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After a couple of false starts, I’m finally getting around to my intended Lenten reading: St. Augustine’s City of God. I actually started the book some time ago, but was bogged down by the interminable introduction which I decided to skip. I did this because I found a passage noting that Rome fell because it had too many cultures or something. Rome fell for many reasons, and that’s far beyond the scope of a literary introduction.

He is addressing Marcellinus, a Roman official who is considering becoming Christian, and one of his tasks is to discredit the pagan claim that the sack of Rome in 410 A.D. was because so many had abandoned their traditional gods in favor of Christ.

As part of this, St. Augustine notes that during the Visigoths’ sack of the city, King Alaric ordered his troops to leave those sheltering in churches and basilicas alone. St. Augustine rightly notes that a foreign conqueror storming a city but refraining from harming people taking refuge in the temples of strange gods is without historical precedent, and challenges his correspondent to find a parallel in history, because none exists.

However, the translator’s footnote states that this is a poor argument and gives two examples to refute it: Alexander the Great at Tyre and Agesilaus after Coronea, citing Arrian and Plutarch respectively.

I happen to have Arrian’s history of Alexander, so I read up on it, and in fact, St. Augustine is correct. When Alexander’s troops finally breached the walls and stormed into the city, the fighting was fierce and pitiless. The defenders tried to make a stand in a shrine to the city’s founder, but was driving back with great slaughter. The only exception was the clemency given to the king, his court, and various visiting dignitaries including an embassy from Carthage, who took shelter the temple of Heracles. The rest of the population was slaughtered or sold into slavery.

This is in no way similar to the events in Rome. For one thing, the Greeks also worshipped Heracles, so it was not a foreign religion like Christianity was to the Visigoths. Just as importantly, Alexander had pressing strategic reasons for sparing foreign emissaries, especially Carthaginians, whose home city might make trouble for Alexander’s western holdings just when he is planning on driving deeper into Persia.

Now I am only two pages into the narrative, so this is not a good sign. I’m reminded of Antony Beevor’s grotesque hatred of Catholics and willfull distortion of facts in his awful Battle for Spain.

I’m going to assume that translator is simply clueless rather than dishonest.