A Timeline from Plato to Augustine

428 BCE

Plato is born in Athens.

388 BCE

Plato's Meno and Theaetetus are published.

360 BCE

Plato's Statesman is published.

Plato's Statesman, or Politicus, is a dialogue between Socrates and the mathematician Theodorus. In this text, Socrates and Theodores try to define what a "statesman" is. The text also "offers a transitional statement of Plato's political philosophy between the Republic and the Laws (Gill). In section 273 of Statesman, Plato connects the ideas of "sinking" and "destruction," two ideas which will remain linked in Plotinus' Enneads and Augustine's Confessions.

3rd C. BCE

Work on the Septuagint begins.

The Septuagint (LXX) is a Koine Greek translation of Torah. The translation for the Septuagint began in the third century BCE and was completed about 150 years later. It is rumored that seventy Jewish scholars produced the translation, hence the title "Septuagint" from the Latin "septuaginta."

Augustine recounts this traditional story of the translation of the Septuagint in City of God 18.42:

"When the high priest had sent [the Scriptures] to [Philadephus, a Ptolemy] in Hebrew, he afterwards demanded interpreters of him, and there were given him seventy-two, out of each of the twelve tribes six men, most learned in both languages, to wit, the Hebrew and the Greek; and their translation is now by custom called the Septuagint" (Dods).

Has ei cum idem pontifex misisset Hebraeas, post ille etiam interpretes postulavit; et dati sunt septuaginta duo, de singulis duodecim tribubus seni homines, linguae utriusque doctissimi Hebraeae scilicet atque Graecae, quorum interpretatio ut Septuaginta vocetur iam obtinuit consuetudo.

192 BCE

Septuagint is completed.

Augustine notes that after the completion of the Septuagint, there was also a "translation in the latin tongue, which the Latin churches use" (Dods, City of God 18.43). Here, Augustine refers to the Old Latin translation of the bible (Vetus Latina or Vetus Itala), but later references Jerome's Vulgate, which had been completed a few years before Augustine published City of God. According to Augustine, Jerome and any other translator working with the Hebrew text ought to "agree with these seventy translators, and if he is found not to agree with them, then we ought to belive that the prophetic gift is with [the seventy translators]" (Dods, City of God 18.43).

108

Arrian writes down Epictetus' Discourses.

The teachings of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus (50-135) were written down by his student Arrian in the beginning of the second century. Only four of the eight books survived to modern day. In the fragments that remain is a preface written by Arrian in which he writes:

I neither composed the Discourses of Epictetus in such a manner as things of this nature are commonly composed, nor did I myself produce them to public view, any more than I composed them. But whatever sentiments I heard from his own mouth, the very same I endeavored to set down in the very same words, so far as possible, and to preserve as memorials for my own use, of his manner of thinking, and freedom of speech (Higginson).

c. 234

Porphyry is born in Tyre.

Porphyry, a Neoplatonic philosopher, is well known for compiling and publishing Plotinus' Enneads. Porphyry also wrote several Sententiae which summarize his views on Neoplatonism, as well as On Abstinence from Animal Food, a treatise On the Homeric Cave of the Nymphs, and Auxiliaries to the Perception of Intelligible Natures.

c. 270

Plotinus dies.
Plotinus' Enneads are published.

Plotinus' Enneads are compiled, edited, and published by his student Porphyry. Porphyry's edition of the Enneads is ordered by how Porphyry thought one should study the texts, not in the order that Plotinus wrote them. Porphyry also separated and joined pieces of Plotinus' text to create the fifty-four extant treatises.

c. 300

Codex Vaticanus is written.

The Codex Vaticanus, written between 300 and 325, is one the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek bible. Preserved in the Vatican Library since the fifteenth century, it is one of the four great uncial codices. This codex contains a virtually complete copy of the Septuagint. While very similar to the text of the Septuagint, this codex differs significantly from Erasmus' sixteenth century Textus Receptus, the text used as the basis for both the German Luther and King James bibles.

Codex Sinaiticus written.

The Codex Sinaiticus ("The Sinai Book"), written between 300 and 350, is the earliest known complete copy of the New Testament. The text is in Koine Greek. This codex is named after Mount Sinai in Egypt, where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments.

305

Porphyry dies.

354

Augustine is born in Thagaste.

Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) was born on November 13, in Thagaste, a colony in North Africa where he began his linguistic education. His parents borrowed money from a relative to pay for his education; Augustine never denied that his family was not well off, admitting without shame that his cousins had "suffered not even a grammarian" (See Kaster in "Further Reading"). Although Augustine had other siblings, he was the only one educated. Augustine would remain in Africa, learning and teaching in both Thagaste and Carthage, until he left for Rome at age 28.

386

Augustine publishes Against the Academics.

In Against the Academics, a text often paired with The Teacher, Augustine offers a "theory of illumination to explain how knowledge is acquired" (King). This text is seen as a response to Plato's Meno and incorporates the tradition of academic skepticism which flourished in Augustine's time (See also: Augustine and Academic Skepticism by Blake Dutton and Peter King's introduction to his translation of Against the Academics)

Augustine writes On Order.

387-389

Augustine writes On the Customs of the Catholic Church.

On the Customs of the Catholic Church was published alongside another text, The Manichaean Way of Life. There is debate over how the titles of these works should be translated, with some believing the terms "way of life" and "customs" cannot properly convey the connotations of the Latin mores, which appears in the Latin title of the work (De moribus ecclesiae catholicae). Augustine mentions this work in his Retractions:

"When I was in Rome after my baptism, being unable to bear in silence the boastings of the Manichaeans about their false and fraudulent continence or abstinence, which, for the purpose of deceiving the uninstructed, they claim to be superior to that of true Christians, to whom they cannot be compared, I wrote two books, one on the way of life of the Catholic Church, and another on the way of life of the Manichaeans" (Retractions 1.7).

Augustine writes the first volume of On Free Choice of the Will.

On Free Choice of the Will was written in three volume, the first of which Augustine wrote in Rome after his baptism. It is part of the several texts Augustine wrote during this time against Manichaeism and encouraging academic scepticism.

Augustine writes On the Size of the Soul.

On the Size of the Soul is a dialogue between Evodius and Augustine in which Augustine discusses the qualities and the soul and writes that souls have no spatial dimensions.

Augustine writes The Teacher.

391-395

Augustine writes On the Usefulness of Believing.
Augustine writes the last two volumes of On Free Choice of the Will.

Having written the first volume of this text just after his baptism, Augustine completed the final two volumes after being ordained as a priest in Africa. In these two volumes, Augustine discusses what conditions are necessary for the existence of God.

397

Augustine writes his Confessions.

Augustine's Confessions serves as an autobiography while also outlining Augustine's beliefs and serving as an example to those who have yet to convert to Christianity. Originally titled Confessions in Thirteen Books, each book outlines a different section of Augustine's life, from his early eduction to his experience with the Manichees to his eventual conversion to Christianity. Augustine's example, both of writing an autobiography and his experience of religious conversion, influenced Christian writers throughout the Middle Ages.

The first three books of Augustine's De doctrina Christiana are published.

De doctrina Christiana, or On Christian Doctrine is a set of four books in which Augustine helps his reader understand how to teach the scriptures. Augustine challenges religious teachers to discover, teach, and defend scriptural truth. The first three books were published in 397, but the fourth book would not be published until 426.

Augustine writes Against Faustus the Manichee.

Augustine wrote his reply to Faustus the Manichaean after Faustus published an attack on orthodox Christian doctrine. The Gnostic Society Library does an excellent job providing context for this work:

Written about the year 400. [Faustus was undoubtedly the acutest, most determined and most unscrupulous opponent of orthodox Christianity in the age of Augustin. The occasion of Augustin's great writing against him was the publication of Faustus' attack on the Old Testament Scriptures, and on the New Testament so far as it was at variance with Manichaean error. Faustus seems to have followed in the footsteps of Adimantus, against whom Augustin had written some years before, but to have gone considerably beyond Adimantus in the recklessness of his statements. The incarnation of Christ, involving his birth from a woman, is one of the main points of attack. He makes the variations in the genealogical records of the Gospels a ground for rejecting the whole as spurious. He supposed the Gospels, in their present form, to be not the works of the Apostles, but rather of later Judaizing falsifiers. The entire Old Testament system he treats with the utmost contempt, blaspheming the Patriarchs, Moses, the Prophets, etc., on the ground of their private lives and their teachings. Most of the objections to the morality of the Old Testament that are now current were already familiarly used in the time of Augustin. Augustin's answers are only partially satisfactory, owing to his imperfect view of the relation of the old dispensation to the new; but in the age in which they were written they were doubtless very effective.

399

Augustine writes On the Nature of Good.

This text lays out Augustine's beliefs on human nature and the characteristics of free will. Augustine believed that humans (and the free will which they were given) are inclined towards goodness, and sin is an "abandonment of better things."

Augustine writes On the Trinity.

401

Augustine begins writing On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis.

Augustine began writing On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis in 401, but did not finish the work until 415. Augustine writes that the book of Genesis should not be interpreted literally if doing so would contradict scientific knowledge. He also argues the the creation of the universe was instantaneous, rather than taking place over seven days as is written in the book of Genesis. In the work, he writes:

With the scriptures it is a matter of treating about the faith. For that reason, as I have noted repeatedly, if anyone, not understanding the mode of divine eloquence, should find something about these matters [about the physical universe] in our books, or hear of the same from those books, of such a kind that it seems to be at variance with the perceptions of his own rational faculties, let him believe that these other things are in no way necessary to the admonitions or accounts or predictions of the scriptures. (Taylor, On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis 2.9).

406

Augustine writes his Sermon on John.

Augustine's Sermon on John is written in 124 Tracates, each with multiple sections. In them, Augustine comments on and interprets the gospel of John.

410

Augustine writes a letter replying to Consentius.

In this letter to Consentius, Augustine replies to spiritual questions that Consentius raised in his most recent letter. Notably, Augustine warns Consentius that neither faith nor reason should be scorned, a theme present in many of Augustine's writings, and quotes Isaiah 7:9.

412

Augustine writes On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins.
Augustine writes On the Spirit and the Letter.

418

Augustine writes On the Grace of Christ and on Original Sin.

426

The fourth and final book of Augustine's De doctrina Christiana is published.

After publishing the first three books of De doctrina Christiana in 397, Augustine published the fourth and final book.

Augustine's City of God is published.

The City of God Against the Pagans, or De ciuitate Dei contra paganos, is one of Augustine's seminal works. While Confessions was Augustine's autobiography, The City of God is much more a book of philosophy, heavily influenced by Augustine's own research into Christianity and his interest with Neoplatonism. In the book, Augustine comments on the history, translation, and interpretation of the Bible before describing what he calls the "City of God," a place where people wholly dedicate themselves to Christianity. In his Retractions, Augustine summarized the contents of The City of God:

"However, this great undertaking was at last completed in twenty-two books. Of these, the first five refute those who fancy that the polytheistic worship is necessary in order to secure worldly prosperity, and that all these overwhelming calamities have befallen us in consequence of its prohibition. In the following five books I address myself to those who admit that such calamities have at all times attended, and will at all times attend, the human race, and that they constantly recur in forms more or less disastrous, varying only in the scenes, occasions, and persons on whom they light, but, while admitting this, maintain that the worship of the gods is advantageous for the life to come. But that no one might have occasion to say, that though I had refuted the tenets of other men, I had omitted to establish my own, I devote to this object the second part of this work, which comprises twelve books, although I have not scrupled, as occasion offered, either to advance my own opinions in the first ten books, or to demolish the arguments of my opponents in the last twelve. Of these twelve books, the first four contain an account of the origin of these two cities—the city of God, and the city of the world. The second four treat of their history or progress; the third and last four, of their deserved destinies." (Dods, Retractions 2.43).

Augustine's De gratia Christi et de peccato originali is published.

Augustine's On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin is a methodical exposition of Augustine's beliefs on original sin and free will. It is part of a larger pattern of work in which Augustine attacks Pelagianism, a philosophy which held that humans have free will and sin by choice, not by involuntary weakness. This is in sharp contrast to Augustine's beliefs; He writes several times in Confessions about his inability to overcome weakness without God's will (especially with respect to sexual continence).

Augustine writes On Grace and Free Will.

430

Augustine dies in Hippo.

Augustine died on August 28, 430 while leading a monastic life in Hippo. While dying of illness, Augustine spent his final days praying and reading the Psalms of David, which he requested be hanged on his walls. He also requested that his library and church in Hippo be preserved, a request honored by invading Vandals when the sacked the rest of the city.