Victorius of Aquitaine

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Victorius of Aquitaine, a countryman of Prosper of Aquitaine and also working in Rome, produced in 457 an Easter Cycle, which was based on the consular list provided by Prosper's Chronicle. This dependency caused scholars to think that Prosper had been working on his own Easter Annals for quite some time. In fact, Victorius published his work only two years after the final publication of Prosper's Chronicle.

Victorius finished his Cursus Paschalis in 457; from that date onwards he left blank the column giving the names of the consuls, but his lunar tables were extended to the year A.D. 559 or A.P. 532 - hence the name, Cursus Paschalis annorum DXXXII (Easter Table up to the year 532). This first version was later continued by other authors, who filled in the names as the years passed.

Consul Basilius (541 AD) celebrating his new office, accompanied by Roma as an allegorical figure - Ivory memorial plaque The Victorian system of the Cursus Paschalis was made official by synod in Gaul in 541 and was still in use for historical work in England by 743, when an East Anglian king-list was created, which doube-dated by Victorian and Dionysian eras. Also, it was used for a letter to Charlemagne in 773. Victorius was, probably in its continued form, a source for both Bede (who found here that Aetius was consul for the third time in A.D. 446) and the Historia Brittonum.

[edit] References

• Robert Vermaat - Vortigern Studies