08-18-2006, 08:27 AM
Some excerpts from the Acta Sancti Maximiliani Martyris...
Dion dixit ad Officium: Signetur.
Cumque resisteret Maximilianus, respondit: Non facio: Non possum militare.
...
Dion ad Maximilianum: Milita et accipe signaculum.
Respondit: Non accipio signaculum. Iam habeo signum Christi Dei mei.
...
Dion ad Officium dixit: Signetur.
Cumque reluctaret, respondit: Non accipio signaculum saeculi; et si signaveris, rumpo illud, quia nihil valet. Ego Christianus sum, non licet mihi plumbum collo portare, post signum salutare Domini mei Jesu Christi filii Dei vivi, quem tu ignoras, qui passus est pro salute nostra, quem Deus tradidit pro peccatis nostris. Huic omnes Chrisitani servimus; hunc sequimur vitae principem, salutis auctorem.
Dion dixit: Milita, at accipe signaculum ne miser pereas.
The key parts being si signaveris, rumpo illud "if you mark (me)/put the sign (on me), I will break it" and non licet mihi plumbum collo portare "I am not permitted to wear (the?) lead on/around my neck."
For what it's worth the Acta date themselves to Tusco et Anulino Consulibus IV. Id. Martii, Teveste, that is, 295 CE, March 12, at Theveste, modern Tebessa, in Algeria.
I'm certainly no expert on the hagiographical tradition, but this page (well footnoted) has serious doubts about the Acta Maximiliani. It refers to two distinct recruitment traditions, with reference to C. Zuckerman, "Two Reforms of the 370s: Recruiting Soldiers and Senators in the Divided Empire", Revue des Etudes Byzantines 56 (1998), 79-139, at 136-39.
Footnote 5 from the page:
"M.C.W. Still, Roman Lead Sealings (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London, 1995: British Library No. DX201717) catalogues 1,810 different sealings, multiple copies of which exist in many cases. He also discusses, pp. 112-13, the interpretation of the "seal" (signaculum) described by the passion of St. Maximilian only to conclude that, "If this practice really did take place, then we do not seem to have any recognized examples of these identity discs"."
Dion dixit ad Officium: Signetur.
Cumque resisteret Maximilianus, respondit: Non facio: Non possum militare.
...
Dion ad Maximilianum: Milita et accipe signaculum.
Respondit: Non accipio signaculum. Iam habeo signum Christi Dei mei.
...
Dion ad Officium dixit: Signetur.
Cumque reluctaret, respondit: Non accipio signaculum saeculi; et si signaveris, rumpo illud, quia nihil valet. Ego Christianus sum, non licet mihi plumbum collo portare, post signum salutare Domini mei Jesu Christi filii Dei vivi, quem tu ignoras, qui passus est pro salute nostra, quem Deus tradidit pro peccatis nostris. Huic omnes Chrisitani servimus; hunc sequimur vitae principem, salutis auctorem.
Dion dixit: Milita, at accipe signaculum ne miser pereas.
The key parts being si signaveris, rumpo illud "if you mark (me)/put the sign (on me), I will break it" and non licet mihi plumbum collo portare "I am not permitted to wear (the?) lead on/around my neck."
For what it's worth the Acta date themselves to Tusco et Anulino Consulibus IV. Id. Martii, Teveste, that is, 295 CE, March 12, at Theveste, modern Tebessa, in Algeria.
I'm certainly no expert on the hagiographical tradition, but this page (well footnoted) has serious doubts about the Acta Maximiliani. It refers to two distinct recruitment traditions, with reference to C. Zuckerman, "Two Reforms of the 370s: Recruiting Soldiers and Senators in the Divided Empire", Revue des Etudes Byzantines 56 (1998), 79-139, at 136-39.
Footnote 5 from the page:
"M.C.W. Still, Roman Lead Sealings (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London, 1995: British Library No. DX201717) catalogues 1,810 different sealings, multiple copies of which exist in many cases. He also discusses, pp. 112-13, the interpretation of the "seal" (signaculum) described by the passion of St. Maximilian only to conclude that, "If this practice really did take place, then we do not seem to have any recognized examples of these identity discs"."
Dan Diffendale
Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
