| Keywords |
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| ID |
5695 |
| Text |
Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae (475 - 489) Victor of Vita |
| Quotation |
Ea tempestate facta est incredibilis fames et coepit Africam totam una depopulatione vastare. Nullus tunc adfuit imber, nulla prorsus gutta de caelo profluxit: nec frustra, sed vero et iusto iudicio Dei, ut ubi persequentibus Arrianis eaenosi gurgitis aqua ignis et sulphuris bulliebat, indulgentiae caelestis, quae semper adfluenter aderat, pluvia negaretur. Lurida remanserat terrae facies omnis: non vitis tegebatur
aestate pampineis opaeata virgultis, non sata respersa vultus eaespitum viridabant, non olea semper viridis foliisque repleta iucundis decoris sui consuetum tegmen habebat, non pomorum virgulta maritante tellure gemmas produxerant florum, postea fructus, ut adsolent, edituras. Tristia fuere taetraque omnia, et par pestilentiae clades Africam eonfuderat omnem. Non hominibus, non iumentis germinantis herbae ediderat tellus omnino virorem. Aruerant dudum eurrentium impetu praecipiti alvei fluminum, fontiumque crispantes perennitate subtracta pariter siceaverant venae. Oves et boves uni-
versi, insuper et pecora campi simulque bestiae silvarum inedia consumente nusquam penitus visebantur. Et ubi forte graminosus caespis, humida tunc in valle locatus, pallentem potius quam virentem nascentis foeni coeperat proferre colorem, ilico urens et igneus flatus aderat, totum torrendo desiccans, quia pulverea tempestas arido sub aere decoquens cuneta omnem nebulaverat locum. Nullum gestum est tempore illo commercium: nullum eaespitem terrae iuvencis trahentibus scindens vertit aratrum, quia nec boves suberant nee castra omnino remanserant. Sed et rustieorum manus alia interierat, et subinde quae forte supererat, iam sepulturam quaerebat. Et quia urguente famis ineommodo neque commercia, ut fati sumus, consuetudini neque cultura reddebatur debita terris, iuvenum senum, adulescentium atque adulescentularum, puerorum vel etiam puellarum agmina simul et funera, ubi potuerant, quomodo poterant, passim diffundebantur, cireumeuntes oppida, vieos vel singulas urbes. Conversi enim sin arcum perversum atque inritantes deum ad aquam contradictionis famem patiebantur ut canes, non ut comederent panem, sed ut infensam sentirent quam negaverant trinitatem. Alii diffusi per eampos, alii silvarum seereta petebant, antiquas radiees herbarum vel quisquilia alia requirentes. Nonnulli eum domo niterentur egredi, in ipso limine conruentes catervatim fame debellante cadebant; stratae vero vel semitae cadaveribus repletae exalantium foetore mortuorum gradientes vivos omni ex parte necabant. Nee deerant cotidie ubique expirantium funera et non fuerat virtus, quae miserationis inpenderet sepulturam. Neque enim suffieiebant ad sepeliendum vivi, fame dominante et ipsi post paululum morituri. Cupiebant singuli libertatem suam fillorumque suorum perpetuae servituti redigere, et non poterant invenire. Montes et colles, plateae civitatum, viae vel semitae unum omnibus fecerant ubique sepulchrum, quibus inedia depascens denegaverat victum. Wandali autem ipsi, quos et postea frequentia multarum provineiarum spolia, et retentio Afrieae primo fecerant divites, maiore magis inopia torquebantur. Et quanto sibi videbantur servorum adgestione superbi, tanto amplius deficiebant fame torquente defecti. Nullus filium, nullus coniugem, nullus proprium tenuit Servum: sed exiens unusquisque, non ubi voluit, sed ubi valuit, aut statim defecit aut numquam omnino redivit. |
| Translation |
55 At that time a famine occurred which was beyond belief, and it began to devastate the whole of Africa, laying it all waste. There was no rain then: not a single drop fell from heaven. This did not happen for no reason, but in accordance with the true and just judgment of God, so that where, because of the persecuting Arians, the water of the muddy whilrpool had bubbled with fire and sulphur, the rain which heaven bestows in its kindness and which had always been abundantly to hand was withheld. The whole face of the earth remained yellowish: the vine was not covered with leaves during the shaded summer; the measure of grain which were scattered did not make the countenance of the fields green; the olive tree, which is always green and full of pleasant leaves, did not have its usual elegant covering; the thickets of fruit tree did not bring forth gems of flowers on the fructifying earth and go on to yield fruit, as they usually do.
56 Everything was dismal and repulsive, and the disaster, which was on the scale of a pestilence, brought about the ruin of all Africa. The earth totally failed to produce the green of germinating plants for either humankind or beasts (Ps 103:14). The beds of rivers, which not long before, had been running with a strong flow, became dry; the rippling watercourses of the fountains, deprived of their perennial sources, became equally dry. 'All the sheep and oxen, as well as the beasts of the field' (Ps 8:8), and likewise the forest animals, were never seen at all, as hunger put an end to them. And where there happened to be a grassy field, located in a valley which was still moist, which began to display the colour of new hay, pallid rather than green, in that place a burning and fiery wind sprang up, drying out everything with its scorching, because the dusty weather, which caused everything under the dry air to shrivel up, had cast a cloud over every place.
57 There was no buying and selling at that time, and the sods of the earth were not turned as the bullocks pulled the plough, because there were not cattle available and absolutely no villages remained. But when one group of country people died, those who happened to have survived were already waiting for burial. And because. as we have said, owing to the wretched constraint of hunger, the usual trade did not take place, and the due cultivation was not bestowed on the fields, marching bands and funeral processions of young and old, of youths and maidens, of boys and even girls were spread about everywhere, going around towns, villages and individual cities to whatever place and by whatever means they found possible. 'For they were turned in a perverse direction and, provoking God at the water of contradiction, they endured hunger like dogs' (Ps 77:57, 105:32, 58:7), not that they might eat bread, but so that they might feel the bitter hostility of the Trinity whom they denied.
59 But the Vandals themselves, who had become wealthy from the holding of Africa in the first place and, later, from the plentiful spoils taken from many provinces, were tormented by a still greater want. And the more magnificent they had seemed to themselves as they accumulated slaves, the more were they weakened as hunger tormented them. No-one held on to a child, a wife, or his own slave, but each one went forth, not where he would but where he could, and either immediately faltered or never came back at all. |
| Quotation source |
Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae, III, 55-9 (p. 54-5), translation: Victor of Vita: History of the Vandal Persecution, translation by John Moorhead, Translated Texts for Historians, vol. 10 (Liverpool University Press: 1992), p. 86-8 |
| Temporal Coverage |
477 - 484 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
Daten Korrektur |
