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Latin · Letters ·

Epistola Ad Argebatum Episcopum Portugalensem

Maximus Caesaraugustanus Episcopus · ogl-pl

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JSON Dossier
machine-draft · no human review 2 passages · 299 words

Work dossier · summary and historical context

Summary

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.

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.

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.

Apparatus · what the pipeline recorded

Annotation and terms

11 commentary units 4 background2 structure1 term1 transmission1 caution1 dating1 reception 0 derived notes 3 open questions 2 narrative
What the kinds mean

Pipeline notes

  • coverageNo 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.
  • limitThe 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.
  • registerRegister: letter in Latin; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them.
  • structurePassages: 2 narrative.
  • sourceSource edition: ogl-pl — Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Term index

CopticRenderingCountFirst
no glossary terms recorded
tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1:1 · narrativemedium
Source
MAXIMI CAESARAUGUSTANI EPISCOPI SCRIPTA QUAE EXSTANT OMNIA. (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.) EPISTOLA MAXIMI CAESARAUGUSTANI EPISCOPI AD ARGEBATUM EPISCOPUM PORTUGALENSEM. PRO SUO CHRONICO. Sancto et venerabili fratri episcopo Argebato Maximus. Cum 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. (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.) LETTER OF MAXIMUS, BISHOP OF CAESARAUGUSTA, TO ARGEBATUS, BISHOP OF PORTUGAL, CONCERNING HIS CHRONICLE. To the holy and venerable brother bishop Argebatus, Maximus. When 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!
tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1:2 · narrativemedium
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.
Citation. Tergwame, “Epistola Ad Argebatum Episcopum Portugalensem”, tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1:1, machine-draft, 2026. https://naxiai.com/christian/works/tmp1389.tmp1389.opp-lat1#s1
Colophon. Source: ogl-pl · licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License · model: deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor · provider: Relace · cost: $0.0014 · generated 2026-11-15.