Augustine: The Decline of the Roman Empire S01E01 - Part 1

Hippo (North Africa), 430 d. C. For months the city, a Roman province since the time of Caesar, has been besieged by the Vandals led by King Genseric. Augustine - Bishop of Hippo - has the opportunity to escape aboard a ship sent especially for him by the Pope but, despite the pressure of his niece Lucilla, he decides to stay close to his fellow citizens. He exhorts the City Council to seek mediation with the besiegers, but the imperial tribune Valerius proves to be his fierce opponent: Rome will never bow before the barbarians. Beside Valerius there is also the young centurion Fabius, also hostile to Augustine, but in love with Lucilla. Augustine, torn apart by the Pope's exhortation to save himself and his writings, looks back on his past. And the memories of him take us back to ...

Tagaste, a small agricultural village in the North African hinterland. Augustine is a turbulent teenager, indocatable to the attentions of his mother Monica, who tries in vain to pass on her Christian faith to her son. More than anything, the young man wishes to become a great lawyer, to excel in the courts of the Empire. For this he decides to go to Carthage and go to the school of a true prince of the Forum, Macrobius. In the big city, Augustine lives as a guest of a very wealthy contemporary, Valerius, who offers him a beautiful slave, Khalidà. Years pass and Augustine seems to make his dreams come true: he becomes a great speaker and has at his disposal all the pleasures and luxuries that Carthage can offer him. But everything seems to collapse on him when a defendant whom he had cleared even though he was guilty is stained again with a terrible murder. A profound crisis of conscience opens up in Augustine, which pushes him to go back to his mother Monica together with Khalidà, the only woman he really loves. With Monica, old and new frictions emerge which subside with the birth of her son Adeodatus.

Augustine seems to have forgotten his past and lives a life as a simple provincial teacher with his family, until Valerius comes to look for him and rekindles his ambitions: he proposed him as an orator at the imperial court of Milan to counter the power of the Catholic bishop Ambrose, disliked by the Empress Justina, of Aryan faith. Moving to Milan, Augustine immediately conquers the court. But the challenge with Ambrose turns out to be more difficult than expected.