ABSTRACT

Augustine’s birthplace was the small, traditionally Berber town of Thagaste (modern Souk Ahras) in the Eastern part of Numidia. His father, Patrick, belonged to that class of modest landowners who were permanently impoverished by the enormous tax burdens imposed by the emperor, which, as a town councillor (decurion or curiale) he was either obliged to collect from peasant tenants (coloni) or pay himself (see Chapter 1 of this volume). Patrick obviously entertained higher aspirations for his son and was aware that the best means to advance his prospects was to ensure that he obtained that universally recognized, exclusive and distinguishing marker of social prestige and office: a traditional Roman education. This began with the school of grammar in Thagaste where he would have learnt to read a text and study the disciplines of the liberal arts, and then, thanks to a wealthy patron, he went to the school of rhetoric, the art of public speaking, at Madura and Carthage.