Le « pouvoir du peuple » : une émeute à Hippone au début du Ve siècle connue par le sermon 302 de saint Augustin pour la fête de saint Laurent

Saint Augustine’s sermon 302 is a monitory discourse delivered around AD 409/412 at Hippo in the aftermath of the brutal lynching of a corrupt imperial agent by some of the common people exasperated by his exactions. We analyse this riot in its social context and explain some of its implications for our understanding of the political culture and behaviour of the urban plebs in late Antiquity. Analysis reveals that the man killed was a custom officer acting in collusion with the tax collectors in the port of Hippo. The rioting crowd was composed not only of merchants and their servants, but also of craftsmen and shopkeepers, their employees and the young men of their families. The anatomy of the riot reveals that the murder of the corrupted officer was perpetrated only after the popular grievances had been loudly expressed and the authorities had failed in punishing the criminal. The murder is also viewed by the activists and their passive supporters alike as a capital punishment and as a right of the people. This popular disturbance may have been a “governmental catastrophe” to the authorities and it surely called into question the credibility of Augustine as a bishop and patron for his failure to intervene in favour of the victims of the corrupted officer before the riot. Nevertheless, the measures considered by Augustine to counteract a new riot are additional evidence of the vigour of this form of popular intervention in the life of the city.