Thebaic Legion

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Die Thebaische Schaar , lithograph , between 1830 and 1850

The Thebaic Legion (often also Thebaic Legion , Latin Legio Thebaica ) was, according to Christian tradition, a legion of the Roman army, all of whose members are said to have been martyred towards the end of the 3rd century . This legend was particularly popular in the Middle Ages , and both the entire legion and individual members were the subject of intense veneration. According to modern research, the existence of the Legion is highly doubtful and is considered by most ancient historians to be an unhistorical fiction. The days of remembrance for the majority of martyrs are generally October 10th and September 11th.

Sources

For many centuries, the reports about the alleged existence and history of the Thebaic Legion were essentially based on the late antique writing passio Acaunensium martyrum from around 450/440 by the Lyons bishop Eucherius , who died around 450 , in which the latter stated that “he wanted to use his script Honor the event ( pro honore gestorum ) and report with credibility ( fide ) what happened in order to prevent the glorious martyrdom of the Theban Legion from disappearing from the memory of the people ”. Eucherius relies on an oral chain of tradition about Bishop Isaac of Geneva , who in turn referred to Bishop Theodor von Sitten , who died at the beginning of the 5th century. Another tradition from this period is a separate, anonymous version of the passio from the 5th century, which has some differences to the handwriting of Eucherius. The earliest accounts of the Legion were thus made at least a hundred years after the time the events are said to have occurred. The narratives cannot be verified against contemporary historiographical sources as these do not exist for the late 3rd century.

In the period that followed, Gregor von Tours , Venantius Fortunatus and Walafried Strabo reported on the fate of the Thebaic Legion and mostly referred to Eucherius. Often local saints were elevated to members of the Thebaic Legion. Around 590, for example, Gregor von Tours also claimed that Gereon , who was venerated in Cologne , and his comrades belonged to the legion and thus added further martyrs in the Rhineland to the legendary description , which was previously limited to today's Swiss canton of Valais . The 11th century font passio sanctorum Gereonis, Victoris, Cassi et Florentii Thebaeorum martyrum by an unknown author extended the plot to almost the entire Rhineland. In 1569 Laurentius Surius noted the tradition in his descriptions of the lives of the saints.

“Eucherius of Lyons, on the other hand, went less into the historical background in his Passio; this remains much more indistinct with him and is even shown somewhat blurred; Eucherius is much less interested in the external circumstances than in his actual theme, the Passio itself. "

- Heinrich Büttner : For the discussion about the martyrdom of the Theban Legion.

The legend

Tradition of the 5th century

El Greco : The Martyrdom of Saint Mauritius

According to Eucherius, the Legion came from the eastern part of the Roman Empire , today's Egypt , and all 6,600 (anonymous version: 6,660) members were Christians. It was allegedly led by Mauritius , who (according to later tradition) is said to have also owned the Holy Lance . Other named officers are Exuperius and Candidus . At the end of the 3rd century, according to the anonymous passio , Emperor Maximian sent the legion to war against the Bagauden in Gaul . According to Eucherius, however, the following events did not take place until the beginning of the Great Persecution of Christians in 303.

After Maximian set up camp in Octodurum (today: Martigny ), so the legend goes, he asked his subordinates to make a sacrifice for the Roman gods before the fight began. Mauritius and his legion refused and went to Agaunum (today: St. Maurice d'Agaune ), where they camped. After being asked to return and sacrifice, the Legion was decimated twice as a punishment . According to Eucherius' passio , the reason for the decimation was their refusal to fight against Christian fellow believers. He also reports that the legionaries did not offer any resistance and sought martyrdom. So Maximian finally gave the order to murder the entire legion. During the looting of the bodies, an uninvolved Christian named Victor is said to have come by and was murdered because he revealed himself. Two legionaries escaped to Solothurn and were killed there ( St. Victor and St. Ursus ).

Martyrdom in the Rhineland

According to the anonymous "passio sanctorum Gereonis" , parts of the legion are said to have already rushed ahead to suppress an uprising in what is now the Rhineland, where they were in Bonn ( St. Cassius and St. Florentius with seven and twelve companions, respectively), in Cologne ( St. Gereon with 318 companions) and Xanten ( St. Viktor with 330 companions, St. Mallosus ) are said to have been apprehended and also executed.

Ceiling painting in the Church of St. Paulin, Trier. Depicted scenes: Above: The Trier martyrdom Middle: Resurrection and ascension of the Trier martyrs Below: The citizens of Trier and the Thebaic Legion praise Christ on the cross

According to regional legend in Trier , however, the legion was executed in the north of the then city. Numerous skulls and bones that are ascribed to the martyrs are kept in the Trier St. Paulin Church to this day . The church was originally built on a Roman burial ground.

Other traditions

According to another legend of the late 9th century, Saint Verena von Zurzach came to Switzerland in the wake of the Theban Legion , where she is said to have venerated the tombs of the martyrs and led a life of virginity and asceticism. Sigebert von Gembloux wrote a metric Passio Sanctorum Thebeorum in three books in the 70s of the 11th century, in which he also wrote Victor von Xanten, Victor and Ursus von Solothurn, Tyrsus von Trier, Gereon von Köln and his companions, the 50 Bonn Martyrs as well as Alexander von Bergamo and Secundus von Ventimiglia mentioned and their numbers interpreted symbolically.

Adoration

The worship of the Theban Legion at their supposed place of execution can be traced back to the late 4th century. The relics of the Thebes were found by the Bishop of Octodurum , later canonized Theodorus , in Agaunum, today's St. Maurice in Valais ( Switzerland ). He buried them in the Cour du Martolet before 392 and built a burial church ( basilica ) there. In 430 Mauritius and companions appeared in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum and were therefore probably already part of a local church calendar. Eucherius tells of a miracle story that probably took place around 450, in which a woman came to Agaune and prayed for the healing of her paralysis, which finally took place. At that time there was already a pilgrimage to the place of suffering of the martyrs. In this context, Eucherius also tells of the existence of a hostel ( hospitium ) and donations in the form of silver and gold. Apparently the bones of the legionaries had already achieved considerable fame in Eucherius' time. Agaune was probably also popular with pilgrims because it was geographically favorable for pilgrims who crossed the Alps on a north-south journey.

In 515 Sigismund , designated King of the Burgundians , founded the Abbey of Saint-Maurice and "professionalized" the pilgrimage there. The first pope who verifiably visited the martyr's grave was Stephen II at the end of 753 in order to conduct diplomatic negotiations with the Frankish king Pippin at this place - the king did not appear, however. A famous Carolingian visitor was Charles the Bald in 875. While the early tradition still revered the Thebes as a group, the travel reports from St. Maurice up to the 9th century show an increasing concentration on the person of Mauritius.

In the early Middle Ages there was already a reliquary in St. Maurice, which was favored by the location above an ancient mass grave. The relics were given away to monasteries, chapels or churches; some were also affiliated with foundations . Bones that were venerated as relics by martyrs were later partly transferred to St. Maurice and ensured that the place became a central place of pilgrimage for centuries . Other relics are still kept in the churches at the places of their alleged martyrdom and are considered the remains of patron saints ; for example, Cassius and Florentius were named city ​​patrons of Bonn in 1643 . In some cases, legends developed about the recovery of the bones of several martyrs by Helena , the mother of Constantine the Great, for example for Gereon and Viktor.

Names

In particular, the name Victor (or Viktor) denotes several martyrs in the context of the Legion, so that it is sometimes assumed for them to be unknown by name and instead to bear the title victor (Latin for winner ). Mauritius, the leader of the Thebaic Legion, does not have a traditional name either, but has been dubbed simply as Moore or " Mohr " via the Greek mauros, μαῦρος ( black, dark ) , which corresponds to the usual portrayal of Mauritius as a dark-skinned legionnaire. Gereon's name is also occasionally interpreted via the Greek geron ( old man ) or the Latin gerere ( wage war ) as the title of something actually nameless.

historicity

Current research results justify massive doubts about the existence of the Legion and the circumstances of its violent dissolution; this was already seen in the first half of the 19th century. As one of the main arguments it was mentioned as early as the 16th century that Sulpicius Severus , a contemporary and important historian of Eucherius, had no tradition on the Thebaic Legion and he even explicitly noted that from the end of the Valerian persecutions (257-260) to fifty years had passed on the persecution of Christians under Diocletian (since 303) during which there were no state measures against Christians. This contradicts the information in the anonymous passio , which claims that the spectacular events took place in connection with the Bagauden Wars in 285/86 .

Furthermore, contradicting and very improbable contents of the legend were referred to early on. For example, it is considered implausible that Maximian is said to have undertaken military operations in the territory of his co-emperor Constantius around 304 , as the version of Eucherius assumes. This would have contradicted the rulership practice at the time. There is also a complete lack of evidence of the persecution of Christians in the western part of the Roman Empire during the period of the alleged extermination of the Thebaic Legion. The name of the legion - Eucherius calls it " legio militum ", which was called " Thebaei " - gives rise to doubts about the existence of the legion: the name suggests that it was their original camp in Thebes, Egypt whereas the legionary garrison of Egypt in the 2nd and 3rd centuries was actually formed by the Legio II Traiana fortis , which was also not stationed in Thebes or the Thebes, but in Nicopolis near Alexandria. The number of legionnaires in the Thebaic Legion, 6,600 or 6,660, does not match the actual size of a legion of that time, which under Diocletian (since 284) only comprised between 1,000 and 2,000 legionnaires. The ranks " primicerius " and " senator " of Mauritius and Candidus, which are emphasized in Eucherius, are also inapplicable for legions , although they were widespread among the auxiliary troops, but never among legions. It is also rightly noted that it is very unlikely that an entire legion of that time would have been composed entirely of Christians. In addition, by around 300 the practice of deploying entire legions as one group had long since been abandoned, but only deployed armies made up of parts of various units. Therefore, from the perspective of ancient historical research, there is hardly any doubt that the story of the “Thebaic Legion”, at least in its traditional form, is a later invention.

Louis Dupraz was one of the few modern scholars who assumed that the story had a true core and that the Thebaic Legion was a - presumably mounted - military unit of the Legio II Traiana fortis . The troop designation Thebae certainly comes from oral tradition. Eucherius uses the word legio , which he has yet to explain to his contemporary readers.

Some researchers, including David Woods , suspect that the legend of the martyrdom of the Thebaic Legion was invented in connection with the fight between Emperor Theodosius I and the usurper Eugenius : In 394 there was a civil war between the two, with Theodosius ruling Eugenius and his mighty man Army master Arbogast , who was not a Christian, was stylized as enemies of God and persecutors of Christians. With the legend of the alleged martyrdom of the Thebaic Legion, Woods said Theodor von Sitten wanted to bring the Egyptian troops stationed at Octodurum ( Martigny ) to the side of Theodosius. In view of the sources, however, it has not been finally decided whether this is the case.

swell

literature

Web links

Commons : Thebaic Legion  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Friedrich Gelpke: Church history of Switzerland under the Roman, Burgundian and Allemann rule. Verlag der J. Dalp'schen Buchhandlung, Bern 1856, p. 53.
  2. ↑ Passio Acaunensium martyrum. In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, Passiones I. pp. 20–41 , accessed on December 13, 2012 .
  3. ↑ a b c Alexander Speidel: The Thebaic Legion and the late Roman army . ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 141 kB) accessed November 24, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mavors.org
  4. ↑ a b c d Stephan Beissel : The Martyrdom of St. Victor and his comrades . In: ders., The building management of the Middle Ages. Study of the Church of St. Victor to Xanten . Herder, Freiburg 1889, pp. 7-21.
  5. ↑ Paul Müller: Mauritius, witness of his faith. The hermit version X2 of the Passio of St. Mauritius . In: F. Schrader (Ed.): Contributions to the history of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg . Leipzig 1969, p. 179-191 (German translation).
  6. ^ Heinrich Büttner : For discussion of the martyrdom of the Theban Legion. In: Journal for Swiss Church History. Volume 55 (1961) ISSN  0044-3484 , p. 270 ( digitized version ).
  7. ↑ Ingo Runde: "Legendary Xanten". Heroes and saints in medieval sagas and stories. In: Dieter Geuenich (Ed.): Xantener lectures on the history of the Lower Rhine 2004 , pp. 91–119.
  8. ^ Heinrich Büttner: For discussion of the martyrdom of the Theban Legion. In: Journal for Swiss Church History. Volume 55 (1961) ISSN  0044-3484 , p. 269.
  9. ^ Ernst Dümmler: Sigeberts from Gembloux Passio sanctae Luciae virginis and Passio sanctorum Thebeorum. In: Treatises of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin 1893, pp. 1–125 ( digitized version ).
  10. ↑ Maurice Zufferey: The Mauritius cult in the early and high Middle Ages . In: Historical yearbook . No. 106 , 1986, pp. 23-58 .
  11. ↑ Liber Pontificalis 94, 24.
  12. ^ Annals of St. Bertin , 875/876.
  13. ^ Rettberg: Church history of Germany . Vol. 1 (Göttingen 1845); Gieseler: Textbook of Church History . Vol. 1, 1. (Bonn 1835).
  14. ^ Heinrich Büttner: For discussion of the martyrdom of the Theban Legion. In: Journal for Swiss Church History. Volume 55 (1961) ISSN  0044-3484 , p. 273.