Augustine’s Confessions 1.14.23

Introduction

Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, better known as Augustine of Hippo, was a highly influential north African Christian theologian who lived and wrote in late Roman antiquity. His family were Berbers (an ethnic group indigenous to north Africa), highly Romanized, and members of the Roman aristocracy. The Confessions, from which the following passage is drawn, is among his most famous works and is widely considered to be the first Western autobiography. The work focuses heavily on Augustine’s inner experiences, primarily through his reflections on his education and other life events and, at the same time, his gradual conversion from paganism to Christianity. Through these personal anecdotes, Augustine frequently proposes broad philosophical and religious insights.

---

Text

 note: words in italics appear in the vocab below

 note2: footnotes will lead you to the commentary

Cur ergo Graecam etiam¹ grammaticam² oderam talia³

cantantem⁴? Nam et Homerus peritus texere⁵ tales fabellas

et dulcissime vanus⁶ est, mihi tamen amarus erat puero⁷.

Credo etiam Graecis pueris Vergilius ita sit⁸, cum eum sic

discere coguntur ut ego illum⁹. Videlicet difficultas, difficultas 5

omnino ediscendae¹⁰ linguae peregrinae, quasi felle

aspergebat¹¹ omnes suavitates Graecas fabulosarum

narrationum. Nulla enim verba illa noveram, et saevis

terroribus ac poenis ut nossem¹² instabatur¹³ mihi vehementer.

Nam et¹⁴ Latina¹⁵ aliquando infans¹⁶ utique nulla noveram, et 10

tamen advertendo didici sine ullo metu atque cruciatu, inter

etiam blandimenta nutricum et ioca adridentium¹⁷ et laetitias

adludentium¹⁷. Didici vero illa¹⁸ sine poenali onere urgentium¹⁷.

Hinc satis elucet¹⁹ maiorem habere vim ad discenda ista²⁰

liberam²¹ curiositatem quam meticulosam necessitatem. 15

---

Vocab	Definition	Vocab	Definition
adludo, -ere, -lusi, -lusum	to joke	adrideo, -ere	to smile
adverto, -ere	to pay attention	aliquando	at one time
amarus, -a, -um	bitter, disagreeable	aspergo, -ere	to sprinkle
blandimentum, -i, n.	flattery	canto, -are	cano, -ere
cruciatus, -us, m.	torment	curiositas, -tatis, f.	curiosity
difficultas, -tatis, f.	difficulty	edisco, -ere	disco, -ere
eluceo, -ere	to be clear	fabella, -ae, f.	fabula, -ae
fabulosus, -a, -um	fabulous	fel, fellis, n.	bile, bitterness
Graecus, -a, -um	Greek, of Greek	grammatica, -ae, f.	grammar
Homerus, -i, m.	Homer (Greek poet)	insto, -are	to demand, threaten
ioca, -orum, n.	jokes	Latinus,-a, -um	Latin
maior, -is	greater	meticulosus, -a, -um	timidus, -a, -um
narratio, -onis, f.	fabula, -ae	necessitas, -tatis, f.	compulsion
nutrix, -icis, f.	nurse	odi, -isse, osum	to hate
omnino	at all	onus, -eris, n.	burden
peregrinus, -a, -um	alienus, -a, -um	peritus, -a, -um	skillful
poenalis, -e	of punishment	suavitas, -tatis, f.	sweetness
terror, -is, m.	formido, -inis, f.	texo, -ere, -ui, textum	scribo, -ere
urgeo, -ere	to force	utique	certainly
vanus, -a, -um	deceptive	Vergilius, -i, m.	Vergil (Roman poet)
videlicet	certainly

---

Commentary

1. etiam…talia : (“also…such…”) establishes a contrast between the Greek epic poetry of Homer and the Latin epic poetry of the Aeneid. Just before this passage, Augustine had been discussing his love of the Aeneid. ↩

2. grammaticam: literally “(a system of) grammar,” but here it means the “(Greek) language and literature” or, specifically, “(Greek) poetry” ↩

3. talia: supply carmina ↩

4. cantantem: modifies a personified Graecam grammaticam, “the Greek language, that sings…” ↩

5. texere: the infinitive completes the idea of peritus, “skillful at…” ↩

6. vanus: This description of Homer here alludes back to the larger context of Augustine’s discussion in sections 12 and 13 of the Confessions, in which he contrasts his own misguided, youthful love of epic poetry (in particular, the Aeneid) to, in his opinion, the upright love for Christian scripture. According to his account, epic poetry is empty, deceptive, and a distraction from becoming a better Christian. ↩

7. puero: taken together with mihi, “as a boy” ↩

8. sit: Classical Latin would use an infinitive as the main verb of the indirect statement introduced by credo, but Latin after the second century CE began to substitute this with the subjunctive (usually introduced with quod). ↩

9. illum: refers to Homer ↩

10. ediscendae: gerundive with linguae ↩

11. aspergebat: the subject is difficultas ↩

12. nossem = novissem; perfect forms of nosco, noscere have a present meaning, pluperfect forms have a perfect meaning ↩

13. instabatur: used impersonally, “it was demanded” ↩

14. et =“even” ↩

15. Latina nulla: supply verba ↩

16. infans: taken together with the subject of noveram, “as an infant” ↩

17. adridentium…adludentium…urgentium: adjectives being used substantively ↩ ↩² ↩³

18. illa: refers to Latina (verba) ↩

19. elucet: used impersonally, “it is clear” ↩

20. ista: refers to Latina (verba) ↩

21. liberam curiositatem: accusative subjective of habere ↩