Richardson—Augustine of Hippo qua Patriot. 
37 
standing, the attentive auditor is again and again conscious of an 
iterated non desperandum. As will be explained directly, this 
is in part due to the Augustinian philosophy; in part, however, 
it is due to an inadequate estimate of the seriousness of contempor- 
rary conditions. As often before, so now, the state is being bet¬ 
tered, not destroyed, by its afflictions. . . the Koman Em¬ 
pire is afflicted rather than changed,—a thing which has befallen 
it in other times also, before the name of Christ was heard, and 
it has been restored after such affliction,—a thing which even in 
these times is not to be despaired of. For who knows the will of 
God concerning this matter The sack of A. D. 410 is perhaps 
the worst of Romeos misfortunes—Augustine is by no means sure 
of it^®—-but the chastisement is after all a merciful one.^^ ‘‘Be¬ 
hold,” he exclaims in one of his discourses, it is said “Rome is 
perishing in the times of the Christians: perchance Rome is not 
perishing; perchance it is being scourged, not cut off: chastized, 
not destroyed. Perchance Rome perishes not provided Romans do 
not perish. For they will not perish if they shall praise God: 
they will perish if they shall blaspheme. For what is Rome, if 
not Romans f ’ The most remarkable example of this minimizing 
of the catastrophy of 410 is the Sermo de Urhis Excidio^^ which 
credulously cites the escape of Constantinople from a marvelous 
manifestation of divine wrath during the reign of Arcadius and 
maintains that the situation of 410 is analogous; “By the hand, 
therefore, of an amending God is that city receiving correction 
rather than destruction. Like a servant who, knowing the mas¬ 
ter’s will, does deeds worthy of stripes, it shall be beaten with 
many blows.” 
Both in his apologetic, or quasi-apologetic, writing, as in the 
above sermon, and in his familiar correspondence, Augustine treats 
the disasters of the day as casual and not as final. Nor is it proper 
to ascribe this to apologetic requirements.^^ So thorough-going a 
De Civ. Dei, IV, 7 {tr. Dods). Cf. nn. 8, 9 sup. The passage cited is written 415: 
A. F. West, in Angus, op cit., 60. 
Sermo CCXCVI, Pat. Lat. XXXVIII: Sed plus inquiunt, plus vastatur modo genus 
humanum. Interim considerata praeterita historia, salva quaestione, nescio utrum plus. 
Sed ecee sit plus: credo quia plus. 
De Civ. Dei, V, 23. 
Sermo LXXXI, Pat. Lat. XXXVIII. Cf. Sermo CCXCVI: after all, Rome has been 
burned twice before; Modo te quid delectat contra Deum stridere, pro ea quae consuevit 
ardere ? 
21 Pat. Lat., XL. 
22 Cf. Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed., 1905, 
313-314, 70, n. 4. (On Orosius). 
