The Chronicle of Fredegar (3.68) mentions that the monastery at Agaune (eastern Gaul) dedicated to the *Theban Legion (S00339) was sacked during a Lombard incursion into Gaul in 574. Written in Latin in Gaul/Francia, 659/700. This part of Fredegar's text is based on Gregory of Tours' Histories, but includes material not in Gregory.
E05956
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Chronicle of Fredegar 3.68
Taloardus et Nuccio duces Langobardorum per oscula in Sidonense territurio cum exercito sunt ingressi, ad monasterium sanctorum Agauninsium nimia facientes strage. Baccis villa nec procul ab ipso monasterio et duces et eorum exercitus a Wiolico et Teudofredo ducibus Gunthramni sunt interfecti. XL tantum ex illis fugaciter Aetaliam remeantur.
'The dukes of the Lombards Taloardus and Nuccio entered the territory of Sion through the passes, making an excessive slaughter at the monastery of the Agaunensian saints. At the estate of Bex, not far from the monastery, both the dukes and their army were destroyed by Guntram's commanders Wiolic and Theudefred. Only forty of them returned in flight to Italy.'
Text: Krusch 1888, 111, lightly modified.
Translation: David Lambert.
Cult building - monastic
Place of martyrdom of a saint
Source
The work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar dates from the second half of the 7th century. There is a long history of controversy over the questions of how many authors were involved in its compilation and precisely when they worked, but the current consensus is that it was produced by a single author working in one of the Frankish kingdoms at some point after 659 (Collins 1996, 83, 91-96).Book 3 consists of an epitomised version of the first six books of Gregory of Tours' Histories, but with interpolated material that is not in Gregory. The incident discussed here is among the interpolated material, and is not mentioned by Gregory.
Discussion
The reputed site of the martyrdom of Mauritius and the Theban Legion was at Acaunum in the upper Rhône Valley (present day Saint-Maurice-d'Agaune, Switzerland). The monastery there was founded by Sigismund, king of the Burgundians, in 515.Fredegar is one of three sources which refer to the monastery in relation to the Lombard incursion into Francia in 574, each giving slightly different details. The others are the chronicle of Marius of Avenches (E05959) and the Copenhagen continuation of Prosper (E03573).
Bibliography
Edition:Krusch, B., Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri IV cum continuationibus, in: Fredegarii et aliorum chronica. Vitae sanctorum (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 2; Hannover 1888), 18-193.
Further reading:
Collins, R., "Fredegar," in: P.J. Geary (ed.), Authors of the Middle Ages: Historical and Religious Writers of the Latin West, vol. 4, nos. 12-13 (Aldershot, 1996), 73-138.
David Lambert
15/07/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00339 | Theban Legion, commanded by Maurice, martyrs of Agaune, Gaul | sancti Agauninses | Certain |
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