| Keywords |
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| ID |
5685 |
| Text |
Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae (475 - 489) Victor of Vita |
| Quotation |
Quanti tunc ab eis praeclari pontifices et nobiles sacerdotes diversis poenarum generibus extincti sunt, ut traderent si quid auri vel argenti proprium vel ecclesiasticum haberent! Et dum quae erant urguentibus poenis facilius ederentur, iterum crudelibus tormentis oblatores urguebant, autumantes quandam partem, non totum oblatum: et quanto plus dabatur, tanto amplius quempiam habere credebant. Aliis palorum vectibus ora reserantes foetidum caenum ob confessionem pecuniae faucibus ingerebant: nonnullos in frontibus et tibiis nervis remugientibus torquendo cruciabant: plerisque aquam marinam, aliis acetum, amurcam liquemenque et alia multa atque crudelia, tamquam utribus inbutis ore adpositis, sine misericordia porrigebant. Non infirmior sexus, non consideratio nobilitatis, non reverentia sacerdotalis crudeles animos mitigabat, sed quin immo ibi exaggerabatur ira furoris, ubi honorem conspexerant dignitatis.
9 ... Ubi vero munitiones aliquae videbantur, quas hostilitas barbarici furoris obpugnare nequiret, congregatus in circuitu castrorum innumerabilis turbis, gladiis feralibus cruciabant, ut putrefactis cadaveribus, quos adire non poterant arcente murorum defensione, corporum liquescentium enecarent foetore.
10 Quanti et quam numerosi tunc ab eis cruciati sunt sacerdotes, explicare quis porterit? Tunc enim et nostrae civitatis [Vita] venerabilis Pampinianus antistes candentis ferri lamminis toto adustus est corpore: similiter et Mansuetus Vricitanus in porta incensus est Fornitana. Que tempestate Hipporegiorum obsessa est civitas, quam omni laude dignus beatus Augustinus, librorum multorum confector, pontifex gubernat. Tunc illud eloquentiae, quod ubertum per omnes campos ecclesiae decurrebat ipso metu siccatum est flumen, atque dulcedo suavitatis dulcius propinata in armaritudinem absynthii versa est. |
| Translation |
5 How many were the distinguished bishops and noble priest put to death by them [Vandals] at that time with different kinds of torments, as they tried to make them give up any gold or silver belonging to themselves or the churches! and so that the things which were in their keeping would be brought forth more easily under the pressure of pain, they inflicted cruel torments a second time on those who produced things, asserting that they had produced a part but not the whole, and the more a person gave, the more they believed he had still more.
6 Some had their mouths forced open with poles and stakes, and disgusting filth was put in their jaws so that they would tell the truth about their money. They tortured others by twisting cords around their foreheads and shins until they snapped. Devoid of mercy they offered many people sea water, others vinegar, the lees of olive oil, fish sauce and many other cruel things, while full wineskins were placed near their mouths. Neither the weaker sex, nor regard for nobility, nor reverence for the priesthood softened those cruel hearts; on the contrary, when they caught sight of some officeholder worthy of honour, the wrath of their fury was thereupon increased.
9 (...) But where there were some defensive works against which the hostility of their barbaric frenzy was unable to prevail, countless throngs were brought together at the walls of the towns. These they put to death with their savage swords, so that when the corpses had rotted away they were able, by means of the stench of the decaying bodies, to bring about the death of those whom they had not been able to approach because of the sheltering walls which protected them.
10 Who will be able to declare how many and how numerous were the bishops who were then tortured by them? For it was then as well that Pampinianus, the venerable bishop of our town [Vita] was burnt all over his body by plates of glowing iron; in the same way mansuetus of Urusi [Henchir Sougga] was burnt in the Porta Fornitana. At this time the city of Hippo Regius [Annaba], which the blessed Augustine, worthy of praise, governed as its pontiff, was besieged.
11 Then that river of eloquence, which flowed richly over all the fields of the church, dried up in the midst of its course, and the pleasant sweetness, so sweetly provided, was turned to bitter absinth. |
| Quotation source |
Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae,´I, 5-6, 9-11 (p. 3-4), translation: Victor of Vita: History of the Vandal Persecution, translation by John Moorhead, Translated Texts for Historians, vol. 10 (Liverpool University Press: 1992), p. 4-6 |
| Temporal Coverage |
430 - 430 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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