Jerusalem
Augustine points to scripture to wield the symbolic significance of Jerusalem. He reminds his readers that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is therefore cast as the originating point of Christianity and thus Jerusalem is solidified as the symbol of the City of God.
Babylon
The City of the World is essentially a metaphor for the collective number of people whom Augustine holds to be confused by the lure of earthy pursuits and pleasure rather than recognizing the pursuit of God. Augustine writes of an ancient city known as Confusion and then explains that this city “is the same as Babylon…Babylon means Confusion.” Thus is Babylon situated as the symbol of the City of the World.
Rome
Augustine was motivated to compose City of God by the sacking of Rome by barbarians in the year 410. Actually, it was not so much the Goths which were physically responsible for the destruction, but the reaction of many Romans in the aftermath who began to point to the influence of Christianity upon the empire as the originating cause for Rome not successfully defending itself against the invading horde. The response within the City of God casts Rome as yet another symbolic city: in this case as the representative of necessary institutional order which allows the word of God to be spread and thus reduce the population of the City of the World and increase that of the City of God.
Fish
One of the most recognized—and confusing—symbols in the world today can be explained with a reading of City of God. In it, Augustine explains that the ancient Greek phrase which translates to “Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour" becomes, when one takes the first letter of each word in the phrase, "fish." Augustine then provides context relative to Jesus as a fish: “because He was able to live, that is, to exist, without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters.”
Peacock
Augustine at one point relates a strange story of being served peacock meat for a meal and ordering a slice of it to be preserved. After a month and even a year, the meat produced no normal signs of rotting and thus the peacock is enshrined as a symbol of the immortality of the soul that comes with belief in God.
