Orosius writes seven books of histories and brings Stephen's relics west
The Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes records under the consulship of Theodosius Augustus for the seventh time and Palladius (AD 416) that Orosius, a presbyter of Spanish origin, wrote seven books of histories, and that, sent by bishop Augustine to the presbyter Jerome to learn about the nature of the soul, on his return he was, in the chronicle's words, the first to bring to the West the relics of blessed Stephen, then recently found.
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. The 'first' is the chronicle's claim (primus intulit), not verified here; the chronicle gives no place of arrival. Mommsen's note on the page lists 416, 1 as repeated in Bede (later, not independent confirmation); the apparatus notes that manuscript R reads 'episcopum et presbyterum' and appears (OCR garbled) to omit 'tunc'. OCR 'iiiissus' and 'Hieronynmm' read as missus and Hieronymum; '5' is a margin line number. The author’s origin and the annal heading do not establish when or where he composed these works.
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Not listed under any year on this site.
- Region
- No region assigned This collection has not fixed where the act took place. It is not a statement that the place is unknown.
- Theme
- Culture and knowledge
- Kind of record
- No year assigned. Something a source reports, with no single year established.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- Indiction/consul heading (OCR line 5844): '416 XIIII. TIIEODOSII AVG. VH'
- How we use it
- No single event year assigned.
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
The heading for 416 is an annal locator and does not independently date the reported writing.
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)
1 Orosius presbyter Hispani generis sep-
tem libros historiarum descripsit. iiiissus
ab Augustino episcopo idem Orosius pro
discenda animae ratione ad Hieronynmm
5 presbyterum reliquias beati Stephani tunc
nuper inventas rediens primus intulit Oc-
cidenti.AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
1 Orosius, a presbyter of Spanish birth, wrote seven books of histories. This same Orosius, sent by bishop Augustine to the presbyter Jerome to learn about the nature of the soul, on returning was the first to bring to the West the relics of blessed Stephen, then recently found.
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
This is a corrected version of this record. During research, before this release, an earlier version was withdrawn after independent review and replaced by this one.
Revision sgap_auditfix_s1h_416_marc_1
Exact revision fingerprint
b87773685c06239a1d46a05e0191574f519578ac7a606357ce4ffe0f525dad7e