ABSTRACT
The personality of Saint Augustine, one of the most attractive in the history of thought, has cast a spell over thousands who have neither the capacity nor the inclination to study his writings on theology. Five years later he was sent to Carthage, where, assisted financially by a wealthy patron named Romanianus, he took a course in Rhetoric, a subject then considered as useful to an enterprising young man as Social Science or Economics is today. Carthage was the metropolis. Attracted by its wealthy, colourful, and by no means straitlaced society, Augustine at once fell a victim to its allurements. Installed at Milan, where his mother soon joined him, Augustine came into contact with one of the most influential figures of the age, Bishop Ambrose, who, after Monica herself, was the first upright Christian he had known. He went into retirement in the country to make himself ready for baptism, Ambrose giving him the advice he needed.
