The Proconsular Acts of Cyprian
The record of Cyprian’s two hearings before the proconsuls of Africa, his exile in 257 and his execution on 14 September 258. It is built on the court minutes and gives the consular dates.
The Acta proconsularia are short. They give the questions and answers at Cyprian’s first hearing before the proconsul Aspasius Paternus on 30 August 257, which ended in his banishment to Curubis; then his recall under the next proconsul, Galerius Maximus, his second hearing, the sentence read from a tablet, and his beheading. The exchanges are set out in the form of official minutes, with each speaker named, and a Christian hand has added the linking narrative and the account of the burial.
The Oxford translators describe the text as the substance of the original record with later incidental additions. It is the source for the dates of Cyprian’s exile and death, which it fixes by the consuls of each year. It should be read beside the Life and Passion of Cyprian, which describes the same events from among the bishop’s companions.
Cited in
- AD 251 to AD 258, firm date