The Presbyters Project

I.39

Accenditur propter haec aduersus dei ecclesiam Geisericus. Mittit Proculum quendam in prouinciam Zeugitanam, qui coartaret ad trandendum ministeria diuina uel libros cunctos domini sacerdotes, ut primo armis nudaret et ita facilius inermes hostis callidus captiuasset. Quibus se non posse tradere clamantibus, ipsi rapaci manu cuncta depopulabantur atque de palliis altaris - pro nefas! - camisias sibi et femoralia faciebant. Qui tamen Proculus, huius rei exsecutor , frustratim sibi comedens linguam in breui turpissima consumptus est morte.

(ed. Lancel 2002, 114-115)

I.39

After these happenings Geiseric was inflamed against the church of God. He sent one Proculus to the province of Zeugitana, to force the priests of the Lord to hand over the objects used in divine service and all the books. First the crafty foe took away their arms, so that when they were defenceless he would be able to capture them more easily. When they cried out that they would not hand these over, they took everything away with their greedy hands, and from the altar cloths. What wickedness! they made shirts and breeches for themselves. But Proculus, who carried this out, chewed up his tongue into little pieces and after a short time had passed suffered a most shameful death.

(trans. Moorhead 1992, 18)

Discussion:

On the story in the wider context of the history of the Moors (Berbers) in Vandal Africa see Moderan 2013, chapter 11, loc. 9.

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

About the source:

Author: Victor of Vita
Title: History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa, Historia persecutionis in Africa
Origin: Latin North Africa
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Victor of Vita is known only from his work, the History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa, a narrative about the fate of the "Catholic" (i.e. Nicene) church in Africa conquered by the "Arian" (Homoian) Vandals. Although it contains many interesting details about the history of the Vandal kingdom, it is not a historiographical work but rather a literary and religious piece concerned with martyrs, confessors, and the fight of the true faith with heresy imposed on the African people by the barbarian invaders.

Victor`s name and the fact that he was a bishop of Vita is attested only in the titles given in the manuscripts. Victor himself did not mention that he was a bishop. He knows, however, very well a topography of Carthage and suggests clearly that it is the city in which he had spent a lot of time. In a passsage about the exile of the clergy to Sicca Veneria and Lares in 482/3 (II.28), he says that he was visiting prisoners and celebrating mysteries for them. Thus, we can surmise that at the time of writing his work he was a presbyter from Carthage.

Victor says that he wrote in the sixtieth year after the conquest of Africa by the Vandals, that is in 488. The last events he relates can be dated, however, to 484 and it is uncertain whether the last chapter, which speaks of the death of Huneric, was actually written by Victor (it might have been added later by another person).

Edition:

S. Lancel (ed.), Victor of Vita, Histoire de la persécution vandale en Afrique. Les passion des sept martyres. Registre des provinces et des cités d’Afrique, Paris 2002.

Translation:

J. Moorhead (trans.), Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution, Liverpool 1992

Bibliography:

C. Courtois, Victor de Vita et son oeuvre. Étude critique, Algre 1954.

Y. Modéran, Les Maures et l’Afrique romaine (IVe-VIIe siècle), Rome 2013, https://books.openedition.org/efr/1395

R. Whelan, Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West, Oakland 2018.

Categories:

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς

Conflict

Administration of justice - Exile

Conflict - Violence

Ritual activity - Liturgical books and the Bible

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2433, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2433