The Walls of Carthage and the Date of Augustine’s De Trinitate

Abstract

Abstract This article calls attention to a hitherto overlooked piece of evidence that securely dates the completion of Book IX and subsequent books of Augustine’s De Trinitate to ad 424/425 or later: in it Augustine refers to having seen the moenia (defensive walls) of Carthage, which were not built until ad 424/425. The essay reviews the evidence for and previous scholarship on the chronology of the composition and completion of the De Trinitate, and considers the implications of the new dating for the circumstances of its completion, situating it within the production of Augustine’s other major works in the mid- to late 420s.