ABSTRACT
Quite often, the works of antiquity come down to us under titles that have little or nothing to do with their authors. They have gained their title from a shorthand reference in common usage, perhaps, or a helpful scribe has supplied it at some stage of the string of hand-copied texts through which the work has survived. But in the case of the Confessions, we can be confident that the title was Augustine’s own. We have already seen the way in which he refers to the work in the Revisions: ‘The thirteen books of my Confessions’ (though of course, the italics are added by modern editors: we could just as well read, ‘The thirteen books of my confessions’). The motif of confession is woven in throughout the work. ‘Confess to you I will, Lord of heaven and earth’ (1.6.10). ‘Accept the sacrifice of my confessions’ (5.1.1). ‘May the last request [my mother] made of me be granted to her more abundantly by the prayers of many, evoked by my confessions, than by my prayers alone’ (9.13.37).
