All roads lead to Rome? Frechulf of Lisieux, Augustine and Orosius

Abstract

This article considers the influence exerted by Augustine's City of God and Orosius's Histories against the Pagans on the Carolingian historian, Frechulf of Lisieux. In particular, it explores how these two explicitly Roman texts were read and understood in the ninth century, and how they in turn shaped the place of Rome and its empire within Frechulf's narrative. In the first half of this article, I shall take into account modern discussions of Augustine and Orosius, which themselves have shaped scholarship on Frechulf. The second half of the article stresses that for Frechulf, Augustine and Orosius offered complementary, not contradictory perspectives on Christian history and Rome's part in it.