................................. 7 Background and Context of this Essay ................................ 9 Augustine and His World ................................................... 14 Characteristics of Augustine .................................................. 14 Augustine’s Church in Hippo – the Building ......................... 22 Augustine’s Church in Hippo – the Community ..................... 24

Five Main Characteristics of Augustine’s Work ................. 28 “Augustine and Our World” ............................................... 36 Bibliography of Titles Quoted ........................................... 37 Appendix: Figures 1-6 ....................................................... 43 Short Bio-bibliography of the Author ................................ 51

Background and Context of this Essay

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Preface This essay is the enlarged and slightly modified version of my Inaugural Lecture, delivered at St Andrews on April 24, 2002. In a modest way it intends to demonstrate what a thinker like Augustine could mean and still can mean when basic human questions are considered. It is also a sample examination of what academic pursuit and historically oriented thought can mean in and for a society, if one looks for a purpose of intellectual activity that goes beyond a purely vocational, utilitarian or materialistic definition of its objectives. The Inaugural Lecture was accompanied by an exhibition on Augustine’s life and work, which was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Alumni of St Andrews University. I am very grateful to my colleague Professor Otto Wermelinger from Fribourg, Switzerland, who has unstintingly supported my academic endeavours in numerous ways through the years and who had the kindness to lend material to St Andrews taken from the exhibition he organized for the conference on Augustine in Algiers and Annaba in April 2001 and which is shown in various places throughout the world.1 I am also grateful to Christine Gascoigne and Norman Reid who made some of the University Library’s manuscripts and early prints of Augustine’s works available for this exhibition. Finally it is my pleasure to thank most warmly Anne Brumfitt and Thomas G. Duncan for their essential support in many ways.

1

For more details see http://www.unifr.ch/patr.

Background and Context of this Essay

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Background and Context of this Essay The title of this essay, ‘St Augustine the Algerian’, is meant as a provocation and not as a description of an historical reality. It is a statement about the possible influence and relevance of an historical figure in a later time, in this case the present. The United Nations declared 2001 to be the ‘Year of the Dialogue of the Civilisations’. Accordingly, the president of Algeria, his excellence Abdelaziz Bouteflika, had the idea of organizing in his country a conference on St Augustine, ‘le philosophe algérien’. This enterprise had the twofold intention of, in the first place, making Algeria aware of its pre-Islamic past and reclaim it for it (at present, pre-Islamic Algerian history is not taught at Algerian schools and universities); and, secondly, of reconciling Algeria with its pre-Islamic past and opening it up for a dialogue with the Western civilisations in general, using Augustine as an ideal ‘bridge’ as he came from North Africa and influenced Western thought.2 It was hoped that both aims would help the young nation of Algeria on its way to establishing an identity for itself, an identity which could not be based on economic and financial facts alone, nor on a reductive ideology.3

2

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One can justifiably say that Augustine is the greatest son of what is Algeria today and became a towering genius of the Western World. The president’s speech welcoming the participants of the conference, where all the above points are mentioned, will be published together with the proceedings of the conference by Otto Wermelinger and others at the University of Fribourg (forthcoming); at the moment it can be read on J.J. O’Donnell’s web-page (http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod). A. Bouteflika clearly sees continuity between Algeria’s pre-Islamic past and its present. The study of Augustine, which is sparsely done in Algeria and then only from a philosophical angle, is for A. Bouteflika linked with the promotion of reason and the liberty of thought. In particular, he sees philosophy and the history of religions as possible themes for a communication between civilisations of different faith but identical values. See again his speech, especially his words: “résister à toutes les entreprises de dépersonnalisation ou de réduction stérilisante.”

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Hence, this conference gathered around 40 internationally recognized experts on Augustine from 16 countries to present up-to-date scholarship at what was to be a highly political event – with national and international media attention and strict security measures. The hosts of this event were the Haut Conseil Islamique of the Algerian government and the Swiss Foreign Office. The academic organisation lay in the hands of Professor Otto Wermelinger from Fribourg. The motto of the conference in Algeria was taken from a fourth-century mosaic from Tipasa in North Africa that was only found in 1968:4 in Deo pax et concordia sit convivio nostro (“may our festive gathering have peace and harmony in God”). The conference took place in Algiers and in Annaba in April 2001; after the events of September 11, 2001 even greater significance has come to be attached to its agenda. Needless to say, due to the unstable political situation in present-day Algeria, it was uncertain up to the end whether the conference would take place or not. Several invited speakers declined the invitation or chickened out shortly beforehand. When I boarded the plane ParisAlgiers I was given the Algerian version of the French newspaper La Tribune of the day (March 31, 2001). The front page was ominously dominated by two big articles: in the upper half a headline announced that the night before five people had been brutally massacred in the already mentioned Tipasa, a place roughly 70 km south-west of Algiers. Originally it had been planned to go to have a look at the spectacular archaeological sites there;5 understandably, this excursion was cancelled (only a very small party went there unofficially). The lower half of the newspaper’s front page was occupied by an article about the imminent colloquium on ‘Saint Augustin’. This gives you the situation of the country in a nutshell.

4 5

Cf. the extensive analysis in Février. As an illustration see e.g. the Basilica of Ste Salsa in Tipasa in Ferdi 134-5 and generally about Tipasa 132-45.

Background and Context of this Essay

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One may legitimately ask oneself how it happens that the president of an Islamic country, wishing to extend gestures of cultural reconciliation towards the Western world, comes to think of a – Christian saint.6 Could not other topics have been far more obvious: for example, ‘Postmodernism and Multiculturalism in the 21st Century’, or ‘The Interaction of Ethics and Faith in Cultures of the Industrialised Nations and Its Impact on Developing Countries’? The answer to this perplexing situation is quite simple: President Bouteflika had been a student at the University of Algiers in the 50/60ties. At that time Algeria was still French, the university therefore dominated by the French. Significantly, Mr Bouteflika studied with Professeur André Mandouze, an internationally renowned expert on Augustine. – No academic teacher is ever in control of what fruit his or her teaching may bring forth… . A perhaps surprising outcome for A. Mandouze, now in his eighties, was that he came to be one of the key organizers and honoured guest of this conference. He is widely adored in Algeria, as he fought for Algeria’s independence in the 50 and early 60ties and had to go to prison for that in France. Due to the highly political nature of the event it is not surprising that different expectations and reactions were linked with it, reflecting a whole spectrum of ideological and intellectual attitudes. The organizers, and accordingly the invited speakers, aimed at a strictly historical analysis and discussion of Augustine’s thought, illuminating its broad spectrum, depth and originality in a world of change.7 Of lesser interest in this atmosphere of exchange and mediation were more narrowly dogmaticsystematic aspects of his thought.

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Augustine was honoured as a saint at Carthage before 475. It is important though not always entirely possible to avoid creating clichés or confirming preconceived ideas about Augustine, like picturing him as an uncompromising ascetic, a severe pessimist regarding the possibilities of human nature to save itself or the like.

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A small but extreme catholic wing expected the conference to form part of an initiative to re-Christianise the Islamic world and was bitterly disappointed not even to have the chance of going to mass during their stay in Algiers. Some left before the conference had finished. A third group consisted of some Algerian intellectuals who accused Augustine of belonging to the urban Roman class of suppressors who eliminated the rural, vernacular church of the Donatists, a heretical group who held the view that their Christian community, based in North Africa alone, was the only true church, due to their steadfastness in the times of persecution. Augustine had promoted the integration of the Donatist church into the wider Catholic Church, sometimes against the will of those involved.8 Some hold that this reluctant acceptance of the Roman-catholic faith made it easier for the North African population to accept Islam when the Arabs conquered them about two hundred years later. It did not become clear whether this was to be seen as something positive or negative by those at our conference who saw Augustine as a suppressor of vernacular faith. Regarding this question, much heat was generated, and little light. Such diverse and controversial views have been characteristic of the reception of Augustine throughout history. Notably, for instance,9 Catholics and Protestants have both claimed Augustine to be “one of them”: while Luther (an Augustinian monk who was excommunicated),10

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Augustine represented a view of the Church as something universal which was or should spread all over the world (and certainly throughout the Roman empire), thus fighting off separatist or isolationist movements within the church. The price to pay for this was the necessity to compromise with worldly structures and to allow – at least for this world – the existence of less perfect Christians within the Church as well. Augustine, as other ecclesiastical thinkers, did this in the belief that this would strengthen the Church both in number and stability. It may indeed be that he failed in this in the long run. 9 Another example is the doctrine of eucharistic offering, where Augustine could be claimed as an authority for opposite positions, Radbert versus Ratramnus, Lanfranc versus Berengar, Luther versus Karlstadt and Zwingli; cf. Mühlenberg 966. 10 And partly Erasmus (an Augustinian monk who was not excommunicated).

Background and Context of this Essay

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and Calvin espoused the later Augustinian views (396-430) on grace and predestination, some Catholic writers11 gravitated towards the younger Augustine (386-396), who, as a recent convert, still tried to adapt Neo-platonic thinking to Christian concepts of free will and salvation through works and contemplation. Despite the fact that some Renaissance writers recognized the importance of discerning the changes in Augustine’s position during his lifetime (and that means 44 years of writing activity) and some, like Petrarch, had already struggled to reconcile Augustinian tensions, most writers appropriated the “Augustine” that suited them best12 - and some still do, all claiming Augustine to be “theirs”. Indeed, it is in no way surprising that the Tunisian minister of culture called Augustine one of their great thinkers in a lecture delivered at Westminster University in London.13

11

And also, e.g., Ficino. Bergvall 14. 13 See Abdelbaki Hermassi in The Independent from March 26, 2002. 12

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Augustine and His World Characteristics of Augustine Augustine14 (the name ‘Augustinus’ means, of course, “little Augustus, little emperor”)15 was born on 13 November 354 in Thagaste (now Souk Ahras) in North Africa which was then a Roman province called Africa Proconsularis, partly overlapping with the area that is Algeria today; there are no ruins extant as the new city was built on top of the old. He was educated in grammar and rhetoric in Madauros (Africa Proconsularis, also situated in what is today Algeria) and Carthage,16 the capital of Africa Proconsularis, but situated in the part that is today Tunisia. Therefore it is not wholly unjustified that Tunisia also claims the fame of being the home of Augustine. After travelling to Rome, Milan (where he became a professor of rhetoric), and other places he became first priest and then bishop of Hippo Regius,17 today Annaba (French Bône), in the part of Africa Proconsularis that is today Algeria.18

14

Sometimes the praenomen Aurelius is claimed for Augustine, which is not documented in his writings or in Possidius or in letters written to him; it may have arisen out of a misunderstanding of Orosius, apol. 1.4; cf. Schindler 646; Mandouze in his Prosopographie does not include Augustine (8). 15 Lancel (1999) 30. 16 In a pun, Augustine calls Carthago sartago, the ‘cauldron’ of illicit loves leaping and boiling around him (Conf. 3.1.1). 17 The name of the city of Hippo Regius is part Punic part Latin: “Hippo” for “bay” or “gulf” and “Regius” (‘royal’) for its association with the Numidian kings. The name is thus not associated with the quite separate Greek name for “river-horse” (hippopotamus). For the Augustine enthusiasts (Jansenists) of Port-Royal (monastery in the Chevreuse Valley south of Versailles), in the seventeenth century, the name was close enough to that of their monastery (assuming “Port” for “bay”) as to be wrongly thought a translation; cf. Lancel (1999) 213 and 690 n. 2; Vössing 223. 18 Cf. the map in fig. 1 at the end of this essay. For further information see Blänsdorf, especially 519-526.

Augustine and His World

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Augustine was in his office as bishop for over thirty years and died, aged 76, in Hippo in 430, on 28 August, his feast day. Hence he is often referred to as Augustine of Hippo, in order to distinguish him, for instance, from the much later Augustine of Canterbury († 605). We know more about Augustine than about any other person of antiquity, with the possible exception of Cicero, in part because of his own vast oeuvre but also from numerous contemporary and slightly later sources. Possidius, his pupil, wrote his biography shortly after his death.19 We also have a great deal of Augustine’s correspondence with both Christians like Jerome, and Popes Innocent I and Celestin I, and pagan officials like Maximus of Madauros and Nectarius of Calama.20 As far as his social origin is concerned, he was not a member of the aristocratic elite. Owing to the ambition of his parents, as already reflected in his name, he was given an education strictly speaking above his social status, as they were impoverished gentlefolk of slender means.21 It was the dream of his mother that he should become a senior Roman civil servant, ideally with the final goal of becoming provincial governor, which meant among other things marrying a woman with the appropriate family background. His Christian mother was also very keen that he should become Christian – Augustine was not born a Christian. However, Augustine proved to be a bit of a disappointment: he never rose in the civil service and even becoming a Christian took him a long time. The dramatic story of his gradual conversion forms the centre of his quasi-autobiographic Confessions. We do not know a specific date for his conversion, even if, in an episode of Inspector Morse called “The Service of All the Dead”, a small congregation told Morse that they had celebrated the “feast of the

19

For an English translation see the one edited by Rotelle. See Ferdi 157-159. 21 Brown 9, 19. We know of a strikingly similar case more than 400 years earlier, when Horace as son of a freedman studied in Athens besides Cicero junior, the son of the famous consul, orator and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero. 20

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conversion of St Augustine”. It took Morse a while to find out that this feast does not exist and was a sham to stage a murder! It is tempting to reflect that if Augustine had followed the career path dreamed of by his parents his name would now be one among many others buried in a Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, and his claim to fame would perhaps consist in having built a new aqueduct or the like. At Hippo Regius we have a very unusual mosaic from the early third century,22 when Roman Africa had reached its economic peak. This mosaic was split in half by the foundations of the later building on the site. One part of the mosaic contains a fishing scene, with men in boats drawing on nets; at the right end is represented a coast line, a cape with a distinctive profile crowned with trees, and a large doomed building. On the other fragment the buildings along the shore are shown, with the sea in front breaking upon rocks with a Triton swimming among them. The buildings themselves are highly distinctive, though there are many crudities in the execution. At the top is a wooden bridge, presumably crossing a river; the water of the river is not shown, but nearby are lines that mark the sea narrow into a point, as if to show an inlet. In the front from the left, the buildings include what could well be a basilica, with a colonnaded façade and three aisles; a long two-storeyed building which might be a market; then probably a triumphal arch,23 surmounted by a sculptural group with a figure driving a chariot with four horses; more colonnaded buildings; and finally on the right one with an arcade in front of several small domed constructions, surely a set of baths, which stick out into the sea. The careful delineation of these buildings, each outlined against a plain white ground, and the prominent part they play on the mosaic, distinguish this scene completely from any usual fantasy architecture. The mosaicist is evidently trying within the limits of his

22 23

Dunbabin 239; see fig. 2 at the end of this essay. Against Dunbabin 128, who suggests this building to be probably a temple.

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conventions, to portray real buildings. It is generally accepted that this mosaic represents the town of Hippo itself, with its main buildings on the coast, the bridge over the river, and, at the other end, the cape later known as the ‘Rocher du Lion’, which dominated the coastline to the North. Such a view of a town is unique on African mosaics and an exceptional expression of civic pride.24 Hearing that Augustine was born in North Africa, in a politically correct age one is asked occasionally (also by academics) the question: “Was Augustine black?” (I have not yet been asked whether Augustine was a woman, but maybe this will come …). One possibility to try and answer this question is to look at his ancestry: we know that his mother was called Monnica.25 Her name is derived from a local Numidian deity, the goddess Mon.26 It is possible that Monnica was of Numidian (Berber)27 descent. Augustine’s father was called Patricius;28 we cannot tell whether he was a Romanized ‘native’ of some sort or a member of a Roman family that came to Africa at some point. Moreover, the history of the settlement of North Africa29 is complicated. Native Berbers seem to have occupied the country since prehistoric times; their origins and racial affinities are not definitely known. The later Phoenicians came from what is today the Near East around the 12th century BC.30 Later still came

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Dunbabin 128-9. She was born a Christian. The cult of St Mon(n)ica began to develop in the later Middle Ages and in 1430 Martin V transferred her supposed relics from Ostia to Rome, where they rest in the church of S. Agostino; cf. Gill. Monnica has often been chosen as the patron of associations of Christian mothers; her feast day is August 27. Around 1170 Alexander III asserted that no one should be venerated as a saint without the authority of the Roman Church; after that, the canonization of Saints became the rule. 26 Brown 21 with literature. 27 Cf. Radan 150. 28 He only converted to Christianity on his deathbed. 29 Broughton 6-12 offers a brief overview, see also 156f., 212, 225ff. 30 They had mainly mercantile interests, but also a civilizing mission. In the ninth century BC Carthage was founded, which outgrew her mother city of Tyre. 25

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the Romans.31 Augustine may have been of Punic or Berber descent32 and could in theory have looked anything from blond and freckled via the Mediterranean to the ‘Negroid’ type. Interestingly, ancient sources do not tell us, as, in general, they practically never comment on a person’s colour of skin if it is a free Roman citizen.33 Another way of deciding the question could be to look at ancient likenesses of Augustine. The so-called Lateran fresco in Rome, commonly dated into the middle of the sixth century,34 is considered to be the oldest extant depiction of Augustine.35 It shows a man slightly beyond his best years, the hairline over the forehead clearly receding, with quite pronounced facial wrinkles, dressed in a long white tunic and toga, the dress of the free Roman citizen, with long sleeves,36 decorated with a purple stripe, visible on his right shoulder and reappearing above his right foot. This purple stripe marks the person’s dignity, 37 in this case sacerdotal or Episcopalian dignity, analogous to a senator’s purple stripe, though, however, we know that

31

After the Third Punic War they had finally conquered their archrival Carthage in 146 BC. 32 Frend 230; Brace 21. 33 For slaves see Horace, Sat. 2.8.14 fuscus Hydaspes, and Juvenal 5.53 nigri manus ossea Mauri; from the pastoral world Vergil, Ecl. 2.16-8 quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses? | o formose puer, nimium ne crede colori: | alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur (I am grateful to my colleague Peter Woodward for providing these references); a more general statement is Juvenal 2.23 loripedem rectus derideat, Aethiopem albus. 34 Sometimes it is even dated into the fifth century, see de Blaauw 111-2. 35 Description in Lancel (1999) 9-10; see fig. 3 at the end of this essay. 36 Aug. doctr.chr. 3.12.20.49 points out that the tunic changed style: in his time long sleeves are acceptable and fashionable, whereas the good old Romans wore short sleeves and considered long sleeves a sign of decadence. 37 As a sign of high birth and/or high office.

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Augustine normally wore black. The figure is seated on a curule chair (sella curulis), originally used by high magistrates. The painter clearly had difficulties with perspective. Augustine’s left hand holds a book-roll (volumen), which hints at his education and his intellectual qualities and can also be taken as symbolizing his written work. But, strictly speaking, this is an anachronism as Christians used the modern parchment codex (book), and not the traditional ‘pagan’ papyrus book-roll, especially for major publications.38 His right hand points in a particular gesture at an open codex, most likely the Bible (or another book of doubtlessly Christian content), thereby positioning this portrait intellectually between Antiquity, symbolised by the book-roll, and the Middle Ages, symbolised by the codex. The inscription under the fresco forms a prosodically correct elegiac couplet and reads as follows: DIVERSI DIVERSA PATRES | SED HIC OMNIA DIXIT | ROMANO ELOQVIO | MYSTICA SENSA TONANS «Various Fathers spoke about various themes, but this one said it all, Proclaiming forcefully like thunder in Roman eloquence the mysteries of the scriptures». The gesture of the right hand is familiar to those studying classical rhetoric; it is described by Quintilian, who, under Vespasian around 70 AD, was the first professor of rhetoric ever to be paid by the state (Inst. 11.3.98):39 “Sometimes,” he observes, “we separate the first two fingers from the others, not however inserting the thumb between them, but with the fourth and little fingers turned slightly inwards, and the other two also not fully extended”. Presumably this was a gesture of drawing attention to an important point. At the time of Augustine this gesture

38

Cf. Zelzer, especially 293: in the third and fourth century, the change from papyrus roll to parchment codex can be observed. Christians changed first, but papyrus continues to be used. The oldest Latin Bible codex stems from around 370. 39 See Wülfing.

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was still used and well-known, both to pagans and Christians as can be demonstrated from illustrations.40 So Augustine is here not reading but speaking or, rather, teaching in a formal way – interpreting the Bible as he indeed did in the spoken and the written word throughout his whole life. In Augustine’s view it was the daily duty of every Christian to interpret Holy Writ and to live accordingly. As many of you will know, this hand gesture became, in medieval depictions, the gesture of benediction – according to correct rhetorical rule only to be performed with the right hand.41 The gesture is also found in some of the 19th century stained glass windows in St Salvator’s Chapel of St Andrews University, but there sometimes the left hand is used as well - clearly a sign of the disappearance of a proper rhetorical education! This fresco follows in many ways the conventional depiction of an educated, pagan intellectual as an emblematic type, which could be adapted for Christian purposes. This can also explain the anachronistic book-roll, whose conservative, stereotyped usage is especially transparent in a miniature from the Codex Vergilius Romanus from around 500 AD. Here Vergil is depicted wearing a white tunic and toga, with a book-roll in his hands, on his left a closed casket which contains more book-rolls, and on his right a reading desk. This portrait was copied from a papyrus-roll into a codex. At the time of Vergil the book-roll would have been used; the anachronism only relates to the codex on which the portrait is painted.42

40

E.g. on ivory diptychs depicting pagan civil servants in the first half of the fifth century; in Christian contexts God or Christ or even the personified Ecclesia ex gentibus (on a mosaic in S. Sabina in Rome from between 422 and 432 AD). 41 A very similar gesture was also used to reprieve defeated gladiators, see Wiedemann 15, where in fig. 13 the left hand is used. 42 Schefold 436.

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Vergil is depicted in a similar way on an African mosaic from Sousse (ancient Hadrumetum), presumably from the early third century.43 But scholars have noted that several things are unusual about the Lateran portrait. First the depiction of the figure not in a 100% frontal position but from a three-quarters angle with the figure leaning to the side, giving it a less static impression. The facial traits are marked, with scrutinizing eyes, wrinkles, a strong nose, pronounced mouth, the chin separated from the mouth by a dimple, and the shadow of the beginning of a beard due to not shaving every day. French scholars in particular have suggested that this was the copy of a realistic portrait of Augustine, which somehow must have made its way to Italy.44 However, these features do not seem to be so unique or individual: a fourth century African mosaic from Cherchel (then Caesarea Mauretania) shows a male face with quite similar characteristics – and this time it is supposed to be a Silen or satyr, attending the mythical wedding of Peleus and Thetis.45 So we have to content ourselves with a ‘not-proven’ verdict; leaving the seemingly individual traits aside, the Lateran portrait clearly represents a type meant to convey the message of Augustine’s importance as the teacher of Christianity.46

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Dunbabin 131: in the Maison de l’Arsenal, the place of honour in one room is occupied by a portrait of Vergil enthroned between Melpomene and Clio; open on his knee is a volumen on which are legible words from the opening lines of the Aeneid, 1.8-9 Musa mihi causas memora quo numine laeso | Quidve …, clearly chosen to emphasize the divine inspiration represented by the Muses standing beside him. Schefold 398 identifies the second Muse more plausibly not as Clio, but as Calliope, who reads the epic and to whom Vergil turns, and on the other side the muse Melpomene with the mask of tragedy, the gesture of her right hand expressing the tragic content of what is read. Vergil’s right hand is lifted as an expression of emotion. This portrait fits quite closely to Donatus’ description of Vergil as being of tall size, dark complexion and with a peasant physiognomy (Vita 8.10). But the head is rather oblong, the eyes have a severe expression and the cheeks are emaciated (so not wholly like in Donatus). Schefold ib. dates the mosaic around 300 AD. 44 Lancel (1999) 10. 45 Lancha, no. 40 and p. 82-84. 46 Possibly indicating the function of the Lateran library, see de Blaauw 112.

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As in many other countries, there exists also Augustinian iconography in Britain, namely a screen with scenes from Augustine’s life, erected in Carlisle Cathedral in the late fifteenth century, which managed to survive the iconoclasm of the succeeding age.47 But my topic here is ‘St Augustine the Algerian’, not ‘St Augustine the Brit’, so this must be left for another occasion.

Augustine’s Church in Hippo – the Building Hippo was a wealthy trading town, especially in the second and third centuries AD, as became clear from the mosaic analysed above.48 At the time of Augustine it was still a major city with its villas, a forum, a theatre, a market-place, several public baths49 and two main Catholic Churches.50 The latter two were situated in the so-called Christian Quarter that was only excavated in the 1920ties and is in desperate need of professional conservation. The ancient ruins are outside the modern city and therefore not built over, as the old town was deserted in the early Middle Ages because the sea had receded.51 Seeing these ruins it is hard to resist quoting Augustine: “It is amazing that a city will cease to exist; though this hour has not come, yet, nevertheless, it will arrive one day” (sermo 81.9 PL 38.505). Presumably the most moving moment for all Augustinian scholars during the whole conference was the chance to see and to ‘enter’ the very church in which Augustine was active for over thirty years. This church

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J. and P. Courcelle 117-132; Colledge in the collection by Schnaubelt and Van Fleteren; this collection provides a fascinating read throughout. 48 See above 16-17. 49 Lancel (1999) 213. 50 Lancel (1999) 331-46, based on the latest archaeological evidence; for photographs see Ferdi 84-97. 51 Mater Dennis 1 and 62-5.

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is sometimes called ‘the Basilica of Peace’, sometimes simply the ‘Major Basilica’.52 It was built in various stages during the fourth century over what was once the ancient sanctuary of Saturn, following the familiar pattern of keeping well-known locations of worship.53 Its dimensions are still recognizable, measuring 37.5 x 18.5 metres and so it is one of the larger churches, but not the largest, in North Africa.54 Augustine himself documents that the longitude of the church was twice its width.55 It may have accommodated some 2000 worshippers56 in its three naves. The neighbouring baptistery, measuring 4.8 x 4 metres, is particularly well preserved.57 On the other side of the road there may be another church, most likely that of the rival Christian Donatists.58 Augustine complains that the Donatist church over the road held uproarious feasts with loud singing (!) that could be heard in the Catholic church and disturbed their services (epist. 29.6 PL 33.117).

52

Lancel (1999) 338 with nn. and 343 presents careful arguments for identifying this archaeological site with Augustine’s church (based on his scant descriptive information about size and situation of his church). For a sketch and a reconstruction see figs 4 and 5 at the end of this essay. 53 Radan 148 and 164. Cf. Bede, Eccl.Hist. 1.30 (quoting from a letter of Gregory the Great). 54 Radan 151. 55 Lancel (1999) 338f.; Radan 151. 56 Radan 149. O’Donnell on his website estimates 300 worshippers (following Lancel) or a bit more; see also Lancel (1999) 331-346. Normally, the congregation had to stand, only the bishop had a seat. 57 For more details see O’Donnell’s website and Radan 158-161. 58 For a photograph see Wheeler/Wood 141 plate 50. However, Lancel (1999) 337 states that the location of the Donatist church at Hippo is unknown.

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Augustine’s Church in Hippo - the Community The Punic language, developed from Phoenician and closely related to Hebrew, was as near Arabic as Spanish to French, and this linguistic relationship may explain the later rapid spread of Arabic culture.59 It is most likely, but very difficult to prove, that both Libyan (‘Berber’)60 and Punic (‘Phoenician’61) coexisted with Latin in Roman North Africa as rival languages spoken only by certain classes or groups of society.62 As for Augustine, who is one of our most important witnesses about African vernacular, he spoke only Latin, his mother tongue, and found Greek a difficult language when he was taught it at school. He knew a few words of ‘Punic’ (according to him a Semitic language, similar to Hebrew), but complained that there were not enough translators from Latin to Punic who could spread the Gospel in the countryside.63 He also knew that there were Nomads further south beyond the civilized world with whom he had no contact and about whose language he did not know anything at all. The language and culture issue remains a sensitive political issue in modern Algeria in what is called ‘the Berber Question’. Perhaps 20-30% of

59

Berber became much rarer in Tunisia (Carthage), the Punic main base, than in Algeria and Morocco; see Brace 20. 60 See Stone 7-9; ‘Berber’ is derived from barbarus. The Berbers have no collective name for themselves, and later European civilisations have described them as Numidian, Getulian and Mauritanian. Their origins are unclear, but Berber civilisations have existed in North Africa since at least the Bronze Age. The Berber language, of which there are innumerable dialects, belongs to the Hamitic group and is thus a distant relative of Arabic and even ancient Egyptian. Most Berber dialects are spoken rather than written; the Punic, Latin, Arabic, Turkish and then French scripts were used for written communication. 61 Vössing 241ff. 62 See Broughton 11, 156, 212, and Benabou 473-489, especially 488f. on multilingualism in North Africa. 63 See Green, and Lancel (1981) 270.

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the Algerian population would call themselves ‘Berber’. At the moment, Berber culture and language are not officially recognized by the ArabIslamic regime.64 Naturally in Augustine’s day pagan traditions and beliefs were still to the fore. In one of his recently found sermons he has to admit that it was very difficult to convert a well trained pagan intellectual to Christianity by argumentation.65 Moreover, most of the culture and art surrounding Augustine reflected different traditions. I take as an example the mask of Ocean. Although the mask of Ocean is not an African invention, nor confined to Africa even in mosaics, the exceptional frequency with which it occurs in Africa and the remarkable care accorded to its delineation in some of the mosaics have suggested that it represented some element which was strong in the African, specifically the Punic, religious consciousness. A good example would be the majestic bearded mask that appears at the centre of the mosaic of the frigidarium of the baths at Themetra (today called Chott Maria, in Tunisia), dated into the early third century.66 The size of the mosaic is 69 x 47 inches or 1.76 x 1.2 metres.67 The motifs of the mask are conventionally treated: lobster-claws and coral branches on his forehead, streaks of grey and green in his hair and beard, indicating seaweed, with fish and dolphins entangled in them. And yet, the mask is not merely a graphically decorative design, but an immensely impressive head dwarfing the surrounding motifs, with water pouring from the fleshy mouth, and enormous powerful eyes. Beneath Oceanus’ bushy and puckered eyebrows, his severe yet pathetic gaze was, as often in such depictions, turned upward and toward the left.68

64

Cf. Stone 198-214. Aug. serm. 62 Mayence (= 26 Dolbeau).58, cf. Dolbeau 72 with n. 20. But in rud.cat. 8.12 he gives advice how to teach such people if they are willing to become Christians. 66 See for the following Dunbabin 149-154 and fig. 6 at the end of this essay. 67 It dominates an orthodox marine scene with fish, boats, and fishermen, and a few small buildings at the edge; for a photograph see Blanchard-Lemée et al. 126 fig. 85. 68 Blanchard-Lemée et al. 129. 65

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These masks appear in indisputably secular contexts and it has been suggested that their meaning goes beyond the purely aesthetic and that they convey a religious message: they could have had a magical or apotropaic, protective force against superhuman hostile beings, a force which is principally resident in the enormous eyes with their fixed stare. We have mosaics where these eyes or the whole face have been deliberately destroyed, presumably by Christians who considered the power residing in these eyes as hostile and demonic. In our case, where the mask is associated with realistically portrayed boats, there is probably an idea that in this way real boats, presumably those belonging to the owner of the house, are placed under the protection of the god on their journeys.69 Granted portraits like this it can readily be seen why Augustine, in De doctrina christiana (‘On Christian Teaching’) book 3, argues against belief in the religious or magical power of images, statues and natural entities like the sea. He chooses Neptune as an example to criticise these false beliefs:70 “But what good does it to me, after all, to be told that some idol of, let us say, Neptune is not to be regarded as a god, but that it represents the whole sea, or even all the other waters that gush forth from springs? As he is described by one of their poets,71 if I remember rightly, speaking as follows: ‘Thy brow, O father Neptune, is hoary white with thundering surf, and ever from thy beard Great Ocean flows, and rivers from thy locks do curl thy winding ways.’ (…) So what use is it to me that the idol of Neptune is given that symbolic meaning, except perhaps to warn me off worshipping either of them? For me, after all, neither any statue at all, not the entire sea, is God. Still, I must admit that those who regard the works of men as gods are more deeply sunk in falsehood than those who so regard the works of God.”

69

This pagan-Christian dichotomy did not pervade all art; for an eventual Christianisation of the motif of the idyllic garden see Guggisberg. 70 The following translation is taken from Hill 174. 71 Whose identity is not known.

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Augustine, like many ecclesiastical writers before him, was strictly against attributing any kind of supernatural power or magic to objects, like amulets72 or images. Therefore, he denied images any significance whatever apart from the mimetic imitation of reality: for him it is sufficient to look at the beauty of a picture and be delighted by it. In contrast, the aesthetic appearance of a letter is merely of minor importance; what is decisive is that by reading letters one is admonished to understand the content they convey and this goes beyond their material appearance (Tractatus in Joannem 24.2).73 Augustine’s opposition to purely decorative (unrelated) iconography, as an end in itself, may account for the simplicity of his ‘Basilica of Peace’ which appears in examination of the ruins. Accordingly, Augustine advises his congregation to find beauty, not in decorative marble and splendid embellishment, but rather in the faithful and holy members of the Church (sermo 15.1.1, PL 38.116, on Ps 25:8). All this, of course, was most appealing to Reformation Protestants and their traditions, as exemplified by Scottish Presbyterians and their churches.

72 73

Aug. doctr.chr. 2.20.30.74-5. Cf. Pollmann 184-91.

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Five Main Characteristics of Augustine’s Work Despite the fact that Augustine as a bishop had already a full time job including pastoral care, preaching duties, administration of his parish and diocese, ecclesiastical matters on a national and global level, and acting as a judge in civic matters,74 he has left us an enormous literary output comprising 93 works consisting of 252 books. Only a small part of his writings is lost; the CD-Rom counts over 5 million words of his extant oeuvre – the largest to survive from any ancient author. That so much of his work remains extant is due to several factors. In the first place, he himself took great care to disseminate his works throughout the Mediterranean region.75 He had his own library and a scriptorium in his monastery in Hippo that was responsible for copying and distributing his writings. Apart from such authorized versions, as it were, there circulated many copies produced by other people. His sermons were taken down by shorthand writers. Secondly, he produced a list of his own works at the end of his life, the so-called Revisions (Retractationes). Thirdly, soon after his death his pupil Possidius revised and completed this catalogue of Augustine’s writings and took care of the library of Hippo containing Augustine’s writings that miraculously survived the invasion of the Vandals.76 Despite all this, it has to be said that Augustine as a ‘towering genius’ is a phenomenon of reception. In his time his influence was limited,77 but he had ardent admirers from the start, like Possidius and Eugippius.78

74

Cf. Fitzgerald s.v. ‘Life of Augustine’ 499; Brown 189-93, and Possidius’ Life of Augustine passim. 75 See O’Donnell (2001), especially 10-13. 76 Lancel (1999) 658ff. 77 Cf. McLynn; Brown 445-7. 78 In an analogous way, the development of a ‘Wagner cult’ was owed to the activities and the determination of Cosima Wagner.

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The Middle Ages recognized the authority of Augustine. His works were carefully copied, and transmitted in numerous manuscripts.79 Some were even translated into Greek,80 and commented on or quoted at length in other commentaries. The last two decades of the 20th century were exciting for Augustinian scholarship because of the discovery of some 30 letters and 30 sermons, most of which were previously unknown, which furthered our understanding of Augustine’s daily life.81 Here the first important thing to do was to prepare a critical edition of these texts, and provide a good translation and commentary. These are indispensable philological techniques providing a reliable basis for further research. So far, not all of

79

The Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften sponsors a project on “The Manuscript Tradition of the Works of St Augustine”, publishing lists of all extant manuscripts for each country separately. Occasionally this leads to the detection of hitherto unknown manuscripts or even works of Augustine, see above. So far published are: ITALIEN: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band I/1 und I/2, by M. Oberleitner (Vienna 1969 and 1970; SBÖAW 263 and 267); GROSSBRITANNIEN UND IRLAND: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band II/1 und II/2, by F. Römer (Vienna 1972; SBÖAW 281 and 276); POLEN, DÄNEMARK, FINNLAND, SCHWEDEN: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band III, by F. Römer (Vienna 1973; SBÖAW 289); SPANIEN UND PORTUGAL: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band IV, by J. Divjak (Vienna 1974; SBÖAW 292); BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND (Western Germany): Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band V/1 und V/2, by R. Kurz (Viena 1976 and 1979; SBÖAW 306 und 359); ÖSTERREICH: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band VI/1 und VI/2, by D. Weber (Vienna 1993; SBÖAW 601); TSCHECHISCHE REPUBLIK, SLOWAKISCHE REPUBLIK: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band VII/1 und VII/2, by C. Weidmann et al. (Vienna 1997; SBÖAW 645); BELGIEN, LUXEMBURG, NIEDERLANDE: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band VIII/1 und VIII/2, by M. Th. Wieser (Vienna 2000; SBÖAW 685); SCHWEIZ: Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, Band IX/1 und IX/2, by S. Janner et al. (Vienna 2001; SBÖAW 688). 80 See e.g. Hunger (1984) and (1990). 81 Cf. Divjak passim; Drobner, especially 18-20; Brown 441-81 (“New Evidence”).

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Augustine’s works have been edited critically or properly commented, but most of them have been translated into English.82 The number of publications devoted to Augustinian studies grows by several hundred each year internationally and more than a dozen specialised journals incorporating Augustine’s name in their title aim to promote understanding of his thought and of his influence through the ages. The humanities in general, not exclusively theology and philosophy, profit from a dialogue with Augustine. Despite the diversity of Augustine’s oeuvre with its various themes (philosophical, dogmatic, exegetical, pastoral), genres and occasions, five main common strands can be identified in Augustine’s thought.83 • The first reflects the fact that originally Augustine was a professionally trained orator and teacher of rhetoric.84 He was used to making an argument persuasive,85 the main task of rhetoric, and employed any means to serve this end, not least discourse at the emotional level, the most effective means of ‘stirring’ people.86 A lot of his work is written against bitter intellectual opponents, where arguments can become polemical and extreme. Arguments of this kind must be viewed with caution. Taken out of context they are open to false interpretation and cannot be claimed to be ‘Augustinian dogma’, as they are strongly context-related, though this often happened in later ages.87

82

Cf. the list in Fitzgerald xxxv-xlii, and for translations into German, English, French, Italian and Spanish Keller 89-151. 83 For an utterly different attempt cf. Lorenz 54-71. 84 Brown 24ff.; and Augustine reflecting on that in De doctrina christiana book 4, cf. Pollmann 215-44. 85 In doctr.chr. 4.25.55.143 Augustine states this goal of rhetoric explicitly. 86 The technical term is movere (“to move, affect”), which can coincide with manipulation. 87 Already Erasmus saw this with satisfying clarity, see his Ecclesiastes ASD V-5 200: 4-6, where he states that Augustine and other ecclesiastical writers did not claim any dogmatic authority for themselves, which they only conceded to the canonical scriptures, but that later theologians claimed such an authority for these authors when it suited them.

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A good example has already been mentioned.88 Another one is that, in his later years, he elaborated his sometimes sinister views about predestination while at the same time also writing a treatise ‘On Christian Preaching’ (De arte praedicandi, i.e. book 4 of De doctrina christiana) in which he is quite optimistic about human possibilities. This ‘liberal’ book was the first work of Augustine’s ever to appear in print, as an incunable in Strasbourg before 1466, representing the very first stages of bookprint.89 There is a copy of it in the St Andrews University Library, an item of considerable historical value and the oldest rare book the University possesses. As for the present time, Augustine is again at the cutting edge of technological progress: he was the first saint of Late Antiquity to have his works put on CD-Rom90 and to have his own website!91 Augustine’s power of language and expression has fascinated people through the centuries.92 His already mentioned Confessions may be counted among the greatest prose writings of all times, and is, indeed, a pioneering work with its authentic immediacy in revealing the quest of an individual for truth and salvation. By now, the Confessions have been translated into at least 47 modern languages, among them Chinese, Arabic, and Lithuanian.93 Interestingly, as we now know from one of the newly discovered letters, in Augustine’s own time the novelty of the Confessions met with a measure of disapproval.94

88

See above 12-13. See Ghellinck 366-403 on the printing history of early Augustinian editions. 90 The Corpus Augustinianum Gissense published by Schwabe in Basle (1996). The very first saint whose work was put on CD-Rom was the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas. 91 See http://www.augustinus.de and http://www.augustinus.it. 92 Augustine himself gives an example in doctr.chr. 4.24.53.139-40. 93 Later, based on the Confessions, his life was to be retold again and again. To name only a few modern examples in the form of novels: Gaarder, Wills, and especially the Algero-Moroccan Kebir Ammi, who is professor of English in Paris and wrote two novels, Thagaste and Sur les Pas de Saint Augustin. Already in the Jesuit school drama Augustine was a popular figure. 94 Aug. epist. 12*, cf. Brown 467 and O’Donnell (1999) 223. 89

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• As my second point I wish to emphasize that Augustine was not a scholar in the traditional sense of the word, but an often original speculative writer. He can be seen as the ‘inventor’ of various new genres and disciplines. In addition to the just mentioned ‘autobiography’ of the Confessions we may add his contributions to the philosophy of history as in the City of God, and to dogma in his doctrine of grace, the only doctrine that was made a dogma of the church (at the Council of Carthage in 418) without being explicitly stated in the Bible. In other areas, his (re)formulation of already existing philosophical thought displaced that of earlier writers, as, for instance, his ideas on semiotics which go back to the Stoics. Augustine was not a visual thinker.95 Only very rarely would he illustrate things in visual detail, unlike the poet Prudentius, his contemporary, who would describe in detail the tortures and wounds of a martyr.96 However, as a speculative thinker, Augustine was concerned to know whether martyrs had their mutilated limbs reconstituted after their resurrection etc.97 The richness and flexibility of his thought in this respect is still impressive today. In many significant ways Augustine established what were to become the principal outlines and foundations of Western theology. An extreme example for the clash between scholarship and creative thinking is Augustine’s interpretation of Rom 5:12 “Therefore, as by one man sin entered into this world, and death by sin – in the same way death passed upon all people because all have sinned.” Following a mistaken philological rationale and influenced by the commentary of Ambrosiaster98 Augustine translates this verse from the original Greek

95

See above the remarks in connection with the passage on Neptune, 25-27. E.g. Prud. Peristeph. 3.131-5; 4.117-44; 5.209-64 etc.; cf. Palmer and Roberts passim. 97 See City of God 22.19. However, it has to be emphasized that in the City of God Augustine occasionally tends to have otherwise unusual ‘fits of visualisation’, especially in his depiction of the afterlife, cf. Smith and Coyle. 98 Ambrosiaster, Ad Rom. 5.12. 96

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(his weak side):99 “… in the same way death passed upon all people by one man in whom all have sinned” – and so came to the development of his doctrine of original sin and grace.100 Despite the fact that exegetically (or philologically) this translation has been rejected by the later tradition, this same tradition accepted Augustine’s systematic-theological conclusions from it.101 • The third strand to be mentioned here is that, characteristically of a genius and great personality, in Augustine humour and the sublime come together. One could think of his oft-quoted prayer to God: “Give me chastity and continence – but not yet!”102 on the one hand, and, on the other, Augustine’s description of his ascent to truth while conversing with his mother: “And we touched upon eternity, slightly, for one whole heartbeat” (Conf. 9.10.24).103 Or, one might have a look at his attitude towards the calculability of the end of the world. At one point he claims that we do not know and must not dare to know the secrets only known to God our maker; elsewhere, however, he bluntly remarks that to set a date which proved to be wrong would be terribly embarrassing.104

99

Ambrosiaster, whose translation Augustine adapts, did not draw the dogmatic consequences of Augustine! 100 See Fitzgerald s.v. ‘Original Sin’ with further literature; Reid 63-89. 101 Therefore modern translations often render: “… in the same way death passed upon all people because they all have sinned in Adam”, where “in Adam” is added to the text in order to bring out the accepted Augustinian interpretation of the passage. In an ideal world, exegesis and systematic should meet and supplement or confirm each other (in theology and in law etc.), but this is not always necessarily or easily the case. 102 Conf. 8.7.17 da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo. 103 Augustine and his mother are together – cf. City of God 22.30, where the community of saints contemplates God. This is not Neo-platonic, where the individual does this on his or her own. It is noteworthy, that in contrast with medieval thinkers, Augustine does not claim any special authority for himself or for his mother justified by his vision. In this respect he is antique rather than medieval. 104 Cf. e.g. Aug. civ. 18.53-4; epist. 197.2.

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• The fourth strand concerns Augustine’s again characteristic insistence on the human possibility of search and progress and on the interrelationship of faith and reason.105 Generally one has to say that these points are underestimated in wide areas of the reception of Augustine’s thought. Augustine’s persistence in these matters led to a deeper insight into human psychology with strong emphasis on the self and its existential struggle, the inner voice, the heart, and the potential and the limits of human will.106 Moreover, for Augustine, the Christian god was a reality, not an intellectual or metaphorical concept. This lead to a strong god-centred structure of his thinking (theocentrism), which can be awe-inspiring or spine-chilling. He was radical in his thinking through of the Christian message of the death of a god on the cross on behalf of humanity (a scandal to ancient thought): if a God had to sacrifice himself in his infinite dimension to compensate for human sin, how unfathomable must this sin then be? What does the greatness and depth of such a divine sacrifice and love say about human nature? Not much good, alas!107 However, Augustine alerted his readers to the fact that his own thought progressed and must not be understood as a systematic and static whole. He admitted repeatedly that he expected future generations to have better insights regarding certain questions than he himself.108 Reception has not always taken Augustine up on that. But, centuries later, one man did so even if with conspicuously little success: Galileo Galilei, when he had to defend himself against the accusations of the Church that his scientific approach contradicted the teaching of the Bible, quoted Augustine

105

Bergvall 15, 73ff. Bergvall 33-69. 107 Possidius in his Life of Augustine 31.2 reports that Augustine spent the last ten days of his life in his death-bed, reading penitential psalms and crying; see Brown 430, 436. 108 Cf. especially Retractationes, prol., and Bergvall 13-4. 106

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(De genesi ad litteram 2.18.38) that what sometimes seems to be a contradiction between statements in Genesis and scientific observations, can later turn out to be none at all. • Finally, as a thinker, Augustine often wanted to have the cake and eat it. A good example would be his attitude towards education and learning. As the radical, theocentric thinker he was, he could state that learning is not relevant for salvation, that all learning could be found in the Bible, that scholarship is only step three on seven steps to God, that all learning was only as good as the good actions it lead to, and, most importantly, that all learning will vanish once we see true wisdom, Christ himself. But on the other hand, and in the same work, he can say that indeed everyone can learn to interpret the Bible, and, by following certain rules as established by him in De doctrina christiana, avoid major errors.109 Indeed he insists that the knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and of all the acceptable secular disciplines can be most useful and further the understanding of the Bible’s content that is by definition inexhaustible. He endorses the philological programme of Jerome that one should consult various manuscripts and the version in the original language in cases of difficulties in the biblical text. Augustine’s attitude in this regard was of no little significance to those in the medieval monastic tradition who sought to justify the inclusion in their theological studies of a dimension of intellectual rigour and, indeed, pagan classical learning and thereby preserved it for the modern era. However, Augustine cannot be called the patron of academe.110 Indeed, in a way, he could afford a partly critical attitude towards learning,

109 Doctr.chr.

prol. 9.18 ad occultum sensum sine ullo errore ipse perveniat aut certe in absurditatem pravae sententiae non incidat; cf. Pollmann 108-21. 110 Despite Villanova, a university near Philadelphia founded by Augustinian monks in 1842; cf. Contosta.

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because at his time the educational system and the acquisition of knowledge were still operative. This had changed radically some 150 years later by the time of Cassiodorus. Cassiodorus himself says that in his time, around 600, things had deteriorated: Augustine had known a world in which educated people were accomplished in secular literature and learning; Cassiodorus lived in days when people no longer knew how to spell Latin and knowledge in general was disappearing.111 Hence he was interested in founding a Christian University. This project failed but he was nevertheless influential in promoting scholarship in monasteries.

“Augustine and Our World” In conclusion, it may be asked what relevance Augustine and related matters may be claimed to have for present-day society. The answer must be: this depends on the kind of society one wishes to live in – and here we come full circle to the beginning of this essay and the conference on Augustine in Algeria at the beginning of the 21st century. Values like intellectual freedom and progress, creative thinking and rational communication are necessarily linked with academic pursuits, are, in short, the proper concerns of a university. Society could indeed ignore these concerns but in doing so would risk the return of what followed Cassiodorus – namely, the Dark Ages. Homer says that a seer is someone who has knowledge of all things that are, and that are to be, and that have been before.112 To some, this may be puzzling as one might think that a seer was solely concerned with the future. But in fact, only sound knowledge of the past and the present enables sensible decisions for the future. The university, by reflecting in its various subjects and disciplines on the past, the present, and the future, contributes vitally to the orientation of a society.

111 112

Cf. especially Cass. Inst. 1.21.1. E.g. Iliad 1.70 (of the seer Calchas).

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Bibliography of Titles Quoted Ammi, K., Thagaste (Paris 1999). Ammi, K., Sur les Pas de Saint Augustin (Paris 2001). Benabou, M., La résistance africaine à la romanisation (Paris 1976). Bergvall, Å., Augustinian Perspectives in the Renaissance (Uppsala 2001). Blänsdorf, J., Römische Ruinenstädte in Tunesien. Ein philologisch-archäologischer Reisebericht, Gymnasium 91 (1984) 519-36. Blanchard-Lemée, M. et al., Mosaics of Roman North Africa. Floor Mosaics from Tunisia (London 1996; French original Paris 1995). Brace, R.M., Marocco, Algeria, Tunisia (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1964). Broughton, T.R.S., The Romanization of Africa Proconsularis (Baltimore 1929). Brown, P., Augustine of Hippo. A Biography. New Edition, with an Epilogue (Berkeley/LosAngeles 2000). Colledge, E., The Augustine Screen in Carlisle Cathedral, in: J.C. Schnaubelt/F. Van Fleteren (eds), Augustine in Iconography. History and Legend (New York et al. 1999), 383-430. Contosta, D.R., Villanova University, 1842-1992: American – Catholic – Augustinian (Pennsylvania State University Press 1995). Courcelle, J. and P., Iconographie de Saint Augustin 2: Les cycles du XVe siècle (Paris 1969).

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Coyle, J.K., Adapted Discourse: Heaven in Augustine’s City of God and in His Contemporary Preaching, in: M. Vessey/K. Pollmann /A. Fitzgerald (eds), History, Apocalypse and the Secular Imagination (Bowling Green 1999), 205-20. de Blaauw, S., Cultus et Decor. Liturgia e architettura nella Roma tardoantica e medievale (Vatican City 1994). Divjak, J. (ed.), Les letters de Saint Augustin découvertes par J. Divjak. Communications présentées au colloque des 20-21 septembre 1982 (Paris 1983). Dolbeau, F., Nouveaux sermons de Saint Augustin pour la conversion des païens et des Donatistes (IV), Recherches Augustiniennes 26 (1992) 69-141. Drobner, H., Augustinus von Hippo, Sermones ad populum. Überlieferung und Bestand – Bibliographie – Indices (Leiden 2000). Dunbabin, K.M.D., The Mosaics of Roman North Africa (Oxford 1978). Ferdi, S., Augustin de retour en Afrique (Fribourg 2001). Février, P.-A., A propos du repas funéraire: culte et sociabilité, Cahiers archéologiques 26 (1977) 29-45 (= Id., La Méditerranée de P.-A. F., Volume 1 (Rome/Aix-en-Provence 1996), 21-37). Fitzgerald, A. (ed.), Augustine Through The Ages (Grand Rapids 1999). Frend, W.H.C., The Donatist Church: a Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa (Oxford 1952 and reprints). Gaarder, J., Vita Brevis. A Letter to St Augustine. A Love Story (London 1997).

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Ghellinck, J. de, Patristique et Moyen Age 3 (Brussels 1948). Gill, M.J., “Remember me at the altar of the Lord”: Saint Monica’s Gift to Rome, in: J.C. Schnaubelt/F. Van Fleteren (eds), Augustine in Iconography. History and Legend (New York 1999), 549-76. Green, W.M., Augustine’s Use of Punic, in: W.J. Fischel (ed.), FS W. Popper (Berkeley/Los Angeles 1951), 179-90. Guggisberg, M., Vom Paradeisos zum “Paradies”: Jagdmosaiken und Gartenperistyle in der römischen Herrschaftsarchitektur Nordafrikas und Siziliens, HASB 17 (2000) 21-39. Hill, E., Saint Augustine, Teaching Christianity (De doctrina christiana). Introduction, Translation, and Notes (New York 1996). Hunger, H. (ed.), Prochoros Kydones, Übersetzung von acht Briefen des Hl. Augustinus (Vienna 1984). Hunger, H. (ed.), Prochoros Kydones’ Übersetzungen von S. Augustinus, De libero arbitrio I 1-90 und Ps.-Augustinus, De decem plagis Aegyptiorum (lateinisch-griechisch) (Vienna 1990). Keller, A., Translationes Patristicae Graecae et Latinae. Bibliographie der Übersetzungen altchristlicher Quellen. Erster Teil: A-H (Stuttgart 1997). Lancel, S., La fin et la survie de la Latinité en Afrique, REL 59 (1981) 269-97. Lancel, S., Saint Augustin (Paris 1999). Lancha, J., Mosaïque et Culture dans l’Occident Romain (Ier-IVe s.) (Rome 1997).

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Lorenz, R., Die Kirche in ihrer Geschichte. Das vierte bis sechste Jahrhundert (Westen) (Göttingen 1970). Mandouze, A., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire 1: Afrique (303-533) (Paris 1982). Mater Dennis, H. van, Hippo Regius: From the Earliest Times to the Arab Conquest (Diss. Princeton 1924). McLynn, N., Augustine’s Roman Empire, in: M. Vessey/K. Pollmann/ A. Fitzgerald (eds), History, Apocalypse and the Secular Imagination (Bowling Green 1999), 29-44. Mühlenberg, E., Augustin, RGG 1 (1998) 959-67. O’Donnell, J.J., The Next Life of Augustine, in: W.E. Klingshirn/M.Vessey (eds), The Limits of Ancient Christianity. Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor of R.A. Markus (Ann Arbor 1999), 215-31. O’Donnell, J.J., Augustine: His Time and Lives, in: E. Stump/N. Kretzmann (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (Cambridge 2001), 8-25. O’Donnell, J.J., web-page: http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/. Palmer, A.-M., Prudentius on the Martyrs (Oxford 1989). Pollmann, K., Doctrina Christiana (Fribourg 1996). Radan, G., The Basilica Pacis of Hippo, in: J.C. Schnaubelt/F. Van Fleteren (eds), Augustine in Iconography. History and Legend (New York et al. 1999), 147-87. Reid, M.L., Augustine and Pauline Rhetoric in Romans Five. A Study of Early Christian Rhetoric (Lewiston et al. 1996).

Bibliography of Titles Quoted

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Roberts, M., Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs: the Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius (Ann Arbor 1993). Rotelle, J.E. (ed.), The Life of Saint Augustine by Possidius (Villanova 1988). Schefold, K., Die Bildnisse der antiken Dichter, Redner und Denker (Basle 2000, reprinted and updated version of 1943). Schindler, A., Augustin/Augustinismus 1, TRE 4 (1979) 645-98. Smith, Th. A., The Pleasures of Hell, in: M. Vessey/K. Pollmann/A. Fitzgerald (eds), History, Apocalypse and the Secular Imagination (Bowling Green 1999), 195-204. Stone, M., The Agony of Algeria (London 1997). Vössing, K., Schule und Bildung im Nordafrika der Römischen Kaiserzeit (Brussels 1997). Wermelinger, O., et al. (eds), Augustinus Afer (Fribourg; forthcoming). Wheeler, M./R. Wood, Roman Africa in Colour (London 1966). Wiedemann, Th., Emperors and Gladiators (London/New York 1992). Wills, G., Saint Augustine (Viking Press 1999). Wülfing, P., Antike und moderne Redegestik. Eine frühe Theorie der Körpersprache bei Quintilian, in: R. Faber/B. Kytzler (eds), Antike Heute (Würzburg 1992), 68-80. Zelzer, M., Buch und Text von Augustus zu Karl dem Großen, Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 109 (2001) 291-314.

Appendix: Figures 1-6

Appendix: Figures 1-6

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Figure 1: Africa Proconsularis

44 Karla Pollmann

Appendix: Figures 1-6

Figure 2: Mosaic of the Town of Hippo

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Karla Pollmann

Figure 3: Lateran Fresco (Portrait of Augustine)

Appendix: Figures 1-6

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Figure 4: Sketch of the Basilica Pacis

Figure 5: Reconstruction of the Basilica Pacis

48 Karla Pollmann

Appendix: Figures 1-6

Figure 6: Mask of Oceanus

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Appendix: Figures 1-6

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Short Bio-bibliography of the Author Karla Pollmann studied Greek, Latin, Divinity and Education at the Universities of Tübingen, Munich, Cambridge/GB, and Bochum, where she completed her doctorate on early Christian poetry (Das Carmen adversus Marcionitas, Göttingen 1991). Her habilitation on Augustine’s hermeneutics with special emphasis on Augustine’s De doctrina christiana was completed at the University of Konstanz (Doctrina christiana. Untersuchungen zu den Anfängen der christlichen Hermeneutik unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Augustin, De doctrina christiana, Fribourg 1996). She was a visiting scholar at the University of Vienna, at Green College (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton, and a Charter Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. Currently she holds a Chair of Classics at St Andrews University, Scotland. Her interests cover classical and late antique literatures and their reception, and the history of morality. Further publications include an edited volume on Double Standards in the Ancient and Medieval World, Göttingen 2000, and a German translation of Augustine’s De doctrina christiana, Stuttgart 2002.