The good and its ends in the philosophical-theological elaboration of De ciuitate Del

This is a survey about the design (ratio, i.e. 'structure', pattern') of de ciuitate Dei, and of how the philosophical examination of the theories of paganism about the supreme good and its ends that is carried into effect in the book 19 have a bearing on this pattern. This analysis of St. Agustine is supposed to be essential for the concluding characterization of the two cities and their completion (fines). For fines are also tau epsilon lambda omicron iota alpha gamma alpha theta omega nu. So the influence of de finibus bonorum et malorum of Cicero will be examined, and the importance of book 19 in the entire planning of the work shall be discussed and defended. Only when these ways of access to good and happiness have been both harmonized and distinguished, St. Augustine is prepared to make an explanation of the final events (i.e. fines) that culminate the human history, in the three last books of the City of God. This is also the completion of his own plan: that the good and the eternal happiness are manifested as consummation of human history; and at the same time the final objective of the book's design is revealed.