Quidam Cicero : the indebtedness of Augustine’s doctor Christianus to Cicero’s orator
Uroš Franja Rajčević
Central European University: MA Thesis in Medieval Studies, Budapast, May (2010)
Abstract
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.
A passage like this – the even-tempered narration written with a sort of simple candour – could easily have been written by Augustine if he had been born in another time. The power of Augustine’s works has fascinated people – scholars and laymen – from the time they were first published. The unusual nature of his Confessions – an autobiography of Augustine’s soul – added to his fame during his lifetime (whether the work was praised or snubbed). The authority of Augustine as one of the foremost Fathers of the Latin Church, coupled with a special place in the heart of his readers which his words engender, have made of him a person who was (and still is being) investigated more than any other figure from late antiquity.
Quidam Cicero : the indebtedness of Augustine’s doctor Christianus to Cicero’s orator
Uroš Franja Rajčević
Central European University: MA Thesis in Medieval Studies, Budapast, May (2010)
Abstract
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.
A passage like this – the even-tempered narration written with a sort of simple candour – could easily have been written by Augustine if he had been born in another time. The power of Augustine’s works has fascinated people – scholars and laymen – from the time they were first published. The unusual nature of his Confessions
– an autobiography of Augustine’s soul – added to his fame during his lifetime (whether the work was praised or snubbed). The authority of Augustine as one of the foremost Fathers of the Latin Church, coupled with a special place in the heart of his readers which his words engender, have made of him a person who was (and still is being) investigated more than any other figure from late antiquity.
Click here to read this thesis from Central European University
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