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When did St. Augustine write The City of God?

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Justus of Ghent: Saint Augustine — St. Augustine *Saint Augustine*, oil on wood panel by Justus of Ghent, c. 1475; in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

St. Augustine wrote his philosophical treatise The City of God (Latin: De civitate Dei contra paganos) between approximately 413 and 426 CE.12

He composed this work as a response to the sack of Rome by Alaric and his forces in 410 CE. While some contemporaries speculated that the fall of Rome resulted from the abandonment of traditional pagan worship, Augustine argued that the event was a consequence of internal moral decay and that Christianity was not responsible for the city's destruction. Through this 22-book masterpiece, he contrasted the "City of God"—the community of the elect—with the "City of Man," providing a theological interpretation of human history that remained highly influential throughout the Middle Ages.12