Augustine and the Latin Classics. Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia XX:I. / Vol. I. Testimonia.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - altersgem�sehr guter Zustand / very good condition for age - INTRODUCTION -- This is a work of philological research on Augustine�s knowledge and use of profane Latin literature. I should like to lay stress on the limitation implied in the title. It is beyond my scope to enter upon a discussion of theological and philosophical questions, unless they are so connected with the subject as to make a reference indispensable. -- A few words must be added to explain why only the Latin classics will be considered here. The situation to-day is not the same as it was nearly 40 years ago when Gustave Combes published his book Saint Augustin et la culture classique (Paris 1927), which is still the only general survey existent on the subject. Since then Augustine�s knowledge of Greek and Greek authors has been examined most thoroughly, above all by Pierre Courcelle in a masterly chapter (p. 137�194) in Les lettres grecques en occident (2e ed. Paris 1948). Thanks to Courcelle and other scholars there is no doubt whatever that for the greater part of his literary activity Augustine did not possess a working knowledge of Greek which would enable him to read the authors in the original; only in his old age does he seem to have managed to get on with a Greek text. The Neo- Platonists were known to him principally through Latin translations, Plato�s Timaeus and Aristotle�s Categories only through Cicero�s and Marius Victorinus� translations. He never read any of the great classical authors in the original; what he knew of earlier Greek philosophy was due to intermediary Latin sources (Cicero, Varro, Apuleius). -- Thus Augustine�s culture was from beginning to end almost exclusively Latin. As a student and teacher of rhetoric he lived, up to the age of 32, in the literary tradition cherished in the pagan school in the West; it formed his intellect and left too deep an impression for it ever to be obliterated.