Augustine and history.

Augustine had a different concept of history than the Roman historians had: for him time and thus history has a beginning and an end. History happens sub specie aeternitatis. This gives a different perspective on historical events. When Augustine wrote his De Civitate Dei between 413 and 426, the Roman Empire was in turmoil, at least in the West. Not all Romans were Christians and some believed that the disasters were a result of abandoning the Roman gods. Augustine points out that Rome had undergone times of peril before and had risen again. One of such perils was the slave uprising in 73 -71 under Spartacus.  Were those slaves helped by the gods because they were successful, however short? Is anyone helped by the gods? For Augustine the answer is a definite no: not only because he is a Christian, but also because in his opinion this life is only transitory and worldly power is as well. The only lasting empire is the kingdom of God. Whether we agree with his attitude or not, he is a remarkable intellectual.

Augustinus, De Civitate Dei, 4.5

[V] …. Hoc dico, quod ipsum Romanum imperium iam magnum multis gentibus subiugatis ceterisque terribile, acerbe sensit, grauiter timuit, non paruo negotio deuitandae ingentis cladis oppressit, quando paucissimi gladiatores in Campania de ludo fugientes magnum exercitum compararunt, tres duces habuerunt, Italiam latissime et crudelissime uastauerunt. Dicant, quis istos deus adiuuerit, ut ex paruo et contemptibili latrocinio peruenirent ad regnum tantis iam Romanis uiribus arcibusque metuendum. An quia non diu fuerunt, ideo diuinitus negabuntur adiuti? Quasi uero ipsa cuiuslibet hominis uita diuturna est. Isto ergo pacto neminem dii adiuuant ad regnandum, quoniam singuli quique cito moriuntur, nec beneficium deputandum est. quod exiguo tempore in unoquoque homine ac per hoc singillatim utique in omnibus uice uaporis euanescit. Quid enim interest eorum, qui sub Romulo deos coluerunt et olim sunt mortui, quod post eorum mortem Romanum tantum creuit imperium, cum illi apud inferos causas suas agant? utrum bonas an malas, ad rem praesentem non pertinet. Hoc autem de omnibus intellegendum est, qui per ipsum imperium (quamuis decedentibus succedentibusque mortalibus in longa spatia protendatur) paucis diebus uitae suae cursim raptimque transierunt, actuum suorum sarcinas baiulantes. Sin uero etiam ipsa breuissimi temporis beneficia deorum adiutorio tribuenda sunt, non parum adiuti sunt illi gladiatores: seruilis condicionis uincla ruperunt, fugerunt, euaserunt, exercitum magnum et fortissimum collegerunt, oboedientes regum suorum consiliis et iussis multum Romanae celsitudini metuendi et aliquot Romanis imperatoribus insuperabiles multa ceperunt, potiti sunt uictoriis plurimis, usi uoluptatibus quibus uoluerunt, quod suggessit libido fecerunt, postremo donec uinceretur, quod difficillime factum est, sublimes regnantesque uixerunt. Sed ad maiora ueniamus.

Hoc dico: I mention that

multis gentibus subiugatis multis gentibus subiugatis ceterisque terribile: having subdued many nations and dreadful for others. (ceterisque terribile is not part of the abl. abs.)

sensit: experienced

acerbe… oppressit: note the asyndetic  construction

negotium: difficulty

deuitandae ingentis cladis: for/regarding (gen.obj.) the enormous disaster to be avoided

ludum: school (for gladiators)

comparo: to gather

tres duces: Spartacus, Crixus and Oenomaus

latissime: widely

vasto: to ravage, devastate

dicant: let people tell (i.e. those who believed that the disasters were the result of abandoning the Roman gods))

adiuvo adjuvi adiutum (-are): to help

latrocinium: band of robbers

arx arcis (f.): stronghold

divinitus (adv.) in a divine way

diuturnus: long-lasting

isto ergo pacto: this being thus agreed (that people don’t live long)

singuli quique: every single person

nec beneficium deputandum est: gaining power (ad regnandum) is not to be regarded as a benefit (because those who have can only shortly enjoy this)

quod (beneficium)

exiguus: little

ac per hoc singillatim utique in omnibus: and through this one by one (living a short time) finally in all men

vice (+ gen.): like

cum illi apud inferos causas suas agant: when they are pleading their causes amongst the dead (note the sarcasm concerning the Roman predilection of juridical procedures)

utrum bonas an malas (causas)

decedentibus succedentibusque mortalibus: while mortals are deceasing and following

protendo protendi protensum/tum: to prolong, extend

cursim raptimque: hastily and speedily

actuum suorum sarcinas baiulantes: carrying the burden of their affairs

adiutorio tribuenda sunt: are to be acknowledged as help

rumpo rupi ruptum: to break

regum suorum: the three leaders mentioned above

Romanae celsitudini: by the Roman highness (celsitudo is mockingly used)

potior potitus (+ gen., acc. or abl.): to acquire, gain

uoluptatibus quibus = uoluptatibus, quas (attraction of case)

sublimes regnantesque: `luxurious and as kings’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus

Translation by Marcus Dods (1913)

But this I say, that the Roman empire, which by subduing many nations had already grown great and an object of universal dread, was itself greatly alarmed, and only with much difficulty avoided a disastrous overthrow, because a mere handful of gladiators in Campania, escaping from the games, had recruited a great army, appointed three generals, and most widely and cruelly devastated Italy. Let them say what god aided these men, so that from a small and contemptible band of robbers they attained to a kingdom, feared even by the Romans, who had such great forces and fortresses. Or will they deny that they were divinely aided because they did not last long? As if, indeed, the life of any man whatever lasted long. In that case, too, the gods aid no one to reign, since all individuals quickly die; nor is sovereign power to be reckoned a benefit, because in a little time in every man, and thus in all of them one by one, it vanishes like a vapor. For what does it matter to those who worshipped the gods under Romulus, and are long since dead, that after their death the Roman empire has grown so great, while they plead their causes before the powers beneath? Whether those causes are good or bad, it matters not to the question before us. And this is to be understood of all those who carry with them the heavy burden of their actions, having in the few days of their life swiftly and hurriedly passed over the stage of the imperial office, although the office itself has lasted through long spaces of time, being filled by a constant succession of dying men. If, however, even those benefits which last only for the shortest time are to be ascribed to the aid of the gods, these gladiators were not a little aided, who broke the bonds of their servile condition, fled, escaped, raised a great and most powerful army, obedient to the will and orders of their chiefs and much feared by the Roman majesty, and remaining unsubdued by several Roman generals, seized many places, and, having won very many victories, enjoyed whatever pleasures they wished, and did what their lust suggested, and, until at last they were conquered, which was done with the utmost difficulty, lived sublime and dominant. But let us come to greater matters.

Augustine on the horror of beating schoolboys.

Last week I visited a befriended couple with 3 young children. I played some game with the daughter of 3 and a half and of course I lost because we had to play according to her rules. A set of rules within a restricted area of time and/or place is called a game or play. Not only within games or sports we have such rules, but also outside those fields. In 1938 the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga published his study Homo Ludens, in which he gave a description of play as an element of culture. To be sure: he did not mean sports or game, but the concept of play self as constituent. For instance, negotiations between states have an element of play or the way a judge and lawyers behave in a court case. Huizinga was initially trained as a Sanskrit scholar and was well aware of the role of play and gambling in the Mahabharata and his dissertation was about the role of the vidusaka (jester) in Sanskrit drama, so his interest in the concept of play may have originated in his initial Ausbilding.

Within a different context St Augustine too pointed to the concept of play in culture, but for him man was a homo peccans and play is all that which distracts the soul away from God.  He recalls that as a child he was punished for playing rather than studying. As O’Connel remarks in his online commentary on the Confessiones, it never occurs to Augustine that the child's idleness could be anything but culpable. The focus and the implementation are different, but Augustine draws the same parallel as Huizinga. But where for Huizinga ludere is a positive constituent of culture, it is for Augustine something reprehensible. But if reprehensible, how should a teacher deal with it? Augustine deeply condemns the way teachers dealt with playful children: namely by hard punishment. Being far from a saintly schoolboy, he often had to suffer such punishments. He felt such punishments were unjust because adults often acted in the same way as children, but they called it differently: `maiorum nugae negotia vocantur’ (the trifles of adults are called business). Indeed he himself bemoans that he too used what he had learnt as a kind of play while teaching rhetoric before he turned to religion.

The first sentence is a bit complicated, both in grammar and chain of thought. Clearly it is an emotional outcry. The idea is I think thus: is there someone who out of a deep love (praegrandi affectu ) for God considers instruments of torture as little and at the same time loves those who fear such instruments?  How is it than that our parents laugh at us when we are beaten up by teachers, when at the same time they fear torture from the state when brought to court?

In the final sentence Augustine points to the fact that adults show the same emotions when they lose a some trifle dispute as he felt when beaten at some ball game. In his critique of corporeal punishment of children as a pedagogical mean Augustine was ways ahead of his time.

Augustinus Confessiones, 1.9.15

estne quisquam, domine, tam magnus animus, praegrandi affectu tibi cohaerens, estne, inquam, quisquam - facit enim hoc quaedam etiam stoliditas - est ergo, qui tibi pie cohaerendo ita sit affectus granditer, ut eculeos et ungulas atque huiuscemodi varia tormenta (pro quibus effugiendis tibi per universas terras cum timore magno supplicatur) ita parvi aestimet, diligens eos qui haec acerbissime formidant, quemadmodum parentes nostri ridebant tormenta quibus pueri a magistris affligebamur? non enim aut minus ea metuebamus aut minus te de his evadendis deprecabamur, et peccabamus tamen minus scribendo aut legendo aut cogitando de litteris quam exigebatur a nobis. non enim deerat, domine, memoria vel ingenium, quae nos habere voluisti pro illa aetate satis, sed delectabat ludere et vindicabatur in nos ab eis qui talia utique agebant. sed maiorum nugae negotia vocantur, puerorum autem talia cum sint, puniuntur a maioribus, et nemo miseratur pueros vel illos vel utrosque. nisi vero approbat quisquam bonus rerum arbiter vapulasse me, quia ludebam pila puer et eo ludo impediebar quominus celeriter discerem litteras, quibus maior deformius luderem. aut aliud faciebat idem ipse a quo vapulabam, qui si in aliqua quaestiuncula a condoctore suo victus esset, magis bile atque invidia torqueretur quam ego, cum in certamine pilae a conlusore meo superabar?

animus: person

praegrandis: huge

stoliditas –atis (f.): dullness, stubbornness (post cl. Latin word)

sit affectus granditer: in such an exalted mood

eculeus: a wooden rack in the shape of a horse

ungula: a claw to tear the skin open

supplico: beseech, beg

dilligens: concessive `though he loves’ (some translations follow the reading deridens, found in one manuscript. Unfortunately all English online translations do.)

acerbissime: most strongly

formido: to fear

quemadmodum: as for instance

te…deprecabamur:  we (as children) beseeched you

quam exigebatur a nobis: than was demanded from us

pro illa aetate satis:  enough for that age

delectabat: impersonal `it delighted’

vindicabatur in nos ab eis qui talia utique agebant:  we were punished by those who did  surely the same things (vindicabatur: impersonal construction)

vapulo: to be flogged (note that this word is passive in English!)

pila: ball

impedior: to hamper

quibus maior deformius luderem: by which as adult I used to play in a scandalous way

idem ipse: the very same

quaestiuncula: a question of no importance

condoctor: fellow teacher (late Latin)

bilis –is (f.): bile, anger

 

Drawing after a fresco at Herculaneum of a boy being punished at a school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Ludens