Hydatius was born around the year 400 in the environs of Civitas Lemica, a Roman town near modern Xinzo de Limia in the Spanish Galician province of Ourense.
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Hydatius or Idacius (c. 400 – c. 469), bishop of Aquae Flaviae in the Roman province of Gallaecia (almost certainly the modern Chaves, Portugal, in the modern district of Vila Real) was the author of a chronicle of his own times that provides us with our best evidence for the history of the Iberian Peninsula in the 5th century.
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Though Hydatius consistently characterizes Iberian heretics as Manichees, it is generally believed that he meant Priscillianists, followers of the ascetic bishop Priscillian, who had been condemned as a heretic by several church councils and executed as a magician by the emperor Magnus Maximus around 385.
It contained several historical texts under the heading "Itacius", after the first of them, the chronicle by Hydatius.
Despite his orthodox Christianity, Hydatius, the contemporary bishop and chronicler from Galicia who is the sole contemporary source for biographical details of Rechiar, established his reputation as that of a barbarian with little sense of Roman law, culture, or custom.
Hydatius |