Explanation: The Late Roman Empire, whose soldiers are depicted here, was Christian.

Some Christian sects fast (generally only from specific foods, like meat) during Lent, the lead-up to Easter.

“So hungry I could eat a hippo/horse/other large animal” is a common English idiom simply meaning one is very hungry.

Augustine of Hippo was a Christian theologian of the period.

Fellow hungers for the wrong Hippo

Augustine of Hippo did a huge amount of damage to the Western world because he was so terrified of his own turgid member. Without his dumb ass ramblings about how much he hated all the orgies he was having we wouldn’t have

  • Original sin through sexual reproduction
  • The Just War
  • Irresistible Grace
  • All sex being impure except for baby making
  • Purgatory

People were afraid to go against what Augustine had to say to the point where one of his teachings (the filioque) was a major part of The Schism. The current war that we (the US) are in and our whole puritanical bullshit can be traced to this man whose most famous quote is “O Lord, make me chaste, but not yet!”

Some of it has some basis in the bible. If you read it sideways. A lot of it was just his own hangups that the western church said “Welp, this is our shit now!”.

Not that he wouldn’t have been able to do it without “be nice to your slaves” Paul, and not that he’s the absolute originator, but he’s the prolific source of a lot of the views espoused by a bunch of shitty people and used to treat others like shit.