Latin was the prestigious language of the West. It didn’t have the ambiguity of meaning like other languages had. It had precise expression, that’s why it achieved its dignity and it was the best suited language for legal and other such specific purposes, but it took a very long time to develop from the early spoken Latin to a fully developed form of Classical Latin. The earliest inscriptions could be traced back to only 6th century BC when it was in its infancy. It underwent many changes. Very little is known about its earliest stages as it changed so drastically between 500 and 300 BC that older texts were hardly intelligible. The golden age of its development was between 100 BC to 14 AD. Emperor Augustus (27 BC to 14 AD was called the Augustan Age) took special interest to develop the literary aspects of Latin.
The spoken Latin language continued to change over a wide period of time and it deviated from the pronunciation, vocabulary and the grammar of Classical Latin as well. To differentiate it from the Classical Latin, it began to be called Vulgar Latin after the 3rd century AD. Thus, there were two kinds of Latin: Classical and Vulgar. The works of St. Augustine (354-430 AD) are in Vulgar Latin.