On August 24, 410, the unthinkable happened: a Gothic army marched into the mighty city of Rome, having besieged it twice and driven its inhabitants to starvation and cannibalism. Then, for three days, they sacked the city. As it burned, onlookers expressed their shock that so powerful a symbol of the Roman Empire’s might could be defeated. The British monk Pelagius wrote, “Rome, the mistress of the world, shivered, crushed with fear, at the sound of the blaring trumpets and the howling of the Goths.”1 In the wake of this event, a host of demoralized Romans fled Italy to North Africa, where the bishop, Augustine, presided in the city of Hippo. One of their first questions for him was how this could happen.2

He provides his answer in the classic work The City of God, where he set forth a comprehensive theology of history, assuring believers that God’s purposes still prevailed and telling pagans that Christianity was not to blame for the disaster. Yet as he explained Rome’s decline, he also addressed a significant auxiliary question: Why did the empire extend so widely and last so long?3

He argued that Rome’s greatness depended upon its civic virtue; though the empire’s pagan leaders held the praise of man as their highest aspiration, that aim checked their pursuit of other sinful vices. Indeed, at their best, they were admirable:

They took no account of their own material interests compared with the common good, that is the commonwealth and the public purse; they resisted the temptations of avarice; they acted for their country’s well-being with disinterested concern; they were guilty of no offence against the law; they succumbed to no sensual indulgence.4

Time and again, their sense of honor was exemplary. For example, the military leader Mucius once mistakenly struck the wrong man during an attempt to kill the chief of his Etruscan enemies. To pay for his tragic error, Mucius willingly sacrificed his hand in the fire of an altar.5 Similarly, the Roman consul Lucius Valerius remained so free from greed that he died a pauper, and a public collection had to be taken to pay for his burial.6 According to Augustine, the empire began to decline only when such public displays of character dwindled.7

Of course, Augustine made clear that the Romans’ desire for human praise was sinful; preoccupied with this prideful interest, they ignored the glory and salvation of the Living God.8 And, certainly, it is far better to have a Christian ruler, one with holy motivations.9 But the Romans’ civic virtue was not for nothing, since God rewards virtuous pagan magistrates with stable empires and even the earthly praise they seek:

If God had not granted to [the Romans] the earthly glory of an empire which surpassed all others, they would have received no reward for the good qualities, the virtues, that is, by means of which they laboured to attain that great glory … They have no reason to complain of the justice of God, the supreme and true. “They have received their reward in full.”10

Some may suppose that non-believers are incapable of honorable behavior and that every seemingly decent thing they do amounts to no more than “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). Well, certainly, they fall far short of the glory of God. But, by His common grace, all creatures made in His image, those who bear the imprint of His law on their hearts (Rom. 2:14-15), will do and say some upright things. This is why the Bible can speak well of Abimelech’s decency toward Abraham in Genesis 21, of the cordial, noble character of the Bereans in Acts 17:11, and of honorable public servants in Romans 13:1-7. So, with Augustine, believers should be prepared to acknowledge and praise just deeds, whether or not the one who performs them is a brother or sister in Christ.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, new ed. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000), 287.
 
2  G. R. Evans, “Introduction,” in City of God, trans. Henry Bettenson (London: Penguin, 2003), ix.
 
3  Augustine, City of God, 179. See preface to book 5 in other editions.
 
4  Ibid., 204-205. See 5.15 in other editions.
 
5  Ibid., 208-209. See 5.18 in other editions.
 
6  Ibid., 210. See 5.18 in other editions.
 
7  Ibid., 201. See 5.12 in other editions.
 
8  Ibid., 204. See 5.15 in other editions.
 
9  Ibid., 213-214. See 5.19 in other editions.
 
10  Ibid., 204-205. See 5.15 in other editions.
 
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First Baptist Church of Perryville is located 1 and 1/2 miles east of Route 222, across from the Principio Health Center.