Augustine: The Decline of the Roman Empire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Augustine: The Decline of the Roman Empire (Italian: Sant'Agostino) is a 2010 two-part television miniseries chronicling the life of St. Augustine,[1] the early Christian theologian, writer and Bishop of Hippo Regius at the time of the Vandal invasion (AD 430).

This series was directed by Christian Duguay and was shot on location in Tunisia. In the United States, the film is distributed under the title Restless Heart: The Confessions of Saint Augustine.


In 430 AD, in the besieged city of Hippo, the seventy year-old bishop Augustine tells Jovinus, a captain of the Roman guards, the story of how his Christian mother, Monica, saved him. Born in the North African city of Thagaste, Augustine studied in Carthage, becoming an accomplished but dissolute orator. After converting to Manichaeism, a guiltfree religion, he was called to the imperial court in Milan to serve as an opponent to the Christian bishop Ambrose. But when the Empress Justina sends imperial guards to clear out a basilica where Augustine's own mother is worshipping, he is won over to Christianity. Back in Hippo, Augustine urges the Roman garrison to negotiate with the Vandal King Genseric, but they proudly refuse. At that point, he too, passing up a chance to escape on a ship sent to rescue him by the Pope, stays by the side of his people.


See also[edit]


External links[edit]