The Sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 AD was more than just a single event in history. To contemporary Romans, their entire world was falling apart at the seams. What had caused such an event to occur, where the center of the Roman Empire itself falls? Saint Jerome, in a letter written two years after the Sack, bluntly states that “The City which had taken the whole world was itself taken.”[1]
What did the Romans blame this catastrophe on? After all, the last time Rome was sacked was over eight hundred years earlier, around 390 BC,[2] so, according to contemporaries something introduced in the meantime must have caused this. But what?
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Sadly, not this.
The most obvious introduction is the
advent and rise of Christianity. Catholic Christianity had become the official state
religion of the Roman Empire less than fifty years prior to the attack, in
380 AD.[3]
Those who were over thirty years old would clearly connect the downfall of the
Eternal City to the introduction and acceptance of this new and foreign religion.
Clearly, to these people, the ancient Roman gods were punishing them for
accepting this religion from Judea!
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Among other things, Christianity introduced table-flipping boxing.
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As I type this post, I have not read any other portion of the reading – I have only read the Introduction and Book I. Therefore, I see this introduction for the City of God as a small taste of things to come. Augustine here tells us that the divine City – which, I believe, can represent anything from Heaven to the Church itself – trumps the temporal City of Man. The Visigoths would not have “[shown] mercy beyond the customs of war” if it weren’t for their “honor of the name of Christ” (pg 7). To Augustine, the fact that the Visigoths had spared those who hid in the churches shows a more powerful force at work, which proves superiority to most other instances of war. Had Christianity not been there, all of Rome would have been dead.
As you may have noticed, the medieval historian inside me is ecstatic. You can always count on me to be excited about the most challenging reading in class. Definitely expect more posts to follow soon!
[1]
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001127.htm
[2]
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romebattles/p/battleallia.htm
[3]
http://history-world.org/christianity.htm
Hah, table flipping boxing.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Augustine thought the Visigoths would have spared people hiding in non-Christian churches.
I made this post a picture. http://i46.tinypic.com/2ezk2ys.png
Thanks for the picture, Laura! Haha! I made you a picture in return on your post.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your question, it appears like Augustine would say no, they would not have been saved in non-Christian churches. Chapter 2 of Book I, which we did not have to read, implies that they would have been killed in pagan temples: "Let our enemies read their history, and then produce instances of the capture of any city by foreign enemies when those enemies spared any whom they found taking refuge in the temple of their gods" (pg 7).
Unfortunately, as the footnote explains, Augustine's challenged is "ill-judged," as there were at least two other instances of mercy for seeking refuge.