Traduttore, traditore, say the Italians: ‘the translator is a traitor’. I hope that the following notes will alert the reader to some of the ways in which the vast differences between Augustine's world of thought and our own are reflected in the language that he uses.

Courtesy titles

The etiquette of late antique letters was elaborate. A large number of honorific titles was used which conveyed, more or less specifically, a range of social nuances which we cannot now recover in all their subtlety (for a comprehensive survey, see O'Brien, Titles). Some of these terms were technical: illustris (‘illustrious’), spectabilis (‘admirable’) and clarissimus (‘renowned’) referred to three levels of rank in the late imperial élite, illustris being the most senior title, then spectabilis, then clarissimus. Certain epithets, such as ‘holy’ and ‘blessed’, were normally reserved for Christian ecclesiastics; others such as ‘beloved’ were also specifically Christian in usage.

Such language should not, of course, be taken at face value (we ourselves rarely feel affection for those we address as ‘Dear Sir’). Abstract nouns were also used honorifically; I have translated such phrases as, for example, ‘your holy self’ rather than ‘your holiness’.

Commonwealth, government, empire, public life

Res publica means literally ‘public thing’. In Letter 138.10 Augustine refers to Cicero's well-known definition, which may be literally translated: ‘the “public thing” is a thing of (belonging to) the people’.