Victor of Vita, in his History of the Vandal Persecution (1.16), states that Geiseric, king of the Vandals, after his conquest in 439 of Carthage (central North Africa), confiscated for use by the Arian church two of the city's extramural churches, both dedicated to *Cyprian (bishop and martyr of Carthage, S00411), one over the place where he was martyred, the other over his body. Written in Latin, probably in Carthage, 484/489.
Evidence ID
E01974
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Major author/Major anonymous work
Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution
Victor of Vita, Book I.16:
Sed etiam foris muros quascumque uoluit occupauit [ecclesias], et praecipue duas egregias et amplas sancti martyris Cypriani, unam ubi sanguinem fudit, aliam ubi eius sepultus est corpus, qui locus Mappalia uocitatur.
'But he [King Geiseric] also seized whatever churches he wanted to outside the walls, in particular two unusual and spacious ones dedicated to the holy martyr Cyprian, one where he shed his blood and the other where his body is buried, at a place called Mappalia'
Text: Lancel 2002, 104.
Translation: Moorhead 1992, 8-9.
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityHeretics
Cult building - independent (church)
Place of martyrdom of a saint
Non Liturgical ActivityAppropriation of older cult sites
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesHeretics
Foreigners (including Barbarians)
Source
Victor was probably a presbyter at Carthage when he wrote the History of the Vandal Persecution, in 484 or shortly thereafter; he was certainly a churchman and he was very well informed of events and documents in the provincial capital.His work gives an account of the Vandal invasion of Africa (429-39) under king Geiseric, but focuses primarily on the sufferings of the Nicene church in Africa during the reign of Huneric (477-84). Victor was an eyewitness of some of the events which he describes (e.g. E01981).
The work is dedicated to an unnamed churchman, probably Bishop Eugenius of Carthage, who features prominently (and very favourably) in the work, even effecting, with due humility, the cure of a man's blindness (E08294, 2.47-51).
Victor names many martyrs and confessors who died or suffered under Vandal persecution. For a few of these, there is evidence from other sources that some cult developed around them, and these we have treated as individual 'saints': Eugenius of Carthage (S00034); Laetus, bishop and martyr of Nepte (S02837); Seven monastic brothers martyred at Carthage (S02936); and some confessors who had their tongues cut out but were still able to speak (S01481). The other martyrs and confessors we have grouped together on three evidence cards, covering: the reign of Geiseric (E08293; S03007); the reign of Huneric before 484 (E08294; S03008): and the persecution of 484 (E08295; S03009).
Bibliography
Editions:Lancel, S. (ed.), Histoire de la persécution vandale en Afrique suivie de la passion des sept martyrs et du Registre des provinces et des cités d'Afrique (Paris: Belle Lettres, 2002).
Petschenig, M. (ed.), Victoris episcopi Vitensis Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 7; Wien 1881).
Halm, K. (ed.), Victor Vitensis. Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores antiquissimi 3,1; Hanover 1879), 1-58.
Translation:
Moorhead, J. (trans.), Victor of Vita: History of Vandal Persecution (Translated Texts for Historians 10; Liverpool: Liverpool Univeristy Press, 1992).
Further reading:
Duval, Y., Loca sanctorum Africae: Le culte des martyrs en Afrique du IVe au VIIe siècle (Rome: École Francaise de Rome, 1982), vol. 2, 675-6.
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
25/06/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00411 | Cyprian, bishop and martyr of Carthage | Cyprianus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Robert Wiśniewski, Cult of Saints, E01974 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01974