“There is a clear difference between the desire for glory before men and the desire for domination. There is, to be sure, a slippery slope from the excessive delight in the praise of men to the burning passion for domination; and yet those who long for true glory, though it be the glory of merely human praise, are anxious for the good opinion of enlightened judges. For there are many good moral qualities which are approved by many, though many do not possess them. And it is by those moral qualities that glory, power, and domination are sought by the kind of men who, as Sallust says, ‘strive for them in the right way’. But if anyone aims at power and domination without that kind of desire for glory which makes a man fear the disapprobation of sound judges, then he generally seeks to accomplish his heart’s desire by the most barefaced crimes.”*
In this section of The City of God, Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) examined the virtues and vices of the Romans. The pagan Romans had argued that the Roman Empire’s recent military failures resulted from the rise of Christianity as the predominant religion. In fact, Augustine died in Hippo as the Vandals were approaching the city in North Africa. Alternatively, Augustine argued that the Romans’ own vices resulted in collapsing imperial society in the early fifth century. To prove his assertion, he used the Roman sources like Sallust above.
When Sallust described the moral and societal decay of the late Republic, he described greed for money and the lust for power as the most significant vices. Avarice replaced trust and pride and cruelty displaced virtue. However, ambition caused Romans to become liars and hypocrites who only valued relationships for personal gain. This ‘plague’ of vice led to the end of justice and the emergence of unbearable cruelty. Sallust made a distinction between those who seek glory, honor, and power in the right way and the wrong way. While ambition might drive any Roman to seek these things, Sallust notes that most in the late Republic sought glory, honor, and power via the accumulation of as much wealth as possible. Even if they obtained the wealth through deceit and cruelty, it didn’t matter to them.**
Augustine states that the desire for glory had restrained some Romans because they also desired the approbation of their fellow citizens. However, others reject glory and desire only to dominate. He wrote, “Some of the Romans were men of this kind, who, while caring nothing for the opinion of others, were possessed by the passion for domination. History shows that there were many such; but it was Nero Caesar who first scaled, as it were, the heights of this vice, and gained the summit.”***
*Augustine of Hippo, The City of God: V. 19. trans. Henry Bettenson (London 1972). p. 212. [Bold added]
**Sallust, Catiline’s Conspiracy 10-11, trans. William W. Batstone (Oxford 2010), pp. 14-15.
***Augustine, City of God: V. 19, p. 213. [Bold added]
