Reconsidering the Vita Augustini by Possidius of Calama: Towards a Meth-od for the Study of Free Speech in the Thought of Augustine

Abstract

By applying tools of the history of emotions to study the Vita Augustini by Possidius of Calama—a friend, episcopal colleague, and the first biographer of Augustine of Hippo—the present article analyzes parrhesia or fearless speech as an exercise in the regulation of fear, of which authentic martyrdom is the ideal expression in early Christian North Africa. The study accentuates the centrality of parrhesia in Augustine’s life and reflection and challenges current scholarly assumptions about the parameters of parrhesia as a social construct and about the nature of its Christianizing transformations in late Antiquity.