Majorian killed at Dertona; Severus takes his place
The Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes records under the consulship of Dagalaifus and Severinus (AD 461; OCR 'DAGALAIPI ET SEVERINI') that Majorian Caesar was killed at Dertona beside the river called Hira, and that Severus seized his place.
What this does and does not establish
A Latin chronicle written at Constantinople c. 518-534, used through Mommsen's 1894 edition (MGH AA 11) as Internet Archive OCR text (page images not checked); the English is an AI working translation. Mommsen's apparatus records manuscript variants for the place and river names (Dercona/Terdona/Destliona; Hira/Hyra), and his margin note (OCR 'Jiai. ini.', apparently 'Ital. 461') refers to a parallel in the Italian consular annals, not checked here. The chronicle calls Majorian 'Caesar' and says Severus 'invaded' (seized) his place.
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Region
- Europe
- Theme
- Politics and institutions
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- Indiction/consul heading (OCR line 7381): '461 Xim. DAGALAIPI ET SEVERINI.'
- How we use it
- Placed in the consular year under which Marcellinus enters it (as numbered by the editor). The listing uses year precision. Any finer dating belongs to the quoted passage; the chronicle can misplace events.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
Consular year to AD 461 per the heading index marcellinus-headings.json (one indiction/consul heading per year in order, indiction expected 14, read 14), matching the AD years Mommsen prints in the margin.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon (Latin), ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH Auctores antiquissimi 11 (Chronica minora II), 1894
Marcellinus Comes (6th-century, Constantinople); critical edition by Theodor Mommsen (1894)
Quoted text (Latin)
Maiorianus Caesar apud Dertonam iuxta
fluvium, qui Hira dicitur, interemptus.
locum eius Severus invasit.AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
Majorian Caesar was killed at Dertona beside the river which is called Hira. Severus seized his place.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon, ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1894), Internet Archive OCR text. English renderings are AI working translations from the Latin.
Exact source version
e805805fe7b68265bd53e46c3152420178fa7275b1ed420804dfd243bfc628c9Checks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-05. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
No correction has been made to this record’s statement or limits.
Revision s1h_461_marc_1
Exact revision fingerprint
d5a5a4f26b81885d26e7703a45724f8ae1b391378c133c771898045e732ac28f