The City of God stands as Augustine's masterwork of theological defense and construction, written over thirteen years in response to accusations that Christianity brought ruin upon Rome. This first volume contains the first ten books of sustained refutation—demolishing pagan claims that traditional worship secured either temporal prosperity or eternal happiness—followed by the beginning of his positive vision in Books Eleven through Thirteen, where he traces the origin of two societal orders to the primordial division among the angels. What emerges is not merely an apology for Christianity but a philosophy of history that subordinate the fate of empires to the hidden providence of the one true God, whose sovereignty extends from creation through the fall to the final judgment.
He contrasts the Greek and Roman attitudes toward these performances to expose a logical inconsistency in the pagan position. The Greeks, believing that the gods loved the plays, honored the actors and even admitted them to offices of state, as in the case of Æschines and Aristodemus. The ancient Romans, however, possessed a greater sense of dignity regarding themselves than regarding their gods; they forbade poets from satirizing living citizens under penalty of death, yet allowed the gods to be lampooned without interference. Augustine argues that the Romans were inconsistent in degrading the actors while preserving the plays. If the plays are an honor due to the gods, then the actors who perform them should be honored; if the actors are infamous, then the gods who demand such service should be despised. He formulates this into a clear syllogism: The Greeks provide the major premise—if such gods are to be worshipped, then such men (the actors) may be honored. The Romans provide the minor—such men must by no means be honored. The Christian draws the conclusion—therefore, such gods must by no means be worshipped. This logical structure demonstrates the inherent absurdity of pagan worship.
Augustine heightens this contrast by comparing Plato with the pagan gods. Plato, in framing his ideal republic, banished poets entirely to prevent the depravity of the citizens and the besotting of their minds by fictions. He strove, though unsuccessfully, to persuade the Greeks to abstain from writing such plays. The pagan gods, conversely, used their authority to extort the acting of these same plays from the Romans, demanding that their own disgrace be celebrated in their honor. Augustine asks whether it is more becoming for a state to decree divine honors to Plato, who prohibited licentious plays, or to the demons who delighted in them. He notes that the laws of Rome, which prohibited actors from civic honors and even erased their names from the tribal rolls, actually surpassed the morality of the gods they worshipped, revealing the absurdity of expecting moral guidance from such deities. If the Romans had the sagacity to exclude players from their citizenship, why did they not also exclude the gods who commanded the plays? Their inconsistency betrays a deeper servitude to demonic deception.
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