Victorinus of Pettau

d. c. 304 · Bishop of Pettau · First Latin exegete · Martyr · Poetovio, Pannonia

The Ante-Nicene Church

Who Victorinus of Pettau was

Bishop of Poetovio (Pettau, in modern Slovenia) and the earliest exegete of the Latin church — Jerome, who preserved and lightly corrected his work, notes that “he did not know Latin as well as Greek,” so his commentaries have a rough eastern flavour. His Commentary on the Apocalypse is the oldest surviving Latin commentary on any book of scripture, millenarian in tone; he also wrote on Genesis and against heresies. He was martyred in the Diocletianic persecution around 304. With him Latin biblical scholarship begins — a westerner still thinking in Greek, on the eve of the last persecution.

Also listed in martyrs, bishops beyond the great sees and the great persecution.

Common questions

When did Victorinus die?

Victorinus of Pettau is dated d. c. 304 in the archive, which places Victorinus in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

What did Victorinus write?

Victorinus of Pettau has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: Commentary on the Apocalypse.

Which early sources mention Victorinus?

Victorinus of Pettau is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Jerome and Jerome of Stridon. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Victorinus from?

The archive associates Victorinus of Pettau with Poetovio, Pannonia. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Writings (1)

Commentary on the Apocalypse

c. 290–300

The little horn that arose is Antichrist… He shall speak great things, and the whole world shall wonder after him; and he shall wear out the saints of the Most High.

Earliest witness · Vatican, Ottobonianus lat. 3288A (15th c. copy of ancient exemplar)

Read the interlinear source text →

Primary-source mentions (2)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

On Illustrious Men 74

c. AD 393

Victorinus, bishop of Pettau, was not equally familiar with Latin and Greek. On this account his works, though noble in thought, are inferior in their style. They are the following: Commentaries on Genesis… and on the Apocalypse of John. At last he was crowned with martyrdom.

Jerome · 74 · source text