Concordia as an historiographical principle in Sallust and Augustine
Abstract
This dissertation is a study in the use of the political concept of concordia in the writings of the Roman historian Sallust, and how his ideas about concordia were adopted and adapted by the foremost Latin Father of the Church, Augustine. Concordia formed a category in Sallust's thought so central as to manifest itself at all levels of his literary endeavor, from the syntactical level of style, to the larger arrangement of his narrative, and ultimately to the unifying principle of his works' themes. Thus it constitutes an historiographical principle in his works. These ideas, however, differ from those of Cicero on the same subject. Regarding Augustine, in his greatest work, De Civitate Dei, the bishop of Hippo Regius employed a distinctly Sallustian use of the concept of concordia. Additionally, in connection with the complicated relationship between Cicero and Sallust, the old contention between these two Republican authors takes on a new dimension in the writings of Augustine in his rejection of the Ciceronian definition of the state in preference for one derived from Sallust, based on concordia.
Subject Area
Classical literature|Classical Studies|Theology
Recommended Citation
Keil, Matthew Adam, "Concordia as an historiographical principle in Sallust and Augustine" (2015). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3715374.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3715374
