Hydatius from Aquae Flaviae
Hydatius († around 469) was bishop of Aquae Flaviae ( Chaves in what is now Portugal ) and a late antique chronicler.
Hydatius was probably born in the last years of the 4th century . He came from Lemica , a small town ( civitas ) near today's Xinzo de Limia ( Ourense ) in the Roman province of Gallaecia . Obviously his family belonged to the upper class. Hydatius was wealthy enough to go on a pilgrimage to Palestine in his childhood (as he himself reports) , where he met the church father Jerome around the year 406 .
Following his chronicle , Hydatius, who had been bishop since 427, later wrote his own work, which reproduces the events, especially with a view to Gallaecia and the Suebian kingdom that was establishing itself there, up to the year 468. The work, in which he dated the imperial years and the Olympics and which is also well done linguistically, is of great importance for the history of late ancient Hispania . Especially after 428 it is our main source for the events on the Iberian Peninsula and southern Gaul; In addition, Hydatius tried very hard to include information about the rest of the Roman Empire in the chronicle as far as possible. The focus on Hispania is therefore primarily due to the bishop's limited knowledge of the rest of the empire and not to a conscious decision in favor of regional history.
Hydatius saw himself as a Roman and, as a civilian and Catholic, had little sympathy for the mostly Visigothic and Suebian warriors, who at that time almost completely controlled Hispania and were mostly Arians . Hydatius proudly recalled that Emperor Theodosius I came from Gallaecia ; but now life is marked by wars, oppression and defeat. In fact, the Western Roman government in Ravenna had largely lost de facto control over Hispania since the invasion of the Vandals , Alans and Suebi in 409 (the Visigoths were added later) and was only able to regain it temporarily and locally. In his chronicle, Hydatius railed sharply against the missionary Ajax , who converted the warrior association of the Suebi under their rex Remismund to Arian instead of Catholic Christianity. At the same time, however, his chronicle also refers to rivalries and conflicts within the majority of the Roman population.
expenditure
- Hydatius: Continuatio Chronicorum Hieronymianorum . In: Theodor Mommsen (Ed.): Auctores antiquissimi 11: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. (II). Berlin 1894 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version ).
- Hydatius: The Chronicle of Hydatius and the Consularia Constantinopolitana. Edited and translated by Richard W. Burgess . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1993 (now authoritative edition, although Mommsen's edition is still citable and in some cases even preferable).
- Jan-Markus Kötter, Carlo Scardino (ed.): Chronicle of Hydatius. Continuation of the Spanish Epitome ( Small and Fragmentary Historians of Late Antiquity ). Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2019 (edition with chapter counting different from Burgess, German translation and commentary).
literature
- Henning Börm : Hydatius von Aquae Flaviae and the unity of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. In: Bruno Bleckmann , Timo Stickler (ed.): Greek profane historians of the fifth century AD ( Historia-Einzelschriften Volume 228). Stuttgart 2014, pp. 195-214.
- Jacques Fontaine: Spain between barbarians and heretics . In: Luce Pietri u. a. (Ed.): The history of Christianity . Volume 3, special edition. Freiburg i. B. 2005, pp. 213-221.
- Steven Muhlberger: The Fifth-Century Chroniclers: Prosper, Hydatius, and the Gallic Chronicler of 452 . Leeds 1990.
- Marcin Pawlak: Hydace et le désordre de son temps . In: Dariusz Brodka u. a. (Ed.): Continuity and change. Studies in Late Antique Historiography . Krakow 2007, pp. 29-38.
- Otto Seeck : Hydatius 2 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 1, Stuttgart 1914, Col. 40-43.
- Roland Steinacher: Gender roles at Hydatius. In: Christoph Ulf , Robert Rollinger (Hrsg.): Women and gender. Images - roles - realities in the texts of ancient authors at the turn of late antiquity to the Middle Ages . Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2006, pp. 155–165.
Web links
- Literature by and about Hydatius von Aquae Flaviae in the catalog of the German National Library
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Hydatius from Aquae Flaviae |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hydatius Lemicus; Hydatius of Chaves |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | late antique bishop and historian |
DATE OF BIRTH | 4th century or 5th century |
DATE OF DEATH | after 468 |