ST AUGUSTINE AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF VARRO.

This paper argues that St Augustine's presentation of Varro's Antiquitates rerum divinarum in City of God was pivotal to the latter text's disappearance. It shows how Augustine used the Antiquitates' tripartite theology (poetic, civil, and natural) to destroy Varro's authority on traditional Roman religion. In Augustine's reading, Varro's open criticism of the gods of myth and poetry implied an equal rejection of the civil cult. This left the natural gods of the philosophers, but Augustine derided Varro's attempts at philosophical theology. The result was that, to readers of the City of God, the Antiquitates rerum divinarum appeared as a failure: Varro had been incapable of justifying traditional Roman religion, while lacking the courage to attack it openly. Readers could then turn to the City of God itself as a better guide to the Roman gods, and there was no further need to read or copy the Antiquitates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]