ABSTRACT
Saint Augustine was well aware of both the pagan belief in "eternal Rome" and the eschatological speculations of his fellow-Christians. The denial of the pagan belief in the eternity of Rome and the rejection of any connection between Christian eschatology and specific historical events occupy, however, only a rather minor place in the whole context of The City of God. But many Christians showed them willing to go even farther and actually hoped and prayed for the continuance of the Roman Empire. This affirmative attitude grew out of certain historical and eschatological ideas which went back to both pagan and Jewish traditions. The accusation was very old that Christianity was responsible for the miseries of the world. To Augustine the truly problematic and the most objectionable theory of history must have been a conception which may be called "the Christian idea of progress".
