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.
The portent of the weeping statue of Apollo at Cumae receives similar treatment. During Rome’s’ war with Aristonicus, this image was said to have shed tears for four days. Pagan interpreters, scrambling to find a favorable meaning, claimed Apollo wept not for Rome but for Greece, his homeland, which would suffer from Roman victory. Augustine finds this interpretation damning rather than comforting. A god who can only weep passively at impending disaster, who possesses no power to prevent or alter the course of events, is no god at all. Such behavior fits the pattern of the demons described by the poets—beings who observe human suffering with impotent grief but cannot intervene to help their worshippers.
Augustine turns to the reign of Numa Pompilius, often cited as evidence that proper worship of the gods brings peace and prosperity. The forty years of tranquility during Numa’s rule supposedly resulted from his establishment of numerous religious rites and his devotion to the gods. Augustine questions this causal connection. If the gods granted peace as a reward for Numa’s innovations, why did they never grant similar peace during later periods when these same rites had been long established and the pantheon vastly expanded? The gates of Janus, closed throughout Numa’s reign, remained open for nearly all of Rome’s subsequent history. This suggests that Numa’s peace resulted not from divine favor but from the disposition of Rome’s neighbors, who simply chose not to attack during those years. The gods cannot claim credit for a tranquility they did not bestow and could not replicate.
The multiplication of deities in subsequent centuries further demonstrates the futility of pagan worship. Rome imported gods from every conquered people—the Great Mother from Pessinus, Aesculapius from Epidaurus, and countless others from Egypt, Greece, and the East. Augustine observes the absurd logic: Rome believed that as her empire expanded, she required more gods to protect it, as if a larger ship needs a larger crew. But if any single god possessed genuine power, one would suffice; if many are needed, it proves that none possesses adequate strength. The arrival of each new deity coincided not with increased security but with escalating calamities. Aesculapius, imported as a healer during a plague, failed to prevent subsequent pestilences. The Great Mother, installed with great ceremony, brought no improvement to Rome’s fortunes. The cloud of deities surrounding the city offered no more protection than the smoke rising from their altars.
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