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"For you are not to suppose, brethren, that heresies could be produced through any little souls. None, save great men have been the authors of heresies." Saint Augustine (354-430)


Augustinus Hipponensis is always wonderful and interesting. He became such a wonderful source of wisdom because he knew most things through experience. He was exhausted by experience. Before becoming a Christian he went through painful processes of doubt and as a Christian he performed a transvaluation of all values while writing "De civitate Dei".


His book "Confessiones" maybe the first european biography. Or even the first biography we have knowledge of all over the world.


Here you can find part of his writings


Before all this occured he lived a life of passion and sexual debauchery. But he became bishop by acclamation.


The transvaluation of all - or nearly all - important values is the quality which distinguishes every great heretic. The values do net get put upside down, they only get turned for some degree. It is our position and angle of view which is changing. The degree of gyration (and tournament) depends on our distance from everyday values...


It is a fascinating experience to read Homer and Vergil with empathy and the desire to understand the mentality of the epoch. Even more fascinating is reading then Augustinus's detailed efforts of "scientific" confutation. He systematically tries to confute the creeds, certainties, fears, awes and fulfillments represented by the descriptions of Vergil, the whole mentality, the whole ethnographic picture. He starts with an analysis of what happens during the sack of Troy and what had recently (410 p.C.) happened during a sack in Rome. Disasters usually become the starting point of a big transition! Auschwitz has become as unforgettable as Moses and therefore will continue to stimulate thaughts and, more than this, feelings (notwithstanding the jews undefatigably are getting tired of reminding us that one might forget Auschwitz). Per disastra ad disaspera!


One must not make the error to consider Augustinus simpleminded since he compares a work of fiction (Aeneis) with reality. Augustinus simply used one of the best texts on reality which then were existing. I myself consider Goethe's Faust today more pointful than the latest and most brilliant psycologic insights (including the ridiculous cognizances of Deutsche Hirnforschung), allthough I know that after Auschwitz the Faust has partly lost its once "timeless" validity and a new transvaluating chef oevre has still to arise.


Augustinus new the meaning of poiesis and was a master of the word and a poet of existence.



The Sack of Rome in 410 was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to non-Romans. The Germanic tribes had been growing stronger for a long time, uniting in fear of renewed attacks by their Roman enemy. However, in the late 4th century, the Huns began to overrun East Germanic territories. The Gothic Greuthungs under Ermanaric lost their empire centred in the northern Black Sea region with vassals as far east as the Ural Mountains. Many Gothic Thervings, led by Fritigern, tried to enter Roman service in order to escape the fate of their eastern neighbours.


A peace was forged in 382, in which the new Eastern Emperor, Theodosius I, signed a treaty with these Goths (later known as the Visigoths). Soon Alaric was rising through the Visigothic ranks. He accompanied Theodosius' army invading the West in 394, where, at the Battle of the Frigidus, around half the Visigoths present died fighting the Western Roman army. Theodosius won the battle, but Alaric was likely convinced by this point that the Romans sought to weaken the Goths by making them bear the brunt of warfare, in anticipation of a day when the Goths were weak enough to be completely subjugated.


Alaric made several attempts at invading Italy, but was halted by Stilicho and decisively defeated at the Battle of Pollentia and later in the Battle of Verona. In time, he became an ally of Stilicho, agreeing to help reclaim Illyricum for the Western Empire.


In 408, Emperor Arcadius died after a short illness, and Honorius wanted to journey East to settle the succession of the Eastern Empire. Stilicho forbade it and suggested that he shoud go instead. Rumor spread that Stilicho wanted to place his son on the Eastern throne. Soon after, a mutiny of the army was staged by Olympius, a Roman bureaucrat, wherein most of Stilicho's appointees were killed. Having persuaded Honorius that Stilicho was an enemy of the state, Olympius was appointed Magister Officium. Stilicho, who was taking refuge in a church, was arrested and executed. These events were followed by more violence on the part of the Roman army, this time aimed at the Germanic population. Around 30,000 escaped Italy and fled to Alaric's banner, giving him a massive army with which to force a deal out of the Romans.


The Visigoths soon invaded Italy and followed suit with Rome, laying siege to the city in late 408.


http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weströmisches_Reich


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Roman_Empire