Vandal king occupies Carthage
The Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes records under the consulship of Theodosius (for the seventeenth time) and Festus (AD 439) that Ginsiricus, king of the Vandals, with his followers occupied the cities of Africa and the metropolis Carthage on the tenth day before the Kalends of November (23 October).
What this does and does not establish
A Latin chronicle written at Constantinople c. 518-534, used through Mommsen's 1894 edition as OCR text (page images not checked); the English is an AI working translation. The name is given as the OCR shows it (the apparatus reports 'giusiricbus' in TUR and 'gensericus' in S; the king is usually called Gaiseric), S reads 'Africanam provinciam' for 'Africae civitates', and the parallel Greek column enters the Vandal king's entry into Carthage under the same consuls in the month Hyperberetaios (October), consistent with this year. The day (23 October) is Marcellinus's own: Hydatius's chronicle in the same volume (c. 115, beside Mommsen's margin 439) dates Gaiseric's seizure of Carthage to XIIII kal. Novembris (19 October).
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Region
- Northern Africa
- 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 6568): '439 YII. THEODOSII XVII ET FESTI.'
- 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 439 per the heading index marcellinus-headings.json (one indiction/consul heading per year in order, indiction expected 7, read 7), 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)
Hoc tempore Ginsiricus rex Vanda-
lorum Africae civitates Carthaginemque
metropolim cum suis satellitibus occupavit
X kalendas Novembris.AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
At this time Ginsiricus, king of the Vandals, with his retinue occupied the cities of Africa and Carthage, the metropolis, on the tenth day before the Kalends of November.
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 s1h_439_marc_1_r2_r3
Exact revision fingerprint
f6559d67f5edef156423155b163d16afb528ea534b766a3a35f28a95a8695060