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10 unusual facts about Gregory of Tours


Accusative absolute

The accusative absolute is sometimes found in place of the ablative absolute in the Latin of Late Antiquity as, for example, in the writings of Gregory of Tours and Jordanes.

Ancient Diocese of Bazas

The first bishop of this diocese is mentioned, without a name, by Gregory of Tours in his De gloria martyrum.

Etymology of Denmark

The issue is further complicated by a number of references to various Dani people in Scandinavia or other places in Europe in Greek and Roman accounts (like Ptolemy, Jordanes, and Gregory of Tours), as well as some mediaeval literature (like Adam of Bremen, Beowulf, Widsith and Poetic Edda).

Gregory of Tours

Goffart, Walter, The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800) (Princeton, 1988)

Ponte Tresa

The history of the town is closely tied to the Tresa river crossing, which was first mentioned in 590 by Gregory of Tours.

Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus

It exists today only in fragments, but some passages have survived in chapters eight and nine of the second book of Gregory of Tours' Decem libri historiarum (Ten Books of Histories).

Res publica

After the Roman Empire collapsed in the West, the idea of res publica disappeared, as foreign to the barbarians of the Migrations Period: whenever Gregory of Tours refers to res publica, it is the Eastern Empire of which he is speaking.

Saint-Junien

In 593, Gregory of Tours was impressed by the importance of the pilgrimage to the saint's tomb.

Saint-Yrieix-le-Déjalat

Saint Yrieix (Aredius), who died in 591, was a contemporary of Gregory of Tours.

Sulpicius Alexander

His work is lost, but his Historia in at least four books is quoted by Gregory of Tours.


Eutropius of Saintes

Gregory of Tours mentions the tradition of Eutropius’ martyrdom in his work, but also notes that before Bishop Palladius of Saintes translated Eutropius’ relics around 590 to the Romanesque church of St. Eutropius in Saintes, no one really knew the legend of Eutropius.

Kingdom of the Burgundians

According to Gregory of Tours (538–594), in 493 Gundobad slew his brother Chilperic II and exiled his daughter Clotilde, who was married to the Merovingian Clovis, King of the Franks, who had just conquered northern Gaul.

Liuva I

Gregory of Tours states Pronimius had left Bourges to live in Septimania "for some reason or other".

Paul of Narbonne

Gregory of Tours (Historia Francorum I, 30), using an acta of Saturninus, affirms that Paul was among those consecrated priests at Rome and sent to replant the Christian communities in Gaul.

Riothamus

Gregory of Tours seems to react to the outcome of the battle between the Goths and Britons: "Brittani de Bituricas a Gothis expulsi sunt, multis apud Dolesim vicum peremptis" (The Brittani were driven from Bourges by the Goths and many of them perished at the village of Déols).

Tomb of the Virgin Mary

Later, Saints Epiphanius of Salamis, Gregory of Tours, Isidore of Seville, Modest, Sophronius of Jerusalem, German of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete, and John of Damascus talk about the tomb being in Jerusalem, and bear witness that this tradition was accepted by all the Churches of East and West.