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Marius of Avenches

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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MARIUS OF AVENCHES (or Aventicum) (d. 593 or 594), chronicler and ecclesiastic, was born in the neighbourhood of Autun probably in 530, and became bishop of Avenches about 573. In addition to being a good bishop, Marius was a clever goldsmith; he was present at the council of Macon in 585, and transferred the seat of his bishopric from Avenches to Lausanne. He died on the 31st of December 593 or 594. As a continuation of the Chronicon of Prosper of Aquitaine, Marius wrote a short Chronicon dealing with the period from 455 to 581; and although he borrowed from various sources his work has some importance for the history of Burgundy. Regarding himself and his land as still under the authority of the Roman empire, he dates his Chronicon according to the years of the Roman consuls and of the East Roman emperors.

The only extant manuscript of the Chronicon is in the British Museum. Among several editions may be mentioned the one in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, chronica minora, Band II. (1893), with introduction by T. Mommsen. See also W. Arndt, Bischof Marius von Aventicum (Leipzig, 1875); and W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Bd. I. (1904).