Victor of Tunnuna, in his Chronicle, recounts how Justinian responded to a visionary visitation by *Laetus (bishop and martyr of Nepte, S02837), who had been killed by the Vandal king Huneric, by sending an army under Belisarius against Vandal Africa; supposedly in 534. Written in Latin in Constantinople, 565/566.
Evidence ID
E08297
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Victor of Tunnuna, Chronicle, s.a. 534
Iustinianus imperator visitatione Laeti episcopi ab Hugnerico Wandalorum rege martyre facto exercitum in Africam Belesario magistro militum duce contra Wandalos mittit.
'The emperor Justinian, after a visitation from Bishop Laetus, a martyr killed by Huneric king of the Vandals, sent an army, under the command of the magister militum Belisarius, against the Vandals in Africa.'
Text: Mommsen 1894, 198.
Translation: Bryan Ward-Perkins.
MiraclesMiracle after death
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Miracle after death
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMonarchs and their family
Source
Victor was a bishop of the city of Tunnuna (or Tonnona) in Latin North Africa, the exact location of which is unknown. He was expelled from his see during the Three Chapters controversy. During his exile he stayed for several years in Egypt, but in 564 was transferred to Constantinople. There he wrote his Latin Chronicle. Only the part covering the years 444-566 is extant. Up to AD 518 it is based mostly on the Church History of Theodore Anagnostes. The written sources of the following part are not easy to identify, but Victor was deeply involved in ecclesiastical politics and had a firsthand knowledge of many events that he mentioned in the Chronicle.Discussion
Victor wrongly dates Justinian's invasion of Africa to 534, when it actually happened in 533.Victor is the sole sixth-century source for this story of a visitation, presumably in a dream vision, of Laetus (a martyr at the hands of the Vandals in 484) to the emperor Justinian, as the stimulus for the latter's successful invasion of Africa (though the story is repeated in the seventh century by Isidore of Seville). There is no indication of the source of Victor's story, nor is it evident why Laetus was singled out from amongst the many martyrs of Vandal times as the saint who inspired Justinian.
Procopius, in his account of the build-up to the Vandal invasion (Wars 3.10.18-19) also tells of a dream vision - but the story is very different: in it a priest 'from the East' comes before the emperor, telling him that God had told him in a dream vision that Justinian must free Africans from the persecution they were suffering and that He would aid Justinian in this enterprise.
Bibliography
Edition:Mommsen, T., Victoris Tonnonennsis episcopi chronica, in: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. (II) (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores Antiquissimi 11; Berlin, 1894), 184-206.
Record Created By
Bryan Ward-Perkins
Date of Entry
28/6/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02837 | Laetus, bishop and martyr of Nepte under the Vandals, ob. 484 | Laetus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Bryan Ward-Perkins, Cult of Saints, E08297 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08297