Secundus of Trento

Secundus von Trient († 612 ) was an abbot and historian who lived in the late 6th / early 7th century .

The 8th century historian of the Lombards , Paulus Diaconus , mentions Secundus of Trento , whom he describes as " servus Christi " ( servus Christi ). He wrote a history of the Lombards, which Paul calls a historiola , but which has not survived. All of our information is based on the statements of Paul. Secundus was the abbot of a monastery in Val di Non and in 603 he baptized the Lombard prince Adaloald in Monza . Secundus himself died in March 612.

Paul used the work of Secundus as a source and incorporated numerous events, probably literally, into his work. Hardly anything can be said with certainty about the extent of the Historiola . It probably lasted until shortly before the death of the Secundus. Theodor Mommsen's view that the work also included the Origo Gentis Langobardorum , which, so to speak, only represents an excerpt from the work of Secundus, is rejected by modern research. In general, today's research assumes that the Historiola was written relatively briefly and in an annalistic form and that Paul used it for the period after Alboin , since the work probably also dealt mainly with the history of the Lombards in Italy and less with their early days. More recently, however, Benjamin Garstadt has pleaded not to judge prematurely: content-related references therefore allow the assumption to be made from a more comprehensive historical work than the term historiola , which only appears twice in Paul, suggests that the term was used in one of the cases used as a term for his own (by no means brief) work.

It is very likely that the historian mentioned here is identical to the Secundus who was in correspondence with Pope Gregory the Great on behalf of Queen Theudelinde . If this is the case, then the theologically and historically scholarly Secundus apparently acted as an important church political advisor to the queen.

Editions / translations

• Entry in Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (CHAP) .
• Lieve Van Hoof, Peter Van Nuffelen ( eds / translators) : The Fragmentary Latin Histories of Late Antiquity (AD 300-620). Edition, Translation and Commentary. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020, p. 232ff. (to the Historiola )

literature

• Ken Gardiner: Paul the Deacon and Secundus of Trento. In: Brian Croke / Alanna Nobbs (eds.): History and Historians in Late antiquity. Sydney 1983, pp. 147-153.
• Benjamin Garstad: Authari in Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum, Secundus of Trent, and the Alexander Tradition in Early Lombard Italy. In: Journal of Late Antiquity 9, 2016, pp. 218–266.
• Walter Pohl : Secundus of Trient. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. 27 (2004), pp. 638-639.
• Gerhard Waldherr :  Secundus (Secundinus) of Trient. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. 1277-1279.

Remarks

1. ^ Paulus Diaconus , Historia Langobardorum , 4,40.
2. ↑ Paulus, Historia Langobardorum , 4,27.
3. ↑ Paulus, Historia Langobardorum , 4,40. See also Pohl, p. 638.
4. ↑ Cf. Benjamin Garstad: Authari in Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum, Secundus of Trent, and the Alexander Tradition in Early Lombard Italy. In: Journal of Late Antiquity 9, 2016, here p. 238ff.
5. ↑ Pohl, p. 639. Cf. also Waldherr: Secundus von Trient .