The City of God
Augustine begins composing City of God
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The project that became twenty-two books started from private letters about whether Christian teaching was compatible with governing a Roman state.
412 or 413
At Hippo Regius in Roman North Africa, Bishop Augustine began the work that became De civitate Dei. Modern datings vary: the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy dates the beginning to 412, while James O’Donnell places the first three books between late 412 and September 413.
No source records a particular day on which Augustine began writing, so 413 is a conventional date rather than a securely witnessed starting year.
His age is not secure either. Augustine was born on 13 November 354, so he was 58 through most of 413 and may well have begun the work at 58.
What Marcellinus asked for
The immediate project answered arguments circulating after Rome’s sack in 410 — especially claims that Christian teaching, or the abandonment of Rome’s gods, had harmed the Roman state.
Marcellinus, an imperial commissioner, relayed those objections and asked Augustine to produce books addressing them; Augustine later described City of God as fulfilling a promise made to him.
The Roman aristocrat Volusianus supplied questions about Christianity and government that helped define the controversy Augustine set out to answer.
Out in installments
By 1 September 413 Augustine had completed at least Books 1 to 3.
He sent those books to Macedonius, vicar of Africa, and individual books or installments began circulating. Within months the work was already public in Roman Africa and had reached senior officials.
It was issued piecemeal rather than released as a single book, and its eventual twenty-two-book form was still more than a decade away.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 3 sources not yet audited Date disputed
How this was checked
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Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~0412.
What the sources leave uncertain
- No source records a particular day on which Augustine began writing.
- O’Donnell places the first three books between late 412 and September 413; the Stanford Encyclopedia dates the beginning to 412. Thus 413 is a conventional date, not a securely witnessed starting year.
- The listed age of 59 is not secure. Augustine was born on 13 November 354, so he was 58 through most of 413 and may have begun the work while 58.