Victor of Tunnuna

Victor of Tunnuna (d. ca. 570) was bishop of the North African town of Tunnuna and a chronicler from Late Antiquity.

What little information we have on his life is derived from entries in his own chronicle. Victor was a staunch supporter of the Three Chapters which had been condemned by Justinian's edict of 544, and on this account he was arrested. After some time in exile on the Balearic Islands and imprisonment in the monastery of Mandracium near Carthage, he was transferred to a prison in Alexandria; he was again transferred in 556, this time to a monastery at Canopus. In 565 he and five other African bishops were summoned before Justinian and patriarch Eutychius in Constantinople and ordered to submit to the emperor's edict. When they refused to do so, they were imprisoned in different monasteries in the capital. Victor died about 570, probably still in confinement at a monastery in Constantinople.

Works

Victor is the author of a chronicle, the "Chronicon", which ran from the creation of the world to the end of the year 566 but of which only the part extending from 444 to 566 (continuing the "Epitoma chronicon" by Prosper of Aquitaine) is extant. It is of great historical value, dealing chiefly with the Eutychian heresy, the controversy about the Three Chapters, and giving some details concerning the Arians and the invasion of the Vandals. In general, church matters receive more attention than other issues in this chronicle. It was continued to 590 by John of Biclaro, founder of the Abbey of Biclar in Visigothic Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern [Spain] and Portugal.

Victor has been credited with being the author of the pseudo-Ambrosian "De Poenitentia", although Victor of Cartenna seems to be the real author.

References

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15412a.htm The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913 edition): Victor (Bishop of Tunnunum)]
* [http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/v/victor_b_v_tu.shtml Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon: Victor, Bischof von Tunnuna] (German)