The Vandal Persecution
The sufferings of these martyrs belong to the long persecution of the Orthodox in North Africa under the Arian Vandals, who had crossed from Spain into Africa under Genseric in 429 and were heretics rather than pagans. For nearly a century the Vandal kings pressed the African Church to accept Arian doctrine and rebaptism, and the persecution intensified under Genseric's successors. The 362 Martyrs are remembered among the many who chose death over conformity to Arianism during these years.
Their commemoration sits within a broader tradition of African confessors and martyrs from the same period, recorded for the Western Church chiefly by the contemporary writer Victor of Vita, whose history names numerous Nicene Christians — among them Dionysia and her son Majoricus, Dativa, Leontia, and the bishop Boniface — who suffered under Hunneric. The account of confessors who continued to speak after their tongues were cut out is one of the most widely attested features of this persecution.