De Civitate Dei
Throughout the work Augustine makes occasional
references to the scheme of six ages (aetates) of
human history which he adopts in Comm. on Genesis
adv. Manichees & Truth of Religion.
But it is not fully or extensively employed in our
work. See Book 16.12 where Augustine speaks of
the "division of time" (articulus temporis) that begins
with Abraham; it would, in fact, be the start of the
third age. First age: Adam - Noah; Second age: Noah -
Abraham (16.24). It is only in book 16, #43 that the
ages are explicitly linked to the periods of human life,
when Augustine talks of the age beginning with
David (the fourth age) as humanity's young manhood
(iuventus, Latin ) and to earlier periods as "infancy",
"Childhood", and "youth" (adulescentia) of humankind.
CHAPTER 8, Gerard O'Daly Augustine's City of God
A Reader's Guide (Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd ed. 2020)
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