Datianus (Praeses)

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Commemorative plaque from the 9th century on the occasion of the rediscovery of the body of Eulalia of Barcelona, ​​which Datianus calls Praeses in Barcelona .

Datianus (also called Dacianus or Dacien ) is handed down in several saints' lives as praeses of the provinces Hispania citerior and Lusitania of the Roman Empire during the time of the Diocletian persecution of Christians . Further evidence of its existence is not yet known.

Datianus was included in the work Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire , but this was done with reservations, as saints' lives alone are not considered to be sufficiently reliable, although in individual cases they can be a valuable source for Roman names.

Hagiographic lore

One of the oldest hagiographical traditions that Datianus mention is the Vita of Vincent de Valencia , which was evaluated in the 4th century by Prudentius in his work Liber Peristephanon and by Augustine of Hippo in his sermons on the martyrdom of Vincent in the beginning of the 5th century has been. The poetic tradition of Prudentius connects the secular Roman traditions of poetry with the cult of saints that emerged after the Constantinian turning point , in which the numerous martyrs from the Diocletian persecution of Christians are venerated and they were increasingly assigned the role of supplicants based on the assumption that they were particularly close to Christ be.

The Passion of Vincent in a 12th century depiction from the Basel Minster .

The center of tradition is the passion , which is understood as a struggle to the death between a tyrant and a martyr in the role of Christ's soldier . The Passions begin with a public hearing, a tribunal , in which the martyr stands before Datianus. Datianus insists on an act of apostasy such as making a sacrifice to the Roman gods. This is refused by the martyr, whereupon Datianus first tries to conciliate and then threatens violence. After standing firm, the martyr is subjected to a long series of torments. Prudentius summarizes the sufferings of Vincent:

Latin version: German translation by Birgit Meineke:

tormenta, carcer, ungulae
stridensque flammis lammina
atque ipsa poenarum ultima,
mors, Christianis ludus est

Instruments of torture, dungeons, claws
and a torture plate hissing with flames,
even the most extreme punishment,
death, is easy for the Christian

14th-century relief in the crypt of Barcelona Cathedral depicting the application of the torture claws to Saint Eulalia under the supervision of Datianus.

While the martyr is subjected to ever harsher physical torment, the psychological torment of Datianus increases, since all the tortures do not change the martyr's steadfastness. For this theme of the sacrifice, which withstands all tortures unmoved, there are models in the epics known in the fourth century. Michael Roberts names the return of Regulus to Carthage as examples , knowing full well that torture and death threaten him there, and the Spanish hero who kills the Carthaginian Hasdrubal in the epic Punica by Silius Italicus and is then tortured and killed by the Carthaginians, without losing his calm.

In the end, death comes as an act of liberation, after which the sufferer's soul is brought to heaven. Just as the martyr stood before Datianus in the tribunal before, in the depiction of Prudentius he now stands before Christ as a judge, where his steadfastness before the earthly tribunal is honored. On earth the martyr is venerated as a saint, while Datianus is only remembered as a tyrant:

“Quis autem hodie Daciani vel nomen audisset, nisi Vincentii passionem legisset?”

"Who would have heard of Datianus today if they hadn't read Vincent's Passion?"

- Augustine of Hippo : Sermon 276: 4
13th century French stained glass in the cathedral at Coutances , in which Datianus urges George to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

There are far-reaching similarities between the traditions of Saint George and Vincent, although the origin of the legend of George is believed to be in Cappadocia , which is far from the Iberian Peninsula . In addition to the similarities in the course of action, the similarity in name between Datianus and the Dadianos of the legend of St. George is striking. According to one of the hypotheses, Dadianos could be a Graecizing takeover of a -dad-ending name of a Sassanid ruler such as Hormizdad . Or the name could be derived from the nickname Dadianos of an old Georgian princely family. Conversely, it is also believed possible that Datianus arose from a contraction of the historical names Decius and Diocletian . Since the origin of the George legend is also believed to be in the second half of the 4th century, the name could be adopted in one of the two directions.

The widespread Passio S. Vincentii was used in the 7th century as a template for further Vitae in the Spanish and southern French regions, which also mention Datianus. These include the Vitae for Justus and Pastor , Eulalia , Fides from Agen and Germanus from Girona. Through these multiple takeovers Datianus becomes the universal persecutor of Christians.

literature

Web links

Commons : Datianus (praeses)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Emil Hübner (Ed.): Inscriptionum Hispaniae Christianarum Supplementum . 1900, p. 129 No. 519 ( full text ).
  2. ^ Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : *! P.DATIANVS! *  2 . In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 244 .; AR Birley: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire by AHM Jones; JR Martindale; J. Morris . In: The Journal of Roman Studies . tape 62 , 1972, p. 185-186 , JSTOR : 298952 . ; Ralph W. Mathisen: Some Hagiographical Addenda to PLRE In: Historia. Ancient History Journal . tape 36 , no. 4 , 1987, pp. 448-461 , JSTOR : 4436027 .
  3. ↑ Michael Roberts: Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius . 1993, pp. 5, 51-55.
  4. ↑ Sermons 274 to 277 were written in the years 410 to 413: Edmund Hill (Ed.): The Works of Saint Augustine: Sermons III / 8 (273-305A) . New City Press, New York 1994, ISBN 1-56548-060-0 , pp. 23-49 .
  5. ↑ Michael Roberts: Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius . 1993, pp. 5, 21, 24.
  6. ^ Lieselotte Schütz: Vincent of Zaragoza . In: Wolfgang Braunfels (Ed.): Lexicon of Christian Iconography . tape 8 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1976, ISBN 3-451-22568-9 , p. 568-571 .
  7. ↑ Michael Roberts: Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius . 1993, pp. 40, 52.
  8. ↑ Michael Roberts: Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius . 1993, pp. 57-58.
  9. ↑ Birgit Meineke: To determine the meaning in Old High German . In: Rudolf Schützeichel (Ed.): Addenda and Corrigenda (III) on the Old High German vocabulary . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-525-20327-6 , pp. 224 ( Google Books ).
  10. ↑ Saint Eulalia. Retrieved December 10, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 275, section 2; Latin version on augustinus.it ; Michael Roberts: Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius . 1993, p. 63.
  12. ↑ Silius Italicus: Punica . In: JD Duff (Ed.): Loeb Classical Library 277 . Volume I: Books 1–8. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1934, pp. 16 ( full text ). ; Michael Roberts: Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius . 1993, p. 64.
  13. ↑ Michael Roberts: Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs. The Liber Peristephanon of Prudentius . 1993, pp. 69-72.
  14. ^ Sermo 276. Retrieved December 10, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Martine Callias Bey, Véronique David: Les vitraux de Basse-Normandie . Presses universitaires de Rennes, Rennes 2006, ISBN 2-7535-0337-0 , p. 137 .
  16. ↑ a b Wolfgang Haubrichs: Georgslied and Georgslegende in the early Middle Ages . 1979, p. 221, note 43.
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Haubrichs refers here to a review by Anton Baumstark in Oriens Christianus Volume 10, 1912, p. 152.
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Haubrichs refers here to Marie-Félicité Brosset: Histoire de la Géorgie depuis l'antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle . Saint-Petersbourg 1830 and 1858, p. 646.
  19. ↑ Wolfgang Haubrichs refers here to the dissertation by Monika Schwarz: Der Heilige Georg - Miles Christi und Drachentöter. Changes in his literary image in Germany from the beginning to modern times. Cologne 1972, p. 14.
  20. ↑ Wolfgang Haubrichs: Georgslied and Georgslegende in the early Middle Ages . 1979, pp. 222-224 with 43.
personal data
SURNAME Datianus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dacianus; Dacia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman praeses in the time of the Diocletian persecution of Christians
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH 4th century