Chronicum Alterum Sive Pseudochronicum [Incertus]

ANOTHER CHRONICLE, commonly circulated under the name of Tiro Prosper, which some defend as a PSEUDOCHRONICLE. From the death of the emperor Valens to the capture of the City by Genseric, quite different from what has hitherto been appended to the Chronicle of Blessed Jerome; from the edition of Pithoeus. I. So after Valens was burned by the Goths in Thrace, Gratian reigned with his brother Valentinian for six years. Having a little brother as a partner in the rule, he admitted Theodosius, a man of proven age, into partnership in the empire. This Gratian was very favorable to religion and ready to assist the churches in all things. Martin, bishop of Tours, is considered distinguished for apostolic virtues. II. Theodosius restored the weakened republic in the eastern regions. III. The tyrant Maximus is proclaimed emperor by the soldiers in Britain. IV. Maximus vigorously overcame the raiding Picts and Scots. A certain Priam reigned in Francia, as far as I have been able to gather.

5. Ambrose writes most brilliant books against the perfidy of the Arians to the Augustus Gratian. 6. Maximus crosses over into Gaul and, after engaging in battle with Gratian, kills him as he flees at Lugdunum. Theodosius, 11 years. 1. Maximus, fearing Theodosius, the prince of the Eastern empire, enters into a treaty with Valentinian. At Trier, Manichaeans are apprehended and, by the great zeal of Maximus, exterminated. 2. Justina, the mother of Valentinian, favoring the Arians, heaps various kinds of injuries upon Ambrose and the entire church of Milan. The relics of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius are discovered for the first time by Ambrose at Milan. The hymns of Ambrose are composed, which had never before been sung in the Latin churches with melodies. 3. Maximus, deeming it unworthy that things be done against the state of the Church, finds a pretext for breaking the treaty which he had joined with Valentinian. Valentinian, seeing the tyrant already threatening his neck, flees to Theodosius. [Honorius and Arcadius 32, 400. Theodosius and John 25 and 22. Valentinian and Marcian 3, 400, 25.] Augustine, while teaching rhetoric with great distinction at Milan, abandons his school and is converted to the true faith, having previously been a Manichaean.

4. Theodosius, crossing into Italy with his army, killed Maximus and restored Valentinian to his own realm. Justina, who had harassed the churches, was prevented by death from recovering the kingdom with her son. The monstrous crime at Thessalonica—the slaughter of the people—the religious emperor washed away by a remarkable example of penance. 5. The heresy of the Apollinarists, begun by Apollinaris. The Arians, who had defiled nearly the whole East and West, are stripped of their churches by the edict of the glorious prince, and these are assigned to the Catholics. 6. John the Egyptian monk, who by the purity of his life merited from the Lord the grace of prophecy, is held in high regard. After Damasus, Siricius takes up the governance of the Roman Church, the thirty-sixth. 7. At Alexandria, after the death of Peter, Timothy, and after him Theophilus, are appointed bishops. At Jerusalem, after Cyril, John receives the church. At Antioch, after the death of Meletius, Flavian is substituted.

A great dispute arose among our people, because the bishops who had been driven out by heretics refused, after these were deposed by the emperor, to have any priests other than themselves substituted. A terrible sign appeared in the sky, a pillar resembling one in every respect. VIII. At Alexandria, temples were destroyed, among them the most ancient and renowned temple of Serapis, which, like a kind of pillar, was propping up the collapsing idolatry. IX, X. Valentinian was killed at Vienne by his count Arbogastes, and Eugenius seized the tyranny in his place. XI. To avenge the death of Valentinian and to crush the tyranny of Eugenius, Theodosius crossed into Italy, with the open favor of God, as the elements conspired together to the same end. After Eugenius was defeated, Theodosius died in the eleventh year of his reign. Arcadius and Honorius, 32 years. I. Constantinople, dreading the manifest wrath of God, as fire blazed terribly above a cloud, turned its whole mind to penance and escaped.

Rufinus of Bosphorus, having attained the highest military command, and unable to bear that Stilicho was preferred to him, is killed by the same, after the Hunnic guard by which he was supported had been overcome. II. Claudianus the poet is considered worthy of admiration. Gildo the African, in a rebellion he stirred up, withheld the customary tribute from the Romans. Prudentius, our lyric poet, a Spaniard of illustrious family, exercises the strength of his genius. III. Stilicho, master of the soldiers, killed Gildo in Mauretania; Africa is restored to its former right. - Innocentius holds the thirty-seventh chair of the Roman Church. IV. Throughout the entire Roman world, the temples of the ancient superstition are destroyed. Paulinus, afterwards bishop of Nola, by a remarkable example, having sold all his possessions, though he was the owner of countless estates, chose the unencumbered religious life. V. John, bishop of Constantinople, becomes famous for his words and deeds. Martin, after having lived a life of outstanding virtue, is divested of his body.

VI. The mad Pelagius attempts to stain the Churches with his accursed teaching. VII. A controversy arising from the doctrine of Origen stirred a synod at Alexandria, whose judgment was that anyone who had approved the works of the aforementioned man should be cast out of the Church. VIII. A defect of the Sun's Pact. Augustine discourses on countless matters in very many books. IX. Severus, following the discipline of St. Martin, explains his life in three books. A savage storm of barbarian unrest fell upon Italy. For Radagaisus, king of the Goths, crossed the border to lay waste to Italy. From this, the Arians, who had been driven far from the Roman world, began to be raised up by the protection of the barbarian nations to which they had betaken themselves. XI. After many cities had been laid waste, Radagaisus fell: his army, divided into three parts under different leaders, opened up some opportunity for resistance to the Romans. In a notable triumph, Stilicho, with the aid of Hunnic auxiliaries, destroyed the third part of the enemy host to the last man.

Arcadius, governing the empire of the East, ends his life, leaving as successor to the empire his son Theodosius, who was quite small. Celestine XXXVIII governed the Roman Church. XIII. The madness of various peoples began to tear apart the Gauls, incited especially by Stilicho, who bore indignantly that the rule was denied to his own son. XIV. At Utica, in the Forum of Trajan, the earth bellowed for seven days. Among many other things, the state was greatly served by the death of Stilicho, who was plotting against the safety of the emperor. Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, turns to the heresy which separates God from man in Christ. John, the count of Africa, was killed by the people. XV. Proculus, bishop of Massilia, is held in high repute; with his consent, a great inquiry concerning the suspected adultery of Bishop Remedius is agitated. In this time, with the strength of the Romans weakened, the resources of Britain were utterly exhausted. XVI. The Vandals and Alans laid waste to the part of Gaul devastated by the incursion of the Saxons; what was left, the tyrant Constantine was occupying.

The Suebi occupied the greatest part of Spain. Finally, the very capital of the world, Rome, lay most foully open to the plundering of the Goths. XVII. The tyrant Constantine is killed. XVIII. Again another plundering of Gaul, as the Goths, who had captured Rome under Alaric’s leadership, cross the Alps. XIX. Jovinus seizes tyranny after Constantine, through the efforts of a vigorous man, Dardanus, who alone did not yield to the tyrant. Atuulfus, who ruled the Goths after Alaric, is turned away from Jovinus’s alliance. Also Salustius and Sebastianus are killed. Valentia, the most noble city of Gaul, is breached, to which the fleeing Jovinus had betaken himself. XX. A great famine in Gaul. Aquitaine is handed over to the Goths. Patroclus, bishop of Arles, dares to sell priestly offices in a shameful trade. Heraclianus, count of Africa, who had shown vigorous service in the restoration of the city of Rome, is killed while plotting some new schemes.

XXI. Placidia, the sister of the emperor, long a captive and later even the wife of a king, after the king was removed by treachery, is joined in marriage to Constantius. XXII. When the Goths stirred again, after Atauulfus had been killed, they are repelled by the advance of Constantius. XXIII. The heresy of the Predestinarians, which is said to have taken its beginning from Augustine, began to creep forth in these times. XXIV. The thirty-ninth Xistus rules the Roman Church. XXV. A defect of the sun occurred in this year. XXVI. Faramundus reigns in Francia. XXVII. A sign appeared in the sky, a marvel. Maximus Lyranus seizes dominion over the Spains by force. XXVIII. Honoratus, Minervius, Castor, Jovianus, Fathers of individual monasteries, flourish in Gaul. XXIX. The dignity of the empire was voluntarily conferred upon Constantius by Honorius; having enjoyed it for scarcely eight months, he died, leaving behind Valentinianus, a son of eight years. XXX. The tyrant Maximus is cast down from his kingdom and, led to Ravenna, provided a sublime spectacle for the tricennalia of Honorius.

XXXI. Placidia, when she was plotting against her brother, was caught and banished to Rome in exile. XXXII. Honorius died at Ravenna. John, from being chief of the notaries, seized the throne, to which he had no right, and left the empire wounded by many disasters. Theodosius, 27 years. I. Placidia sends to Theodosius to beg for help. Sigisvultus hastened to Africa against Boniface. II. In Gaul, the prefect Exuperantius is killed by soldiers. Carthage is surrounded by a wall, which, from the time the old one was destroyed, by decree of the Romans, was not permitted to be fortified with walls, lest it be a rebellion. John, defeated and killed by the eastern army, Ravenna was laid waste by plunder. Aetius, son of the count Gaudentius, killed by soldiers in Gaul, enters Italy with the Huns to bring aid to John. III. Valentinian is made emperor at Rome. Arles is freed from the Goths by Aetius. IV. Placidia, after enduring insults, attains the desired rule.

Clodius rules in Francia. VI. Cassian, having gathered together the lives of the Fathers in Egypt, together with their teachings and rules, sets them forth in books given to very many. VII. Aetius intends to destroy the people of the Huns. VIII. Nearly twenty thousand soldiers fighting in Spain against the Vandals are slain. The Vandals, crossing over into Africa, having laid waste the whole province, inflicted a huge defeat upon the Romans. IX. In the consulship of Aetius, having issued an edict, Boniface, who had been summoned from Africa by the Empress, declining, ascends to more fortified positions. The harshness of excessive cold proved fatal even to the health of very many. Boniface, struck in a sudden battle against Aetius, though victorious, departs dying. X. When Aetius had betaken himself to the people of the Huns, over whom Rugila then presided, for battle, having obtained aid, he returns to Roman soil. The Goths are summoned for auxiliary aid by the Romans. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, becomes renowned for his virtues and the strictness of his life.

XI. Aetius is received back into favor. Rugila, king of the Huns, with whom peace had been confirmed, dies, and Bleda succeeds him. XII. Galba, having beheaded Tibato, the leader of the rebellion, withdraws from the Roman alliance; from this beginning, nearly all the slaves of the Gauls conspired in the Bagaudae. XIII. A memorable war blazed up against the Burgundian people, in which nearly the entire people, together with their king Gundicharius, were destroyed. XIV. With Tibato captured, and some of the leaders of the sedition bound, others killed, the uprising of the Bagaudae subsides. XV. The Theodosian Code, containing all the laws of legitimate emperors collected into one, is published for the first time in this year. Silvius, of a rather disturbed mind, after having performed the required duties of military service in the palace, writes something concerning religion. XVI. Leo XL received the principate of the Roman Church. XVII. With the disturbances of the Gauls pacified, Aetius returns to Italy. The deserted lands of the city of Valentia are given over to be divided among the Alans, over whom Sambida presided.

XVIII. Britain, having been torn by various disasters and events up to this time, is reduced into the dominion of the Saxons. XIX. The Alans, to whom the lands of Further Gaul had been entrusted by the patrician Aetius to be divided together with the inhabitants, subdue those resisting by arms, and, after expelling the lords of the land, obtain possession of them for six years. XX. Sabaudia is given to the remnants of the Burgundians, to be divided with the natives. XXI. Carthage, captured by the Vandals together with all Africa, cast down the power of the Roman Empire by a lamentable disaster and loss. For from this time it is possessed by the Vandals. XXII. Thrace is shaken by an incursion of the Huns. XXIII. Bleda, king of the Huns, is struck down by the treachery of his brother Attila, who succeeds him. XXIV. A new ruin again arises for the East, by which no fewer than seventy cities are laid waste by the plundering of the Huns, while no aid is brought from the Westerners. XXV. Merovech reigns in Francia. Eudoxius, a physician by skill, of depraved but practiced intellect, having been denounced in the disturbance of that time in Bigauda, flees to the Huns.

XXVI. Eucherius, bishop of Lugdunum, and Hilarius of Arelate, having led an exceptional life, ended it in death. XXVII. A nefarious heresy was stirred up by a certain archimandrite, to which Theodosius, having given his favor, died, having completed twenty-seven years in the empire. Marianus is substituted for him. Placulia also, after an irreproachable manner of life, ended her life this year, as her son was completing the twenty-fifth year of his reign. Valentinianus and Martianus. I. At this time the state of the republic appeared very wretched, since not even a single province was without a barbarian cultivator; and the unspeakable heresy of the Arians, which mingled with the barbarian nations, presumes to claim the name of the Catholic faith, spread throughout the whole world. Attila, having entered Gaul, demands a wife as if owed by right; after a severe defeat was inflicted and received, he withdraws to his own territory. II. Many signs appeared this year. Having received an unexpected defeat in Gaul, a furious Attila attacks Italy, which the inhabitants, terrified by the mere ground, repelled with the help of a garrison.

III. The Synod of Chalcedon, where Eutyches and Dioscorus having been condemned, all who had withdrawn from them were received into communion. The faith concerning the Incarnation of the Word, which was being preached according to evangelical and apostolic doctrine by the holy Pope Leo, was universally confirmed. And when he had died in his own seat, first a great struggle among his own sons for obtaining the kingdom arose, then defections of several nations which obeyed the Huns followed, giving causes and occasions for wars, by which the fiercest peoples were worn down by mutual incursions. IV. Between the Augustus Valentinian and the patrician Aëtius, after the oaths of mutual faith promised to each other, after the pact concerning the marriage of their children, dire enmities grew strong: and where the grace of charity ought to have been increased, there the tinder of hatreds blazed up; with the instigator, as is believed, being the eunuch Heraclius, who had so bound the emperor’s mind to himself in sincere servitude that he easily drove him wherever he wished. Therefore, when Aëtius more urgently pressed for the agreements and pleaded the cause of their common son, he was cruelly done to death by the emperor’s hand and the swords of those standing around, with Boethius, the prefect of the praetorium, who was bound to him by close friendship, being slain at the same time.

V. The death of Aëtius was followed not long after by the death of Valentinian, who had so imprudently failed to avoid it that he allied himself with the friends and armed retainers of the slain Aëtius. These men, covertly watching for an opportunity for the crime they had conceived, when the emperor had gone out of the city and was intent on a game of driving, pierced him with unexpected blows, killing Heraclius at the same time, as he was nearby, and none of the royal retinue was roused to avenge such a great crime. Now when this parricide had been committed, Maximus, a man of twin consulship and patrician rank, assumed the imperial power. Although he was believed in every way to be likely to benefit the endangered republic, he soon proved by a lesson what his intention was: namely, he not only did not punish the murderers of Valentinian but even received them into friendship, and he compelled the wife of the Augustus, who was forbidden to mourn the loss of her husband, to pass into his own marriage within a very few days. But he did not long enjoy this incontinence. For after the second month, when the arrival of King Genseric from Africa was announced, and many nobles and commoners were fleeing from the city, and he himself, having given everyone leave to depart, wished to leave in terror, he was torn apart by the queen’s servants and cast piecemeal into the Tiber, lacking even burial.

After the death of Maximus, a Roman captivity worthy of many tears immediately followed, and Genseric obtained the city, empty of all defense, with the holy bishop Leo coming out to meet him before the gates. Leo’s supplication so softened him, with God acting, that, although everything was in his power, with the city handed over to him, he nevertheless refrained from fire, torture, and punishments. For fourteen days, therefore, Rome was emptied of all its wealth by a secure and free search; and many thousands of captives, as either age or skill pleased, were taken to Carthage along with the empress and her daughters.