AUGUSTAN AGE 



178 



AUGUSTUS 



state, at the head of navigation on the Ken- 

 neb* forty miles from the sea. Port- 

 land is sixty-one miles southwest by rail. Rail- 

 way transportation is by the Maine Central 

 Railway, and the Augusta. Winthrop & Gar- 

 diner electric line communicates with adjacent 

 cities and towns. Steamers connect with Port- 

 land, Boston and other important coast cities. 

 The permanent settlement of Augusta dates 

 from 1754. The place was known as Cushnoc, 

 until 1771, when it was incorporated as Hal- 

 limoll; a part of this settlement was organized 

 as Harrington in 1797, the name being later 

 changed to Augusta. In 1831 it became the 

 capital of the state and in 1849 it was incor- 

 porated as a city. The population increased 

 from 13,211 in 1910 to 13,860 in 1914, French 

 comprising one-fifth of this number. Fifty-five 

 and one-half square miles are included within 

 the city's limits. 



Augusta is built on both banks of the river 

 mainly on the west bank a large portion 

 occupying an elevation considerably higher. 

 Here are the residence districts and the massive 

 granite State Capitol with its library of 60,000 

 volumes. The Federal building, United States 

 arsenal, Maine insane asylum, city hospital 

 and Lithgow Library (public) are other build- 

 ings worthy of note. Across the river, one-half 

 mile above Augusta, extends an immense dam 

 nearly 1,000 feet in length, which furnishes 

 great water power for manufacture. The city 

 has big cotton and shoe factories, lumber-pulp 

 and paper mills, and publishing houses. It is 

 a trading point for a large territory on account 

 of its shipping facilities. 



AUGUSTAN AGE, the most brilliant period 

 in the history of Roman literature, taking its 

 name from the Emperor Augustus, who gener- 

 ously aided and encouraged the writers that 

 lived in his reign. It "was the time of Horace, 

 Ovid, and Vergil, the age which saw the highest 

 development of the Latin language and in 

 which literary men received the highest hon- 

 ors. In England the term was later applied 

 to a corresponding period of great literary 

 activity, the age of Steele, Addison and Swift, 

 and in France to the reign of Louis XIV. 



AUGUSTINE, awgua'tine, or AUSTIN, 

 SAINT, the Apostle oj the English, and the first 

 archbishop of Canterbury. While a monk in 

 the monastery of Saint Andrew, Rome, he was 

 summoned by Pope Gregory I to lead a band 

 of missionaries to England. In 597 they landed 

 on the island of Thanet, southeast of England, 

 and were there kindly welcomed by Ethelbert, 



king of Kent. Through tin- preaching of Saint 

 Augustine and his followers thousands of the 

 Knirlish, including the king, were convened, 

 and in 601 the Pope made Augustine Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury. The historian Green 

 says of the mission of Saint Augustine : 



The march of the monks as they chanted their 

 solemn litany was in one sense a return of the 

 Roman legions who withdrew at the trumpet 

 rail of Ahiric. The civili/ation, art, Irttrrs. 

 which had fled before the sword of the English 

 conquerors, returned with the Christian faith. 



AUGUSTINE, SAINT (AuRELius AUGUS- 

 Tixrs) (#54-430), a renowned Catholic theo- 

 logian, ranking first among the great early 

 fathers of the Church in intellectual power, 

 spirituality and influence. He was born at 

 Tagaste, in Numidia, North Africa, and as a 

 youth showed such promise that his father 

 gave him the best education possible at that 

 time. After finishing his schooling at Carthage, 

 he became a teacher of rhetoric and grammar. 

 Though his mother was a Christian and a 

 woman of sincere and tender piety, Augustine 

 did not accept Christianity until thirty-two 

 years of age. From the time he was nineteen 

 he sought eagerly for the truth, taking up 

 one system of philosophy after another, and 

 finding in none the power that could free 

 him from the vicious habits which he had 

 acquired in his boyhood. About 384 he went 

 to Milan to accept a position as teacher of 

 rhetoric, and there, coming under the influence 

 of the great Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan, 

 was converted to Christianity in 386. 



Augustine's conversion is an important event 

 in the history of the Catholic Church, for, hav- 

 ing consecrated his mighty intellect to the 

 service of the Church, he produced a great. 

 body of writings on theology that have had 

 profound influence from his age to the present 

 time. He became bishop of Hippo (in North 

 Africa) in 395, and labored there until his 

 death, which occurred during the famous siege 

 by the Vandals in the year 430. Two of 

 Augustine's works, The City of God and his 

 Confessions, are to be classed among the best- 

 known religious writings of all time. The 

 former is a defense of Christianity and the 

 Christian Church; the latter, a narrative of his 

 early life and conversion, reveals the heights 

 of his literary power. 



AUGUSTUS, a title meaning consecrated, 

 bestowed by the Roman Senate upon Gaius 

 Julius Caesar Octavianus (63 B. C.-A. D. 14), one 

 of the most famous rulers who ever lived. He 



