E03529: Prosper of Aquitaine, in his Chronicle, records the life of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. AD 397, S00050). Written in Latin in Gaul or Rome, in the mid 5th c.
online resource
posted on 2017-08-04, 00:00authored bydlambert
Prosper of Aquitaine, Chronicle 1174-5
CCCLIV Antonio et Syagrio Martinus episcopus Turinorum Galliae civitatis multis [miraculorum signis] clarus habetur.
'354 [years since the Crucifixion] [Consulship of] Antonius and Syagrius [= AD 381] Martin, bishop of the city of Tours in Gaul, is famed for many [manifestations of miracles].'
Text: Mommsen 1892, 461. Translation: David Lambert.
History
Evidence ID
E03529
Saint Name
Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours (Gaul), ob. 397 : S00050
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Language
Latin
Evidence not before
430
Evidence not after
460
Activity not before
370
Activity not after
397
Place of Evidence - Region
Gaul and Frankish kingdoms
Rome and region
Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Tours
Tours
Toronica urbs
Prisciniacensim vicus
Pressigny
Turonorum civitas
Ceratensis vicus
Céré
Rome
Rome
Roma
Ῥώμη
Rhōmē
Cult Activities - Miracles
Miracle during lifetime
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Source
Prosper of Aquitaine (ob. after 455) was active from the 420s to the 450s, producing religious polemics, collections of documents, theological treatises, poetry, and chronography. Prosper was originally from southern Gaul, and is known to have been living in Marseille in the late 420s. The once generally accepted belief that he subsequently moved to Rome, and even became an adviser to Pope Leo the Great, has been increasingly disputed in recent scholarship (for differing perspectives, see Markus 1986; Hwang 2009, 187-198; Salzman 2015); it is clear from his works, however, that he visited Rome, had contacts with the papacy, and had access to papal documents.
Prosper first compiled his Chronicle in 433, and added continuations in 445 and 455. Like most late antique Latin chroniclers, Prosper began the original part of his Chronicle at the point where Jerome's Chronicle ended, in the late 370s (Prosper, Chron. 1166; p. 460 in Mommsen's ediition), but instead of simply appending his continuation to a text of Jerome's work, he produced his own version, which is shorter than the original but also contains additions by Prosper (we have not included separate entries for items in Prosper's Chronicle which simply reproduce entries in the Chronicle of Jerome). Prosper dates events in his Chronicle both by years since the Crucifixion and by consular years. For a detailed overview of Prosper's Chronicle, see Muhlberger 1990, 55-135.
Discussion
There is a lacuna in the text of this entry: the bracketed words were restored by Mommsen from Isidore of Seville's Chronicle (E02536).
Bibliography
Edition:
Mommsen, T., Prosperi Tironis epitoma de chronicon, in: Chronica Minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII., vol. 1 (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Auctores Antiquissimi 9; Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1892), 385-485.
Further reading:
Hwang, A.Y., Intrepid Lover of Perfect Grace: The Life and Thought of Prosper of Aquitaine (Washington: CUA Press, 2009).
Markus, R.A., "Chronicle and Theology: Prosper of Aquitaine," in: C. Holdsworth and T.P. Wiseman (eds.), The Inheritance of Historiography: 350-950 (Exeter: Exeter University Publications, 1986), 31-43.
Muhlberger, S., The Fifth-Century Chroniclers: Prosper, Hydatius, and the Gallic Chronicler of 452 (Leeds: Francis Cairns, 1990).
Salzman, M.R., "Reconsidering a Relationship: Pope Leo of Rome and Prosper of Aquitaine," in. G. Dunn (ed.), The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 109-125.