E07834: Victor of Tunnuna describes how *African confessors whose tongues were cut out by the Vandals (S01481) under King Huneric in 484 were miraculously still able to speak. He mentions other oppressive actions by Huneric, including the martyrdom of *Laetus (bishop and martyr of Nepte, ob. 484, S02837) and the ill-treatment of *Eugenius (bishop of Carthage exiled to Albi in Gaul, S00334). Entry in his Latin Chronicle, written in Constantinople in 564/566.

Victor of Tunnuna, Chronica

ZENONE AVG. CONS.
Hugnericus Wandalorum rex persecutioni per totam Africam nimis insistens Tubunis, Macri et Nippis aliisque heremi partibus catholicos iam non solum sacerdotes et cuncti ordinis clericos, sed et monachos atque laicos quattuor circiter milia exiliis durioribus relegat et confessores ac martyres facit confessoribusque linguas abscidit. quos confessores, quod linguis abscisis perfecte finem adusque locuti sunt, urbs regia attestatur, ubi eorum corpora iacent. tunc Laetus Neptensis civitatis episcopus gloriose martyrio coronatur VIII kal. Octob. die et Eugenius episcopus Carthaginensis ecclesiae post dira heremi exilia plurimis afflictionibus poenisque clarus habetur.

'Consulship of Zeno Augustus [AD 479]
Huneric, king of the Vandals, bringing excessive persecution to the whole of Africa, relegated around four thousand catholics, not just bishops and clerics of every kind, but also monks and laypeople to Tubunae, Macri, Nippae and other parts of the desert, and made confessors and martyrs, and cut out the tongues of confessors. The royal city [Constantinople], where their bodies lie, attests that these confessors, after their tongues were cut out, spoke perfectly until the end [of their lives]. Then Laetus, bishop of the city of Nepte was crowned with glorious martyrdom on the 8th day before the Kalends of October [= 24 September], and Eugenius, the bishop of the church of Carthage, after terrible exile was famed for his many afflictions and punishments.'

Text: Mommsen 1894, 189. Translation: David Lambert.