{"slug":"tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1","id":"latin:ogl-pl:tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1","title":"Epistola Ad Argebatum Episcopum Portugalensem","title_source":"Epistola Ad Argebatum Episcopum Portugalensem","author":"Maximus Caesaraugustanus Episcopus","genre":"letter","date":"","tradition":"latin","coverage":"not-located","coverage_claim":{"status":"not-located","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},"publication":{"status":"machine-draft","reviewed_by":null,"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor","provider":"Relace","generated":"2026-11-15T05:58:27Z","cost_usd":0.00139},"source":{"registry_id":"latin:ogl-pl:tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1","work_id":"tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1","edition":"ogl-pl","language":"","license":"Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/patrologia_latina-dev/blob/master/data/tmp1389/tmp1389/tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1.xml"},"stats":{"passages":2,"english_words":299,"coptic_letters":0,"source_letters":1271,"commentary_units":11,"commentary_kinds":7,"derived_notes":0,"ambiguities":3,"work_notes":5,"external_links":4,"timeline":5},"summary":{"work":"tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1","abstract":"The Epistola Ad Argebatum Episcopum Portugalensem is a Latin letter from Maximus, bishop of Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza), to Bishop Argebadus of Portugal, likely a suffragan of Braga. The letter serves as a prefatory note to a chronicle Maximus compiled at Argebadus's request, discussing chronological methods such as the Spanish Era and years of Christ. It survives only in the Patrologia Latina edition (PL 80), with no known manuscript witness, and may contain early modern editorial errors. The text is rarely cited in modern scholarship on Visigothic church history.","historical_context":"The letter dates to the Visigothic period in Iberia, likely the late 6th to early 7th century, before the Arab conquest. Maximus of Caesaraugusta is attested as a bishop during this era. The letter references King Gundemar (fl. early 7th century), situating it in the context of a church synod at Toledo. The Spanish Era dating system, beginning in 38 BC, is used; era 644 corresponds to AD 606, placing composition after Gundemar's death. The text survives only through early modern printed editions, notably in the 17th-century Hispania Illustrata and later Migne's Patrologia Latina. No manuscript witness is known, and the transmission likely involved scribal or editorial emendations. The letter's genre follows late antique epistolary conventions, and it was part of a larger chronicle project, with a missing second letter from Argebatus to Maximus noted by editors.","significance":"The letter is significant as a rare witness to Visigothic Iberian chronicle-writing and ecclesiastical correspondence. It illustrates the use of the Spanish Era and the intellectual exchange between bishops. Its survival only in early modern editions highlights the challenges of studying Visigothic texts, and its neglect in modern scholarship underscores the need for critical reassessment of the Patrologia Latina corpus.","timeline":[{"date":"38 BC","event":"Beginning of the Spanish Era dating system."},{"date":"late 6th–early 7th c.","event":"Maximus of Caesaraugusta active as bishop; letter likely composed."},{"date":"AD 606","event":"Corresponds to Spanish Era 644; letter mentions King Gundemar, who died before this date."},{"date":"17th c.","event":"Letter included in Hispania Illustrata."},{"date":"19th c.","event":"Reprinted in Patrologia Latina (PL 80) by Migne."}],"relations":[{"work":"Chronicle of Maximus of Caesaraugusta","relation":"The letter is a prefatory note to this chronicle, compiled at Argebadus's request.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Hispania Illustrata","relation":"Early modern collection that included the letter.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Patrologia Latina","relation":"Edition (PL 80) that preserves the text.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Dexter's Chronicle","relation":"Maximus contrasts his chronological method with Dexter's.","key":"","label":null,"url":null}],"external_links":[{"key":"wikipedia:Visigothic Kingdom","label":"Visigothic Kingdom","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visigothic_Kingdom","reason":"Historical context of the letter's composition."},{"key":"wikipedia:Hispania","label":"Hispania","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispania","reason":"Geographical setting of the letter."},{"key":"wikipedia:Patrologia Latina","label":"Patrologia Latina","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrologia_Latina","reason":"Primary edition of the text."},{"key":"wikipedia:Spanish Era","label":"Spanish Era","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_era","reason":"Dating system used in the letter."}],"cautions":["The date of the letter is uncertain; it is placed in the late 6th to early 7th century based on Maximus's episcopacy and the mention of King Gundemar.","No manuscript witness survives; the text is known only from early modern printed editions, which may contain scribal or editorial errors.","The missing second letter (from Argebatus to Maximus) leaves the correspondence incomplete.","The letter is rarely cited in modern scholarship, and its authenticity has not been critically assessed."],"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor","provider":"Relace","cost_usd":0.000447,"generated":"2026-11-15T05:58:26Z"},"links":[{"kind":"source","label":"Open Greek and Latin Patrologia Latina","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/patrologia_latina-dev/blob/master/data/tmp1389/tmp1389/tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1.xml"}],"checks":{"work":"tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1","status":"pass","blocking":[],"warnings":[],"stats":{"passages":2,"translated":2,"commentary_passages":2,"commentary_units":11,"english_words":299,"source_letters":1271,"commentary_kinds":7},"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor"},"work_notes":[{"unit":"sense","kind":"sense","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"The letter is addressed to Bishop Argebadus of Portugal, likely a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Braga. The salutation follows late antique epistolary conventions.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"dating","kind":"chronology","basis":"background","lemma":"","severity":"caution","text":"Maximus of Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) is attested as a bishop in the late 6th to early 7th century. The letter’s date is uncertain, but it likely belongs to the Visigothic period before the Arab conquest.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"transmission","kind":"transmission","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"The text survives only in the Patrologia Latina edition (PL 80), which reprints earlier printed editions. No manuscript witness is known; the edition may contain scribal or editorial emendations.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":["ogl-pl"]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"background","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"The letter was included in the 17th-century Hispania Illustrata and later in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, but it is rarely cited in modern scholarship on Visigothic church history.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"sense","kind":"sense","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"caution","text":"This edition provides no critical apparatus or collation with other witnesses. The Latin text may contain errors introduced by early modern editors; readers should consult the PL transcription with caution.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":["ogl-pl"]}],"derived_work_notes":[{"kind":"coverage","severity":"info","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},{"kind":"limit","severity":"caution","text":"The English is a machine draft produced passage by passage from the transcribed Coptic; no human has verified it. The commentary is model-written and cites only keys the pipeline could resolve."},{"kind":"register","severity":"info","text":"Register: letter in Latin; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them."},{"kind":"structure","severity":"info","text":"Passages: 2 narrative."},{"kind":"source","severity":"info","text":"Source edition: ogl-pl — Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License"}],"derived_structure":{"narrative":2},"term_index":[],"citations":{},"segments":[{"i":1,"ref":"p1","source":"MAXIMI CAESARAUGUSTANI EPISCOPI SCRIPTA QUAE EXSTANT OMNIA.\n\n(In Nicolai Antonii Bibliotheca Hispana veteri, unde sumpsimus Maximi scripta, epistola sequens praemissam habent hanc notam: Hoe duae sequentes epistolae erant post Chronicon in membrana pervetusta litteris Gothicis scriptae. Editor vero animadvertit in margine: Excidit harum altera, Argebati forsan ad Maximum.)\n\nEPISTOLA MAXIMI CAESARAUGUSTANI EPISCOPI AD ARGEBATUM EPISCOPUM PORTUGALENSEM. PRO SUO CHRONICO.\n\nSancto et venerabili fratri episcopo Argebato Maximus.\n\nCum essemus uroe regia ad concilium vocati a domino nostro gloriosissimo rege Gundemaro saepe inter nos convenimus, cum et sermo multus esset de historiis regum Gothorum, quas non multo ante in lucent edideram, efflagitasti a me satis verecunde ut tibi continuarem Chronicon illud quod nomine Dextri Barchinonensis circumfertur. Et cum tu pro tua in me benevolentia, et mea in te observantia, jubere potuisses, maluit sanctitas tua a me precibus contendere quod quasi pro jure suo bene poterat jubere vel exigere. Feci quod jussisti, connectens seriem temporum more nostro per aeras et annos Christi, praetermisique computandi rationem quam per annos Urbis et Augustorum Dexter sequitur. Utinam tam diligenter fec rim imperata tua, beatissime Pater, quam conatus sum facere libenter!","english":"All the Extant Writings of Maximus, Bishop of Caesaraugusta.\n\n(In Nicolaus Antonius's *Ancient Spanish Library*, from which we have taken the writings of Maximus, the following letter has this note prefixed: These two following letters were after the Chronicle on a very old parchment written in Gothic letters. The editor, however, noted in the margin: The second of these is missing, perhaps from Argebatus to Maximus.)\n\nLETTER OF MAXIMUS, BISHOP OF CAESARAUGUSTA, TO ARGEBATUS, BISHOP OF PORTUGAL, CONCERNING HIS CHRONICLE.\n\nTo the holy and venerable brother bishop Argebatus, Maximus.\n\nWhen we were summoned to the royal city for a council by our most glorious lord, King Gundemar, we often met together, and since there was much discussion about the histories of the kings of the Goths, which I had published not long before, you very modestly begged me to continue for you that Chronicle which is circulated under the name of Dexter of Barcinona. And although, on account of your goodwill toward me and my respect for you, you could have commanded, your holiness preferred to seek from me by entreaties what you could rightly command or demand as by right. I did what you ordered, connecting the sequence of times in our manner by eras and years of Christ, and I omitted the method of reckoning which Dexter follows by years of the City and of the Augusti. Would that I had carried out your commands, most blessed Father, as diligently as I have striven to do so willingly!","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"background","lemma":"Gundemaro","severity":"info","text":"King Gundemar (fl. early 7th century) was a Visigothic king of Hispania, known from ecclesiastical councils. His mention here situates the letter in the context of a church synod at the royal city (likely Toledo).","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"term","kind":"term","basis":"glossary","lemma":"Dextri Barchinonensis","severity":"info","text":"Dexter of Barcinona (Barcelona) is a pseudonymous author of a chronicle, likely a forgery attributed to Flavius Lucius Dexter (5th century). The reference indicates the work Maximus is asked to continue.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"pro suo chronico","severity":"info","text":"The title 'Pro suo chronico' (Concerning his Chronicle) frames the letter as a prefatory or dedicatory note to Maximus's own chronicle, which he claims to have compiled at Argebatus's request.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"transmission","kind":"transmission","basis":"text","lemma":"epistolae sequentes","severity":"info","text":"The prefatory note from Nicolaus Antonius indicates that two letters were appended to a chronicle on an ancient parchment in Gothic script. The editor notes that the second letter (possibly from Argebatus to Maximus) is lost.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"excidit harum altera","severity":"caution","text":"The marginal note 'Excidit harum altera' (The second of these is missing) warns that the manuscript tradition is incomplete. The missing letter may have contained Argebatus's reply or further context.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"background","lemma":"aeram et annos Christi","severity":"info","text":"Maximus distinguishes his chronological method (using the Spanish Era and years of Christ) from Dexter's (using years of the City of Rome and Augusti). The Spanish Era was a common dating system in Visigothic Iberia.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The identity of 'Dexter of Barcinona' is uncertain; the chronicle attributed to him is likely a later forgery. The letter's authenticity and date are debated, as Maximus of Caesaraugusta is a shadowy figure."],"confidence":"medium","notes":[]},{"i":2,"ref":"p2","source":"Perduxi namque rerum narrationem ab aera (hoc est post annum Christi 431) ubi finem facit Dexter, produxique ad aeram 644, hoc est usque ad mortem regis Gundemari. Tu me, Pater, in orationibus tuis Christo commenda. Vale.","english":"I have indeed carried the narrative of events from the era (that is, after the year of Christ 431) where Dexter ends, and have extended it to the era 644, that is, up to the death of King Gundemar. You, Father, commend me to Christ in your prayers. Farewell.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"dating","kind":"chronology","basis":"text","lemma":"aeram 644","severity":"info","text":"The era 644 corresponds to AD 606 in the Spanish Era, which began in 38 BC. This places the letter's composition after the death of King Gundemar.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"Dexter","severity":"info","text":"Dexter refers to the chronicler Flavius Dexter, whose chronicle ended around AD 431. Maximus claims to continue Dexter's work.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"Gundemari","severity":"info","text":"King Gundemar (or Gundemaro) was a Suevic king in Gallaecia, whose death is dated to around AD 585 or later, depending on the source. The era 644 (AD 606) suggests a later date.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"Perduxi ... produxique","severity":"info","text":"The letter concludes with a summary of Maximus's chronicle, indicating that this passage serves as a colophon or closing statement.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"text","lemma":"Tu me, Pater, in orationibus tuis Christo commenda","severity":"info","text":"This request for prayers reflects a common epistolary formula in patristic letters, emphasizing the spiritual bond between bishop and addressee.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The identity of 'Dexter' is ambiguous: it may refer to the chronicler Flavius Dexter or to a different author. The reading taken assumes the chronicler.","The exact regnal dates of King Gundemar are uncertain; the era 644 (AD 606) is used here as the terminus."],"confidence":"medium","notes":[]}]}