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Book XIV 1:1Antiquities of the JewsWe have related the affairs of queen Alexandra, and her death, in the foregoing book and will now speak of what followed, and was connected with those histories; declaring, before we proceed, that we have nothing so much at heart as this, that we may omit no facts, either through ignorance or laziness; 1 for we are upon the history and explication of such things as the greatest part are unacquainted withal, because of their distance from our times; and we aim to do it with a proper beauty of style, so far as that is derived from proper words harmonically disposed, and from such ornaments of speech also as may contribute to the pleasure of our readers, that they may entertain the knowledge of what we write with some agreeable satisfaction and pleasure. But the principal scope that authors ought to aim at above all the rest, is to speak accurately, and to speak truly, for the satisfaction of those that are otherwise unacquainted with such transactions, and obliged to believe what these writers inform them of.Confessions · Book 9 1:3Augustine of HippoHe speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death of his friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of having received baptism in the thirty-third year of his age; and of the virtues and death of his mother, Monica.Confessions · Book 9 14:5Augustine of Hippo37. May she therefore rest in peace with her husband, before or after whom she married none; whom she obeyed, with patience bringing forth fruit unto Thee, that she might gain him also for Thee. And inspire, O my Lord my God, inspire Thy servants my brethren, Thy sons my masters, who with voice and heart and writings I serve, that so many of them as shall read these confessions may at Thy altar remember Monica, Thy handmaid, together with Patricius, her sometime husband, by whose flesh Thou introducedst me into this life, in what manner I know not. May they with pious affection be mindful of my parents in this transitory light, of my brethren that are under Thee our Father in our Catholic mother, and of my fellow-citizens in the eternal Jerusalem, which the wandering of Thy people sigheth for from their departure until their return. That so my mother's last entreaty to me may, through my confessions more than through my prayers, be more abundantly fulfilled to her through the prayers of many.Life of St Augustine · Translator's introduction 3:16PossidiusAurelius Augustinus was born at Tagaste in Numidia on November 13, 354, about seven years after Chrysostom and fourteen after Jerome and Ambrose. After spending a free and careless boyhood at Tagaste, he pursued the usual course of grammar and rhetoric at Madaura and Carthage and afterward taught for a short time in his native town. In 374 he returned to Carthage and taught rhetoric for nine years. During this period he became deeply interested in Manichaeanism, merely as an auditor, however, and not as one of the electi. It was here he met the famous Manichaean teacher Faustus from whom he expected much, but soon found that, despite his gorgeous rhetoric, he was unable to answer any searching questions. Dissatisfied with his life at Carthage and seeking a larger career, he went to Rome. Moreover he had heard that the students of Rome were better behaved than those at Carthage. |8 Among the latter were those known as eversores, who went about in groups, broke into classes, overthrew the benches and provoked disorder in general. So in spite of the tearful entreaties of his mother Monica, he evaded her and by night secretly took ship for Italy. However, when he arrived in Rome he soon discovered that while his students kept better order, they had a custom which was to prove most annoying to him. For after they had attended his classes a while they would go off to another teacher and leave their fees unpaid. Accordingly when the way was opened for him to teach in Milan he went there without delay.Life of St Augustine · Translator's introduction 3:19PossidiusAugustine's father Patricius was a man of curial rank in rather humble circumstances. He was of a somewhat coarse and sensual temper, given to occasional fits of anger, but generally easy-going. He was anxious that his son should distinguish himself as a lawyer and even borrowed money to enable him to study at Carthage. Aside from this, however, Patricius seems to have paid little heed to his welfare and training. He had not been a Christian up to the time of his son's departure for Carthage, but through the influence of his wife Monica became a catechumen about the year 370 and was baptized shortly before his death in the following year.Life of St Augustine · Translator's introduction 3:20PossidiusMonica, the mother of Augustine, is forever revered in Christian history. Augustine was not ignorant of her religion, |9 for she had trained him in his childhood, but it soon slipped from his memory when he went away to school. From this time to his conversion in 387, while he was trying one philosophy after another, Monica did not cease to hope and pray that her son would yet become a Christian, though she was at one time unwilling to have him with her in the house because of his outspoken contempt for the Christian faith. He says that she wept more bitterly over his spiritual death than other mothers over the bodily death of their children. When, in spite of her entreaties, he stole away and took ship for Italy, she would not leave him but followed all the way to Milan, where she constantly attended the sermons of the statesman-bishop Ambrose. With Augustine's conversion her mission on earth was ended and she saw nothing of his later far-reaching influence, for she died at Ostia in the fall of that same year. Augustine's tribute to his mother is one of the most perfect and touching in literature.Life of St Augustine · Translator's introduction 3:23PossidiusIn speaking of Augustine's friends we mean only the most intimate. They are to be found in two groups, the earlier at the Villa of Cassiciacum, near Milan, to which Augustine and his friends retired during the months immediately preceding his baptism, and the later group at Hippo. Chief among these friends was his fellow-townsman and life-long companion Alypius, who accompanied him through the years of uncertainty at Carthage and Milan and faithfully reflected each of Augustine's changes of faith. After living with Augustine in the monastery at Hippo for several years, he became bishop of his native town Tagaste. The group at Cassiciacum was small and most intimate, consisting of Monica, who not infrequently took part in the debate, Adeodatus, Navigius, Alypius., the two cousins Lastidianus and Rusticus mentioned above, and two pupils, Trygetius and Licentius, a son of his former patron Romanianus. They spent the time studying and discussing questions of religion and philosophy. The other circle of friends which calls for special mention is found in the monastery at Hippo. Here Possidius and others first appear in Augustine's life. Their intimate manner of life is described |11 by Possidius and even more satisfactorily in two of Augustine's sermons.Inferno 20:10The Divine ComedyBy a thousand springs, I think, and more, is bathed,
’Twixt Garda and Val Camonica, Pennino,
With water that grows stagnant in that lake.
Midway a place is where the Trentine Pastor,
And he of Brescia, and the Veronese
Might give his blessing, if he passed that way.
Sitteth Peschiera, fortress fair and strong,
To front the Brescians and the Bergamasks,
Where round about the bank descendeth lowest.April 9:11The Roman MartyrologyAt Rome is commemorated the translation of the body of holy Monica, mother of the blessed Augustine, Bishop [of Hippo,] which the supreme Pontiff Martin V caused to be brought into the city from Ostia, and honourably buried in the church of the said blessed Augustine, [in the year 1439.]May 14:1The Roman MartyrologyOn the morrow we keep the feast of the holy Monica, the mother of blessed Augustine, to whose illustrious life he hath left unto us his witness in the 9th Book of his Confessions, and of whom mention is made upon the 4th day of this present month of May.May 4:2The Roman MartyrologyAt Ostia, that is the mouth of the Tiber, [in the year 387,] the holy Monica, the mother of blessed Augustine, as to whose illustrious life he hath left unto us his witness in the ninth book of his Confessions, and of whom we keep feast on the 14th