ABSTRACT
The author of this Life, the deacon Paulinus, asserts at the very beginning of his work that he wrote it at the urging of Augustine, who owed his conversion at least in part to Ambrose’s preaching and who regarded the Bishop of Milan with the profoundest respect. Paulinus knew Ambrose personally, as we learn from various passages in the Life, and he probably became acquainted with Augustine when he moved to Africa after Ambrose’s death. Scholars differ as to whether the text should be dated to 412-13 or to 422, based on certain internal evidence, although the earlier date seems convincing at present. For all its faults, it still provides useful information, and it also allows us some experience of Ambrose’s posthumous reputation; the very fact that Ambrose had a biographer at all is telling in itself.
