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).