Augustine: A New Biography, James J. O'Donnell, c. 2005

Augustine: A New Biography, James J. O'Donnell, c. 2005, BAUG.

See this post, Carthage must be destroyed. Final assault: 146 BCE.

Now, fast forward (146 years + 400 years =) 500 years later.

Introduction

Now, Augustine of Hippo a bit west of Carthage. Link here.

• b. 354 AD
• d. 430 AD
• of Berber origin; North African
• the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa
• born in the municipium of Thagaste, now Souk Ahras, Algeria, in the Roman province of Numidia.
• family name: Aurelius
  
• his mother: Monica, also of Berber origin
• Augustine's first language, like Latin
• at age 17, to Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric

Today:

• Souk Ahras: north Africa, the interior; about a 4-hour drive from Tunisia / Hippo on the Libyan coast.

History, WWII, link here:

St Augustine.

• b. Aurelius Augustinus at birth
• Augustinus Hipponensis (Augustine of Hippo): "professional name"

Terms associated with St Augustine, right or wrong.

• "just war"
• "original sin"
• "concupiscence"

Christian, but new-age sect: Manicheism.

Hippo:

• Greek: horse
• Latin: harbor

Potamus:

• Latin: river

Mesopotamia: between the rivers.

Chapter 1: The View From Africa

Hippo, the coast, vs Souk Ahras (now; then -- Tagaste), up-country

• the former: vibrant, but very much second-in-size / importance to Carthage
• the latter (Souk Ahras): back-country; a bit backwards; a bit provincial, olive- and breadbasket of Numidia — a bit Appalachia to Hippo’s Boston.

Won rhetoric contests in Carthage; spent formative years and much of his early adult life in Italy.

But then moved back to the family farm in north Africa; in Algeria; in Numidia, a couple of hours south of the coast.

He lived in a golden age of Africa -- after 500 hundred years of Roman rule.

Augustine came to Hippo in 391 AD as a junior clergy member of the African church. Not great but at least busy, p.12.

At 40,000 residents, a tenth the size of Carthage.

391: emperor Theodosius had forbidden all public sacrifice and "pagan" ritual. The ban had left empty spaces and empty times in every Roman city.

Christians did not always adhere to Christianity, p. 13.

Annaba, today; then Aphrodisium, the seaport of Hippo Regius. 

• Annaba today is now grown over both the seaport city and Hippo, a bit more inland.
• also, former names Bone or Bona -- derived from Ubbo -- a local name for Hippo.

Pages 13 - 15: the various religious sects.

Discussion of the Mediterranean Sea: follows, page 15. 

Christians and Jews; then Constantine and Christianity.

Augustine arrived in Hippo in this late 30s; stayed there until his death some 40 years later.