Mom's Project: Confessions by Augustine

Augustine about himself: ‘a man who writes as he progresses and who progresses as he writes’.
I began reading the book and barely glanced over the first paragraph of the introductory biography when I realized I needed a little background study. Augustine had memorized most of the works of Cicero and Virgil. An online source called The Formation of Augustine's Mind even stated that "Cicero’s prose and Virgil’s poetry were so profoundly stamped on Augustine’s mind that he could seldom write many pages without some reminiscence or verbal allusion."
Below you will find a summary of what I learned about Cicero:


Marcus Tullius Cicero

106-43 BC
Politician (orator, lawyer, philosopher)

Motto: “to always be the best and overtop the rest”

Held the following government positions:

The Quaestor

• Paymasters of the state in the Roman Government
• Received the revenues
• Made all the necessary payments for the military and civil services

The Aedile

• In charge of public buildings
• Care of the cleansing and draining of the city
• The superintendence of the police; supervising the sale of slaves
• Regulation of the public festivals
• Celebration of the Ludi Magni, or Great Games, was their especial function

The Praetor

• The administration of justice
• To decide cases in which foreigners were concerned

The Consul

• The head both of the state and the army
• Presiding over the Senate and the Assembly of the Centuries
• Enforced the resolutions of the Senate and the People were carried into effect
• Supreme command of the armies

As Consul, he unraveled and exposed a plot to take over the government called the Conspiracy of Catiline. Having been given supreme authority, he had Lucius Sergius Catiline executed. He was later exiled when execution of a Roman citizen without trial became illegal.

In 60 BC Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus (often referred to today as the First Triumvirate) combined their resources and took control of Roman politics.

After the death of Crassus, Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, entering Italy with his army and igniting a civil war between himself and Pompey in 49 BC. Cicero sided with Pompey and was killed by Caesar’s troops.

During the time of his exile, Cicero wrote. One of his writings, The Dream of Scipio, is about a young man named Scipio looking down on the universe and receiving a speech from his grandfather named Africanus. Looking down on the world, he wonders aloud why he would ever want to go back. Africanus explains that it is his duty as it was the duty of his father and grandfather and that he has a role to play in this world. He also tells him what will happen in his near future.

Africanus then shows him how small the earth is, how insignificant the Roman Empire is, and what a small creature man is.

Towards the end of this short novel, Africanus explains how “the first principle” set everything into motion and created everything. According to him, “the first principle” must have existed before for everything and must exist forever.

However, the book by Cicero that really captured Augustine’s attention was Hortensius. This book would provide the impetus for him to seek out true wisdom that comes from God alone.

Book III  CHAPTER IV
7. Among such as these, in that unstable period of my life, I studied the books of eloquence, for it was in eloquence that I was eager to be eminent, though from a reprehensible and vainglorious motive, and a delight in human vanity. In the ordinary course of study I came upon a certain book of Cicero's, whose language almost all admire, though not his heart. This particular book of his contains an exhortation to philosophy and was called Hortensius. No w it was this book which quite definitely changed my whole attitude and turned my prayers toward thee, O Lord, and gave me new hope and new desires. Suddenly every vain hope became worthless to me, and with an incredible warmth of heart I yearned for an immortality of wisdom and began now to arise that I might return to thee. It was not to sharpen my tongue further that I made use of that book. I was now nineteen; my father had been dead two years, and my mother was providing the money for my study of rhetoric. What won me in it [i.e., the Hortensius] was not its style but its substance. 

Links to some great sources on Confessions:
Christian Book Summary
Molloy College's Notes on Augusine's Confessions