'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
★
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913 edition): Victor (Bishop of Tunnunum)
★
Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon: Victor, Bischof von Tunnuna (German)