The Significance of Rome and St. Augustine

In this significant essay about significant history that is so significant to us, I discuss the significance of Rome and the Christian St. Augustine of Hippo.  Rome plays a huge part in history.  St. Augustine does too.  Why?  Continue reading to find out.

Rome was and is still important to us Americans today (and probably to several other countries).  We Americans got our English language thanks to the Latin language.  France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Romania also have their language today thanks to Rome.  America and probably several other countries probably wouldn’t be here if Rome hadn’t won its wars it needed to win.  Another significance is Rome’s preservation of Greece culture.  The Romans liked the way Greeks lived after they had captured Greece.  In fact they liked it enough that they kept Greek culture going, so that today, you and I can learn about Greece.  Cool, right?  But there is more, thanks to Rome.  We have built bridges, roads, and dams, because of Rome.  We owe Rome a lot of thanks for a lot of things…So, thank you Rome!

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St. Augustine did not begin as a Christian and this his story of his conversion is a significance of the history of Christianity.  While his mother is a Christian, Augustine is a Manichaean.  A Manichaean is a believer of the belief that there are two gods. One of the gods is good, and the other god is evil.  Augustine interested in his belief starts asking elders about things.  Not one of the people he asked could answer any of his questions.  This causes Augustine to turn away from Manichaeanism, and to become a skeptic.  He then later turns towards Neo-Platonism, which is about all of Plato’s beliefs and philosophies.  Well, Augustine becomes a teacher of rhetoric.  He then goes to hear this man (called St. Ambrose), who was a Christian and had to do with rhetoric, talk.  Augustine and St. Ambrose became friends, and eventually Augustine converted to Christianity.

After his conversion, St. Augustine could answer all of his question that he had asked his elders.  He could also answer this question: “If God is such a good God, why is there evil today?”  When he was a Manichaean, St. Augustine would simply say, there are two gods, one good and one evil.  However, with Christianity as his new belief, it may have seemed harder to answer, but it wasn’t for Augustine.  He said that evil is not a thing.  It is a lack of something.  It is like darkness, which is the absence of light and the color white.  White is the absence of color.  St. Augustine also went around and pointed out the wrong things about other beliefs like the philosophies and beliefs he had one time believed in.  St. Augustine played a significant role in the history of Christians and the world.  So…thanks to you too, St. Augustine!

~Perrissa