Christianity and Populism in the Roman Histories of Augustine and Machiavelli

This paper compares the little-studied Roman History of St. Augustine's "City of God" to that of Niccolò Machiavelli's "Discourses on Livy." A coherent political theory far exceeding the scope of the explicit political theory of Book XIX of the "City of God" emerges from Augustine's judgements concerning events of Roman History. In particular, Augustine is revealed to offer a populist or Caesarist vision of Christian politics, exalting the empowerment of the people and the moral reform of the state, by way of Caesar Augustus, against a sclerotic patrician elite. His theory of politics requires that government's form change to fit the nature of its people. While Machiavelli agrees with Augustine's critique of the Roman elite, he is wary of the direct rule of any or all of the estates of the body politic, preferring instead the perpetual rule of the system of the "orderer of laws," that is, the founder of a regime or the author of its constitution. Thus, Augustinian populism stands in contrast to the Machiavellian populism of the "Discourses," which seeks to satisfy and please the people, no matter their condition, toward the preservation of the form or constitution of government.