01/30/2023
In this intriguing study, historian Cooper (Band of Angels) spotlights four women mentioned in St. Augustine’s Confessions: Roman empress Justina; his mother, Monnica of Thagaste; his mistress, with whom he lived for more than a decade; and his 10-year-old fiancée. (Augustine left the latter two unnamed in the Confessions, ostensibly to preserve their dignity; Cooper refers to them as Una and Tacita , respectively.) Setting Augustine’s brief mentions of these women against the backdrop of fourth-century North Africa and Italy, Cooper utilizes Justina’s reign as empress and protector for her son, Valentinian II, to discuss the religious and political forces at play near the end of the Roman empire. Augustine’s memories of his mother, Monnica, are more intimate, and reveal how Monnica’s stories, particularly those involving her enslaved childhood companion, Illa, and “the awkward balance of power that had governed their relationship,” helped shape his view of the world. Elsewhere, Cooper rounds out the scant mentions of Una and Tacita in the Confessions with discussions of Roman wedding customs, class hierarchies, and more. Though much remains unknown about these women, Cooper persuasively argues that they played a larger role in Augustine’s life and work than has previously been understood. It’s an eye-opener. (Apr.)
—FINALIST: THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2023
“Highly readable, well-researched and imaginative… To those of us who thought we knew Augustine well, Queens of a Fallen World opens new vistas on his world and legacy.”—Wall Street Journal
“Cooper should be praised for focusing on women who, by virtue of being in the Confessions, have long been known but, due to their gender, too often ignored . . . A thought-provoking exploration of gender in early Christian history.”—Kirkus
"Intriguing study...It's an eye-opener."—Publishers Weekly
"A masterpiece of the historian’s art. With a rare balance of state-of-the-art erudition and felicitous hypotheses, Kate Cooper has brought the hidden women in Augustine’s early life into the light. Governed throughout by a humane sense of the texture of a distant late Roman society, she captures women’s voices which we would not otherwise have heard."—Peter Brown, author of Augustine of Hippo: A Biography
“An enchanting tour de force of sensitive and probing historical writing. Queens of a Fallen World reveals the traces of forgotten female voices in Augustine’s loves, losses, regrets, and consolations. Cooper’s enquiry into the influence of women on Augustine—whether empress, mother, lover, saint, or slave—enriches his legacy.” —Adrienne Mayor, author of The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World
“An evocative reconstruction of the bright lives of four women who each made an indelible impact on a towering figure of the early church. St. Augustine may have helped to shape the Christian world—but he, in turn, was shaped by them. Kate Cooper’s wonderful book resuscitates and restores them to their rightful place in Augustine’s legacy.” —Kara Cooney, author of When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt
"What an invigorating book! Cooper asks a haunting question: how different would our world be had this man married either his concubine—who was the loyal mother of his child—or the young heiress he was betrothed to, instead of withdrawing from sexual relationships altogether?" —Sarah Ruden, translator of Augustine’s Confessions
“A bold and imaginative venture into challenging territory. Cooper casts new light onto the women of the ancient world—and one of the founders of Western thought.” —Sarah Gristwood, author of The Tudors in Love and Game of Queens
“A marvelous achievement. Kate Cooper shines her historian's spotlight on an Augustine so vivid in his Confessions, but so often overlooked: a man who loved and appreciated women...Cooper sketches an evocative landscape of the late Roman world in Milan and North Africa—from its courts to its churches, from military encampments to rural villas, from empresses to the enslaved. Above all, her’s is a world of human beings suffering heartache and loneliness while trying to reconcile the pull of the heart with the lure of ambition.” —Susanna Elm, Sidney H. Ehrman Professor of European History, University of California, Berkeley
"Fascinating and well-written, Queens of a Fallen World raises vital questions about the role of women in the founding centuries of Christianity, piecing together a rich backdrop to Augustine’s life that has rarely emerged before. Cooper convinces us that these women can be recovered, and that through his words and thoughts, their lives shaped the future of a fledgling religion. A brilliant new take.”
—Janina Ramirez, author of Femina: A History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It
2023-02-09
Intimate look at four women who were central to the life story of the iconic Christian saint.
Historian Cooper explores one of the seminal texts of Christian biography—the Confessions of Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)—which makes note of several people who played important roles in his youth and in his formation as a thinker, believer, and a man. The author introduces us to four women who had particularly important—and remarkably different—parts to play in Augustine’s personal story. Through these women, Cooper investigates the concept of gender in late-Roman society, delivering interesting details about life as a woman in this era in the Mediterranean world. Of most importance in Augustine’s story was his mother, Monnica, also considered a saint, a woman of moderate station who was exceptionally gifted and had a profound impact on her son at every level. Cooper uses the name Una to refer to Augustine’s otherwise anonymous concubine, a woman with whom he lived for more than a decade and who gave birth to his son. Empress Justina, a woman with whom Augustine had little personal contact, was a central figure in the court community into which he tried to ingratiate himself as a young adult. The final figure in Cooper’s narrative is Tacita, also an anonymous character in Augustine’s life. Tacita was a 10-year-old girl to whom he was betrothed, but the marriage did not occur due to Augustine’s conversion to Christianity. The author provides a fascinating glimpse into Roman womanhood across social strata. Though her reading of these four lives involves a lot of conjecture, including an entire epilogue of what-ifs, Cooper should be praised for focusing on women who, by virtue of being in the Confessions, have long been known but, due to their gender, too often ignored.
A thought-provoking exploration of gender in early Christian history.
Georgina Sutton demonstrates the enviable, hard-to-define narrator's ability to fully deliver the author's intentions in this engaging examination of St. Augustine (354-430 CE) and the four women in his life. Through her intelligent, easy command of the sense of the text, expressed through intonation and emphasis, she brings understanding and sympathy to Cooper's discussion of Augustine's mother, St. Monica; his concubine; his betrothed; and Justina, his wife. Sutton's strong voice and cultured British accent make listening pleasant. While her rendering of historical passages is clear and mostly well paced, certain sections that are heavy with names and incidents, especially about Justina, don't give listeners quite enough time to absorb the material. But, overall, Sutton provides a smart, sympathetic performance of a thoughtful text. W.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Georgina Sutton demonstrates the enviable, hard-to-define narrator's ability to fully deliver the author's intentions in this engaging examination of St. Augustine (354-430 CE) and the four women in his life. Through her intelligent, easy command of the sense of the text, expressed through intonation and emphasis, she brings understanding and sympathy to Cooper's discussion of Augustine's mother, St. Monica; his concubine; his betrothed; and Justina, his wife. Sutton's strong voice and cultured British accent make listening pleasant. While her rendering of historical passages is clear and mostly well paced, certain sections that are heavy with names and incidents, especially about Justina, don't give listeners quite enough time to absorb the material. But, overall, Sutton provides a smart, sympathetic performance of a thoughtful text. W.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
