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ER 2435
King Geiseric orders that all officials at his court and of his sons should be Homoian (Arian). One court official, a Nicene named Armogas, declines to convert and is tortured. The Homoian presbyter Jucundus advises against killing him lest he be venerated as a martyr. Armogas is sent to dig ditches in Byzacena, later to be a cowherd near Carthage, ca 460. Account by Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa, written probably in Carthage around 484/488.
I.43
Ipso enim Geisericus praeceperat tempore suadentibus episcopis suis ut intra aulam suam filiorumque suorum nonnisi Arriani per diuersa ministeria ponerentur.
 
Armogas is being tortured but miraculously saved from any real suffering.
 
I.44
Quem cum Theudericus regis filius, qui eius dominus erat, poenis non ualentibus capite truncari iussisset, a suo prohibetur Iucundo presbytero dicente sibi: "Poteris eum diuersis afflictionibus interficere; nam, si gladio peremeris, incipient eum Romani martyrem praedicare." Tunc Theudericus in Bizacenam prouinciam ad fodiendas eum condemnat scrobes. Postea quasi ad maiorem odprobrium haut procul Carthagine, ubi ab omnibus videretur, pastorem eum praecepit esse vacarum.
 
(ed. Lancel 2002, 116-117)
I.43
At that time Geiseric, urged on by his bishops, decreed that only Arians were to be placed in the various offices within his and his sons' court. This was the experience which then befell our Armogas, among others.
 
Armogas is being tortured but miraculously saved from any real suffering.
 
I.44
The punishments had not been severe enough, and the king's son Theoderic, who was his lord, ordered that he be beheaded. But he was restrained by his presbyter Jucundus, who said to him: "You have the power to kill him with torments of different kinds, but if you slay him with the sword, the Romans will begin to preach that he is a martyr." Then Theoderic condemned him to digging ditches for vines in the province of Byzacena. Afterwards, as if to his greater shame, he ordered that he was to be a cowherd not far from Carthage, where he would be seen by everyone.
 
(trans. Moorhead 1992, 19-20)

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

Categories:

Social origin or status - Monarchs and their family
Functions within the Church - Presbyter at court
Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
Conflict
Administration of justice - Secular
Administration of justice - Corporal punishment
Conflict - Violence
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2435, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2435
Record by: Marta Szada
last edited: 2023-05-24 20:51:17
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