Victor of Vita, in his History of the Vandal Persecution (Book 2), recounts the suffering of African *Martyrs and Confessors under the Vandal king Huneric (S03008), in 477-484. Written in Latin, probably in Carthage, 484/489.
E08294
Victor of Vita
Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution, Book 2:
Summary:
Book 2 of Victor's work recounts events in the reign of Huneric (who succeeded his father Geiseric in 477) up to the summoning of a great council in Carthage aimed at resolving the Arian-Nicene dispute, which was to be held in February 484. Victor tells of the suffering of a number of Nicene martyrs and confessors, after Eugenius had become bishop of Carthage in 480/481:
2.8-11. Huneric persecuted the Nicene Christians who served at his court who refused to accept Arianism. Many were sent out to work the fields, including a man with a withered hand. When the latter reached the fields, his hand was miraculously restored to full health.
2.23-24. Those in royal service who refused to accept Arianism were banished to Sicily and Sardinia. Many female monastics were severely tortured in an attempt to get them to say they had slept with Nicene bishops. 'Many' (plurimas) were to die as a result.
2.26-37. 4,966 bishops, clergy and other members of the church were sent into exile in the desert, including Felix, bishop of Abbir, who was completely paralysed and had to be carried strapped to a mule. Victor describes in detail the harshness of the journey and the Christian heroism of the exiles. (33) At one point they were offered spiritual comfort by Cyprianus, bishop of Unizibir, and many Christians came out to greet them along the journey. (36) Those who could no longer walk were dragged along the ground, with the result that many died and were buried along the route.
Victor then tells how Huneric summoned the Nicene bishops to a council in Carthage to be held in February [484],quoting the royal edict verbatim (2.39); he also quotes Bishop Eugenius' reply (2.41-42).
2.45. Geiseric has Bishops Secundianus of Mimiana and Praesidius of Sufetula beaten and sent into exile. The venerable men Mansuetus, Germanus and Fusculus, and many others are also beaten.
2.47-51. Victor digresses from his main theme, the Vandal persecution, to tell how Bishop *Eugenius of Carthage (S00334) effected a miracle; curing a prominent citizen of Carthage of his blindness, after the man had been informed in a dream vision to seek the bishop's help.
2.52. Shortly before the council opened, Huneric had *Laetus (S02837), a 'very learned' (doctissimum) man, burned to death, after a lengthy and harsh imprisonment, hoping that this would strike fear into the Nicene camp.
2.56-101. Victor closes this book with a full transcription of the long and detailed 'Book of the Catholic Faith' (Liber fidei catholicae), prepared by the Nicene bishops for the council of February 484, in which they asserted, and justified, Nicene Trinitarian orthodoxy and attacked the doctrines of the Arians.
Text: Lancel 2002.
Summary: Bryan Ward-Perkins.
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).
Discussion
The martyrdom of Laetus, recorded in 2.52, is also mentioned by Victor of Tunnuna in his Chronicle (E07837). Victor of Tunnuna tells us that he was bishop of Nepte (in Byzacena).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).
Bryan Ward-Perkins
27/6/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00334 | Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, exiled by the Vandals to Albi in Gaul, ob. 505 | Eugenius | Certain | S02837 | Laetus, bishop and martyr of Nepte under the Vandals, ob. 484 | Laetus | Certain | S03008 | Martyrs and Confessors under the Vandal king Huneric | Felix, Cyprianus, Secundianus, Praesidius, Mansuetus, Germanus, Fusculus, Eugenius, Laetus. | Certain |
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