VICTOR, CLAUDIUS MARIUS: Christian poet of the fifth century. According to Gennadius (De vir. ill., xli.), he was a rhetorician of Marseilles and died between 425 and 450. The work which has been transmitted .under his name is a Biblical epic, entitled Alethia, a free paraphrase of Genesis in hexameters, not without poetic beauty. Originally comprising, in all probability, twelve books, only three are extant, going to the destruction of Sodom. The sole edition of value is by K. Schenkl (CSEL, xvi.). The earlier editor J. Gagneius (Lyons; 1536) added as a fourth book.the "epigram" of an otherwise unknown Paulinus (ed. also K. Schenkl, ut sup.), a poetic penitential sermon apparently written about 408, lamenting that in Gaul, after the ravages of the Vandals and Alans, the care of souls was considered less important than the restoration
of vineyards and houses.|
181 |
Bibliography: A. Bourgoin, De Claudio Mario Victors, Paris, 1883; S. Gamber, Le Livre de la Genbae dana la poesie Zatinx du v, aQcle, Marseilles. 1884; A. Ebert, Ge schichte der Literatur des Mitlelaltera, i. 320-321, 389 sqq., Leipsic, 1889; W. S. Teuffel, Geschichte der enömisch Literatur, pp. 11867, Leipsic, 1890; M. Manitius, Ge schichte der christlich-daEeenischen Poesie, pp. 184 sqq., 180 sqq., Stuttgart, 1891; H. Maurer, De exemplia gum C. Maurius Victor in Alethia aecutus 'sit, Marburg, 1898; Bardenhewer, Patrologie, pp. 394-39b, Eng, transl., St. Louis, 1908; BL, xii. 909; DOB, iv. 1121-22.
VICTORINUS, vic"to-rai'nus, OF PETTAU: Bishop of Poetovio (the modern Pettau, 128 m. S. of Vienna) and the earliest exegete of the Latin Church; probably born in Pannonia; martyred 304 (according to the martyrologies, on Dec. 2). According to Jerome (De vir. ill., lxxiv.), he was better acquainted with Greek than with Latin, and besides many other works wrote commentaries on Gen., Ex., Lev., Isa., Ezek., Hab., Eccles., Cant., and Rev., as well as" against all heresies." Jerome states also (ib. xVlll.) that Victorinus was a chiliast, and in the eleventh book of his commentary on Ezekiel he declares that the bishop of Pettau was an adherent, in his "frequent expositions," of Jew ish fables (MPL, xxv. 339). In his commentaries Victorinus knew and em ployed such works as those of Papias, Origen, Ire nmus, and Hippolytus. Stylistically his writings were awkward and overladen with Hellenisms. Be sides the nine commentaries listed by Jerome in the De vir. ill., the same author twice mentions a commentary of Victorinus on Matthew, in which he held that the "brothers of the Lord" were such "by nearness, not by nature" (MPL, xxiii. 201, xxvi. 220). Of his exegetical writings the commen tary on the Apocalypse alone has survived; for the treatise De fabrics mundi (ed. M. J. Routh, Reliquile sacra,, iii. 45161, Oxford, 1846) is not part of the commentary on Genesis, but an independent work on the week of creation, the "queen of all weeks." Here the number seven is prominent; the true sab bath is the seventh millennium when Christ shall reign with his elect. The original text of the com mentary on the Apocalypse, as represented in the Vatican manuscript Codex Ottobonianus Lat. 3288 A, was completely revised by Jerome, the latter text being represented by the editio princeps (Paris, 1543; reprinted in the Maxima bibliotheca veterum patrum, iii. 414-421, Lyons, 1777). Here the chil iasm of Victorinus is expurgated, his harsh Latin is smoothed down, and many minor theological corrections are made. The material substituted by Jerome for the, expunged passages was taken largely from the commentary of the Donatist Ticonius on the Apocalypse. The next stage in the evolution of the text of Victorious was the addition, frequently in mechan ical fashion and with many repetitions, of a fuller, though still incomplete, text of the Apocalypse. Other additions were also made, such as the replace ment of 666 as the mystic designation of the -uture name of Antichrist by specific names. This recen sion, though still unedited, is found in a series of manuscripts and was used by the Spanish presbyter Beatus of Libana in compiling his commentary on the- Apocalypse (ed. H. Floret, Madrid, 1770). The final step is represented by the eleventh- or twelfth- century manuscript ccxlvii. of the library of Monte Cassino (ed. in the FIArilegium Cagineytse, pp. 1-12, appended. to the Bibliotheca Casinensis, vol. v., Monte Casino, 1894), this recension also forming the basis of the extremely rare editio princegs .(Bologes, 1558), reprinted in MPL, v. 317-344. The editor of this recension constructed a mixed text from the other recensions, removed various sources of confusion, and even departed from the original form of the commentary to bring it into harmony with the running text of the Apocalypse, besides making many additions, some of which imply an African origin.
The commentary on the Apocalypse and the
De
fabrics mundi
are the only works that can certainly
be ascribed to Victorinus of Pettau. The
Adv. omnes
hcereses,
assigned to him by Jerome
and by Optatus
of Mileve
(De sehismate Donatistarum, i.
9) is by
some identified with a treatise of the same title
appended to the
De prceseriptione
of Tertullian; but
the style deviates widely from the genuine writings
of Victorinus, and a passage of the Apocalypse (ii.
6) common to the two has a divergent wording.
The antimarcionistic character ascribed to the
Adv.
omnes hiereses of
Vietorinus by Optatus is not borne
out by this pseudo-Tertullian work, but rather by
the pseudo-Tertullian poem
Adversus Mareitmem
libri quinque. . A
number of passages in this poem
correspond so closely with passages in the commentary on the Apocalypse that the two would almost
seem to be by the same author, and it is still a problem whether the assumption that .the common
source of
both is the Greek commentary of Hippolytus on the Apocalypse suffices to explain the resemblance between the two works. It is at least
clear that the poem is not by Commodian, as is
sometimes maintained. The attempt has also been
made to ascribe to Victorinus the
Anonymi chilisstce
in Matthatzcm cxxiv fragments
(ed. G. Mereati,
Studi a testi, xi. 23-45,
Rome, 1903), but it is now
recognized that the author of
this fragment stands
in close relation to the so-called Ambrosiaster. An
equally fruitless effort has been made to ascribe to
this Victor the following treatises also contained in
Codex Ottobonianus A:
a treatise on
Bibliography: The critical ed. of the Opera is in CSEL, vol. xxaix.; Eng. transl. of the ".Creation " and " Commentary on the Apocalypse " in ANF, vii: 34160. Consults Jerome, De vir. ill., laaiv., Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., iii. 377; ASB, Nov., i. 432-443; J. de Launoy, Opera, ii. 1, pp. 834-649, Geneva, 1731; F. Chamard, S. Viotorte, 6vAque et martyr. Poitiers. 1878; Harnack, Litteratur, i. 731-735, ii. 2, pp. 426-432; idem, in ZWT, ads (1878), 114; idem, Dogma, ii. 237, 298; 358, iii. 78, v. 29; J. Hauasleiter, in ZICW, vii (1888), 239-257; idem, Der Aufbau der altchristlichen Litteratur, pp. 357, Berlin, 1898; idem, in Festreden der Universatdt GretJamald, no. 9, Greifawald, 1901; F. Kattenbuach, Das apostolieraie Symbol. pp. 212-215, Leipsic, 1894; J. R. Harris, in The
Expositor, 1895, pp. 448-455; L. Ataberger, Geschichte|
182 |
| Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. |  |