The Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia - University of Pennsylvania Press

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

The V I S I G OT H I C KINGDOM IN IBERIA Construction and Invention

Santiago Castellanos

un iver sit y of pen nsy lvan i a press phil adelphi a

137-85072_ch01_1aP.indd 3

—-1 —0 —+1

2/22/20 12:51 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

Contents

Preface ix Chapter 1. The Collapse of the Roman Empire in Hispania: Between the Texts and the Archaeological Revolution

1

Chapter 2. Po­liti­cal Overview: The Beginnings of the Gothic Kingdom in Iberia

9

Chapter 3. Structures of Power: Magnates and Dependents

30

Chapter 4. Negotiating and Imposing: Kings and Local Worlds

59

Chapter 5. Inventing a Kingdom: Projecting Messages

83

Conclusion 111 Chronology 115 Abbreviations 117 Notes 119 Bibliography 153 Index 000 Acknowl­edgments

181 —-1 —0 —+1

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 7

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

Preface

Two moments in time bracket the period covered by this book. The first is in the second half of the fifth ­century, when the elite of Tarraco, one of the most impor­ tant cities in Hispania, declared their loyalty to the Roman emperors, shown by a dedicatory inscription found ­there. At that time, the imperial administration had virtually ceased to exist in most of the West. In Hispania it controlled only some areas in the northeast, specifically in the province of Tarraconensis. This same zone was soon to pass into the orbit of the Gothic kingdom of Euric, based in southern Gaul. The Gothic offensive took place around 472, shortly ­after the inscription was placed in Tarracon. The second time point falls almost two hundred years ­later, in the mid-­seventh ­century, when King Chindaswinth, together with his son and successor, Recceswinth, carried out a series of in-­depth reforms to the administration of their kingdom. By that time, the regnum Gothorum was firmly established in Iberia.

This book addresses specific questions relating to the two centuries that passed between t­ hese moments. How did the kingdom of the Goths manage to establish itself in Hispania? What ­were the keys to this pro­cess? In ­doing so, the book offers an overview of the long phase between the end of the fifth ­century and the ­middle of the seventh. During this time the regnum Gothorum maintained an interest, at first in certain enclaves within late Roman Hispania from its base in southern Gaul and ­later in the totality of what had been the provinces of Hispania, where it eventually established itself. The Gothic kings in Iberia gave themselves the title of rex Gothorum, but during the period covered by this book, they came to associate with this the concept of Spania as a geopo­liti­cal reference to which they could add Septimania, part of southern Gaul, which remained part of the Gothic kingdom when its center of gravity shifted southward in the early sixth ­century.

The term “Spania” demands some explanation. “Spania” is used with some frequency in the texts of the Visigothic kingdom that occupied what had previously been Roman Hispania, and it can be collated in the editions of ­these texts

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 9

—-1 —0 —+1

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

x P r efac e

and in numerous ­later manuscripts that copied them. Spania derives from Hispania, as do the words “España” and “Spain”; however, Spain did not exist in the Visigothic period of the sixth and seventh centuries that forms the subject of this book. Nor indeed did Portugal, also within Iberia, or the other Eu­ro­pean nations of modern and con­temporary history. It is true that in the eigh­teenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries vari­ous attempts ­were made to find a direct origin for ­these nations in the regna, or kingdoms, of post-­Roman Eu­rope. For our purposes, however, the equation of Spania with Spain is unhelpful; accuracy would require present-­day Portugal to be included ­because it lies inside what was once Hispania. Moreover, by “Spania” I do not mean the term sometimes used to refer to the Hispanic Byzantine domains, but the term that, in the sources for the Visigothic kingdom, alludes to the set of territories of that kingdom in ancient Roman Hispania. Between late Roman and Visigothic times, the term “Spania” was frequently used as a kind of shorthand for an evolving geographic entity.

It is worth briefly mentioning another question of terminology. “Visigoths” is to be found consolidated in sources only ­after much of the sixth ­century had elapsed. Official texts of the kingdom preferred the concepts Gothus, rex Gothorum, and gens Gothorum, even if ­there are some odd examples of the use of “Visigoths.” (To cite just a few instances, it is employed in hagiography from Mérida dating from the seventh ­century, and by Procopius writing in Greek in Constantinople and Gregory the ­Great in Rome in the sixth ­century, among ­others.)

* * *

-1— 0— +1—

This book is not a complete overview of the history of the Visigoth kingdom but rather a thematic study of how the kingdom rooted its structures in what had been Roman Hispania. Consequently, the chapters concentrate on a specific time span, from the final years of the fifth c­ entury through to the mid-­seventh ­century.

The establishment of the Goths in Hispania was a complex historical pro­cess, not an episode or the immediate outcome of an event such as their defeat by the Franks in 507. This pro­cess has left traces in sources from the last third of the fifth ­century and the first third of the sixth. Gothic interests in Hispania had originated in the fifth c­ entury, starting ­under the umbrella of their foedera (treaties, pacts) with the Roman Empire, and thereafter with considerable room for maneuvering. Once the empire had dis­appeared in the West, through to the mid-­ sixth ­century, t­ hese interests gradually became more extensive. It was only in the second half of the sixth ­century that they ­were definitively consolidated. The

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 10

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

P r efac e

xi

final point chosen for the time horizon of this book, the mid-­seventh ­century, is explained by the intensity of lawmaking and reforms undertaken just ­after that point by Chindaswinth and his son Recceswinth. This is no longer the construction phase of the kingdom but a reform and reconstruction phase, the starting point for a new stage in its history.

My objective in this book is to show how this pro­cess developed and how it involved prob­lems, splits, and contradictions. Over the course of this long period a pact between dominant sectors of the Gothic aristocracy and the local elites led to the conversion of the Gothic kingdom from Arianism to Catholicism. It was from that point on that Catholic bishops produced a narrative of the pro­cess, a discourse of power, which they tried to introduce into the collective awareness at many dif­fer­ent levels. The anchoring of ­these two processes—­ construction and invention—is the theme of this book. By the construction of the kingdom I mean its articulation and operation in the initial and central phases of its consolidation in Roman Hispania. Its subsequent evolution, from the reigns of Chindaswinth and Recceswinth onward, is a clearly dif­fer­ent phase that saw profound reforms in the administration of the kingdom. ­These lie outside the pro­cesses addressed by this book. By the invention of the kingdom I mean the creation of a system of values, of ideological projections, which included the definition of what a king was, what a kingdom was, how and why they should be obeyed, and the place that the past history played in that design.

The book begins with a look at the collapse of the Roman Empire (Chapter 1), focusing on some of the changes that took place in Iberia, particularly their consequences for the period that immediately followed. Next I provide (Chapter 2) an overview of the po­liti­cal route taken by the regnum Gothorum from its last moments in Gaul ­until it was firmly installed in Iberia, while retaining Septimania north of the Pyrenees. The rooting of the kingdom in Iberia is covered by two chapters: Chapter 3 investigates local powers and t­hose dependent on them; Chapter 4 highlights the impositions and negotiations of central authority with regard to them. Fi­nally, in Chapter 5 I consider the invention of the kingdom as such, on the basis of the adaptation of ethnicity, the construction of a linear history, and the projection by the elite of politico-­religious messages that gave a shape to the identity of their own po­liti­cal system.

* * * Most of the primary sources for the Visigothic period in Iberia come from the ecclesiastical and monastic sphere. For the chronological period covered by this

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 11

—-1 —0 —+1

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

xii P r efac e

-1— 0— +1—

book, perhaps the most systematic narratives are the chronicle of John of Biclar, prob­ably written in the first years of the seventh ­century, and the History of the Goths by Isidore of Seville, written in at least two redactions some years ­later.

With differences, both authors exalt the kingdom of the Goths as a synthesis of a territorial domain in ancient Roman Hispania with its Catholic identity, acquired at the end of the sixth ­century. This symbiosis between kingdom and Catholicism has its roots in the speech given by Leander of Seville, b­ rother and pre­de­ces­sor of Isidore in the bishopric, during the Third Council of Toledo of ­ athers of Mérida and 589. The hagiographies, in par­tic­u­lar the Lives of the Holy F Life of St. Aemilian, are very pertinent ­here. Both written in the seventh ­century, they proj­ect an image of the local world that interested their issuers, respectively, the ecclesiastical and monastic community of St. Eulalia and Braulio, bishop of Saragossa and friend of Isidore. In all ­these cases the authors wrote in the ser­ vice of Catholic power, which from the end of the sixth c­ entury was connected with the po­liti­cal. One of the central themes of this book is to analyze how the “invention” of the kingdom was the product of this connection.

John of Biclar was of Gothic origin and came from Lusitania. He was to end his days in northeastern Iberia as abbot of the community at Biclarum and bishop of Gerona. In his youth he had traveled to Constantinople to study and spent seven years ­there, prob­ably in the 570s. It is known that John was exiled to Barcelona by Leovigild, doubtless b­ ecause of the religious rivalry between Arianism and Catholicism that saw peaks of tension during Leovigild’s reign. John was still alive well into the 610s, as is known from his acting as signatory to minutes of meetings and episcopal documents. John’s chronicle, prob­ably written at this late stage in his life, is a synthesis of the new ideology that was to shape the invention of the kingdom. In this instance it is crucial to pay attention to its use of the past, particularly the reigns of Leovigild and Reccared, in the creation of a linear account of history, a long way from the real complexities of the facts that it selectively pre­sents.

Isidore’s f­ amily came from the province of Carthaginiensis, which from the mid-­sixth ­century onward was in the hands of troops sent by the Eastern Roman Empire. By the last third of the c­ entury his f­ amily had settled in the province of Baetica. His elder b­ rother, Leander, was bishop of Seville, while another of his ­brothers, Fulgentius, held that same office in the diocese of Écija; his s­ ister Florentina was an abbess. Isidore was to succeed his b­ rother in the episcopal see of Seville from approximately 600 or 602 through to his death in 636. He wrote many works, of which the best known is his Etymologiae, an authentically encyclopedic production, extensively copied throughout Eu­rope. However, Isidore

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 12

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

P r efac e

xiii

wrote in numerous literary genres, such as history, chronicles, letters, poems, theology, and monastic rules, among many o­ thers. His ­brother Leander had been involved in Hermenegild’s uprising against his ­father Leovigild, but nevertheless also had an active role in the Third Council of Toledo in 589. This, u­ nder Reccared, brought with it the official conversion of the Gothic kingdom to Catholicism. Isidore likewise played an active part in the relationship between bishops and monarchs in the first third of the seventh c­ entury, and his contribution to the invention of the kingdom was crucial.

Other sources include texts of a biographical, ecclesiastical nature and letters, ­wills, and treaties of vari­ous kinds. Sometimes it has been necessary to contrast the information coming from within the kingdom with that emanating from abroad—­from Jordanes, Procopius, Gregory of Tours, Gregory the ­Great, and Fredegar, among ­others. In addition, the laws issued by the Visigothic kings and the Formulae show how the setting of norms and protocols for action can be the expression of social prob­lems, though not through a literal reading, which would lead to a superficial view. Something similar happens with the councils, which in their efforts to insist on certain prohibitions may suggest a high frequency of the be­hav­iors that they ­were trying to prevent.

Information provided by some particularly relevant inscriptions has been used. And it has also been impor­tant to study the so-­called Visigothic slates, which often lack archaeological context. ­These are slates inscribed with text in cursive script or with numerals or drawings, which contain fascinating information of vari­ous dif­fer­ent types, such as religious contexts, learning, and school exercises. ­Here we are interested especially in ­those that refer to the social and economic structure of the west-­central zone of the Iberian peninsula.

All this leads us to a high density of very dif­fer­ent kinds of sources. One of the constant concerns of this book is to explain the new archaeological rec­ords in the general context of the po­liti­cal, social, and ideological history of the construction and consolidation of the Visigothic kingdom in Iberia. ­ ere shaping the invention of While Leander, Isidore, and their colleagues w the kingdom, peasants ­were burying their dead in cemeteries associated with vil­ ere thrown into disused storlages. In the very same communities, other dead w age pits or onto garbage dumps. While such events occurred in villages, games of po­liti­cal and ideological power ­were played out elsewhere. Leander delivered his homily at the Third Council of Toledo in 589, John of Biclar wrote his chronicle covering the years 567 to 590, and ­later, in the first part of the seventh ­century, Isidore wrote his history of the Goths. This book aims to bring together both sorts of information. Recent public construction proj­ects for airports,

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 13

—-1 —0 —+1

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

xiv P r efac e

highways, and railroad lines for high-­speed trains have led to excavations yielding major new empirical evidence. Indeed, one of the objectives of this book is to attempt to link the two sets of materials: written sources, arising overwhelmingly from court or church, and archaeological rec­ords. Laws, letters, histories, hagiographies, and rec­ords of councils are expressions of the very top level of society. They come from the world of Isidore and his colleagues, of magnates and of kings. The unfortunates who in death ­were flung into abandoned silos in villages ­were from the least privileged classes. Between the two w ­ ere vari­ous intermediate levels. Hence the study of the construction and invention of the kingdom must look at how ­these two pro­cesses ­were anchored between the horizon of local notables and the structures of the under­lying peasant base.

-1— 0— +1—

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 14

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

chapter 1

The Collapse of the Roman Empire in Hispania Between the Texts and the Archaeological Revolution

At some point between 467 and 472 an inscription was set up in Tarraco, t­ oday’s Tarragona, honoring Anthemius and Leo, Roman emperors of the West and the East, respectively. The dedicators recognized them as Domini Nostri and Augusti.

By that time the Western Roman Empire controlled very few regions in the West.

It was de­cades since it had withdrawn from Britannia, and in the end it had lost control of a large part of Gaul, Africa, and Hispania. The city in northeastern Iberia and its associated Tarraconensis province ­were among the few territories that the last Western emperors could say they administered outside Italy and part of southern Gaul. In Iberia, the kingdom of the Sueves had been settled for somewhat more than half a ­century in Gallaecia in the northwestern peninsula, with eastward and southward expansions. In general, Iberia was the scene of a growth in local powers. Hence the inscription in Tarraco was more or less the swan song of the presence of the Roman Empire in Iberia and the identification of local elites with it.

This chapter looks at the collapse of Roman dominion in Iberia, not as an end in itself but rather as a necessary starting point. The historical basis for ­ ill also be inchanges that have become vis­i­ble thanks to modern archaeology w vestigated. Without a clear grasp of t­ hese changes it is not pos­si­ble to understand the ­later establishment of the Gothic kingdom.

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 1

—-1 —0 —+1

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

2 c h a p t er 1

The End of Roman Iberia: The Basis for the Changes

-1— 0— +1—

At the time when the dedicators commissioned the inscription to the emperors, it was only a few years since Hydatius had finished his chronicle. This work is one of the most complete fifth-­century sources for the West. Hydatius was a bishop in Gallaecia who took a personal hand in the negotiations and conflicts between ­those with a Roman tradition and the Sueves. At the point when the dedication to the emperors in Tarraco was being paid for, Hydatius had prob­ ably already passed away or was on the point of ­dying. All the same, the end of his chronicle and the inscription are very few years apart. Hydatius makes it plain in his chronicle that he identifies himself with the Roman tradition, though he showed his pessimism in its preface and general content. So, in two places in Iberia at a considerable distance one from another, it was being demonstrated that belonging to the empire could still be seen as desirable.1 The motivation for Hydatius’s work may have been the movement into Hispania of Sueves, Vandals, and Alans in the year 409. This was followed by the arrival of the Goths around 415 to 417, acting as Rome’s allies. Their intervention was requested by the empire in order to confront the former groups, and afterward the Goths themselves settled in southern Gaul. By mid-­century the Goths’ interest in Hispania seems to have increased. According to Hydatius, this was always theoretically at imperial request, as in 454 when they beat the Bacaudae and in 456 when Theoderic II came to defeat the kingdom of the Sueves.

Although Hydatius pre­sents this defeat as definitive, the kingdom of the Sueves is known to have lingered on u­ ntil around 585. The early de­cades of the fifth ­century saw unquestioned disturbances, but it is not pos­si­ble to set a figure on the number of barbarians pre­sent. The groups that entered Hispania ­were a minority in the population, but supplied a f­ actor for change that it is hard to mea­ sure. The three most striking features up to around 472 w ­ ere the consolidation of the kingdom of the Sueves in the northwest, theoretical maintenance of imperial sovereignty over the province of Tarraconensis in the northeast, and the rise of local notables. The emergence of local powers is one of the keys to understanding how the Visigoth kingdom was established in the sixth ­century, which ­will be examined in detail in Chapters 3 and 4. Nevertheless, several ­things changed just ­a fter this during the reign of Euric, king of the Gothic realm in southern Gaul between 466 and 484.2 Some authors have speculated that Euric managed to impose Gothic control over almost all Iberia. This view was influenced by the statement of Jordanes

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 2

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

T h e Coll a p s e of t h e Ro m a n Empire in Hispa n i a

3

affirming that Euric held totas Spanias Galliasque (all of Hispania and Gaul). It is certain that Euric had ­adopted a policy of taking the offensive in the early 470s, considerable information about this being available from Sidonius Apollinaris and other sources that made it plain Euric was expanding his domains in Gaul.

As for Hispania, his generals attacked Tarraconensis from both ends of the Pyrenees, perhaps between 472 and 473, in accordance with the chronology derived from the new edition of the Chronica Gallica a. DXI prepared by Burgess. Gauterit attacked Pampilone and Caesaraugusta, modern Pamplona and Zaragoza.

Heldefred and Vincentius, hitherto a high-­ranking member of the imperial administration in Hispania, headed for Tarraco and took control of the coast.

Isidore of Seville was to note long a­ fter the event that Euric seized upper Spain (superioremque Spaniam) but not without re­sis­tance from aristocratic groups ­ ese local notables in Tarraconen(Tarraconensis etiam prouinciae nobilitatem). Th sis who opposed the Gothic troops are likely to have lived not long ­after the ­people who encouraged the setting up of the dedication to the emperors in the capital of the province. Not all specialists have agreed with the view that Euric gained total dominance over Iberia, and the available evidence does not support such an idea. This ­will become clear shortly when the Consularia Caesaraugustana and campaigns in the period of Euric’s successor, Alaric II, are considered.3 This affects our interpretation of the po­liti­cal evolution of the kingdom in the sixth ­century, as ­will be seen in Chapter 2.

The idea that Euric had almost total control of Iberia was also based on an inscription that is now lost. Dating from 483, it mentioned Euric in a text describing the cultivation of lands handed over and repairs to a bridge and the city wall in Emerita, ­today’s Mérida, in the southwestern peninsula. The text ­faces prob­lems in re­spect to its transmission in the rec­ords. It refers to the Gothic king Erwig (680–687), but this reading has been emended so that t­ here is some doubt about ­whether ­there ­were several rewritings. Recent analyses would see Euric’s name as quoted in the inscription more for the purposes of chronological reference, since the key figures in it are Bishop Zeno and the dux Salla. It is credible that ­there would have been such a reinforcement of the city wall: the work undertaken seems now to have been clearly identified by archaeologists as occurring at a point very late in the fifth ­century. Euric might also not simply be a reference for the date, with the Goths having some sort of specific interest in Emerita. It is highly likely that ­there was a Gothic garrison in what was the most impor­tant city in the Roman administration in Hispania ­under the late empire.

The city had been the object of par­tic­u ­lar attention during Theoderic II’s campaigns in 456 and 457, and it would not be strange for it to be de­cided that

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 3

—-1 —0 —+1

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

4 c h a p t er 1

-1— 0— +1—

a foothold should be kept in Emerita. However, this does not mean that Euric controlled all Hispania.4 On the basis of the idea that Iberia was already u­ nder the control of the Gothic kingdom ­under Euric, the mass entry of the Goths into the area was seen as taking place at the end of the fifth ­century, during the reign of his successor Alaric II. This would have continued in 507, ­after Alaric was defeated and killed by the Franks u­ nder Clovis. This line of argument holds that the Goths would have settled mainly on the Central Plateau or Meseta. This idea of a migration in the late fifth c­ entury was grounded on two pieces of information, apart from Euric’s supposed previous takeover. The first was the information noted in the Chronica Caesaraugustana, and the second the cemeteries that in the twentieth ­century ­were given the name of “Visigothic necropolises,” as mentioned elsewhere ­ ill be very briefly considered h ­ ere. in this book. The first aspect w The Chronica Caesaraugustana points to the arrival of Goths in Iberia in the time of Alaric II. The text states that in the year 494 the Goths entered Iberia (Goti in Hispanias ingressi sunt), and that in 497 the Goths controlled enclaves in Hispania (Gotthi intra Hispanias sedes acceperunt). It must be stated that this source is less linear than Mommsen described in his edition. The text is a compendium of diverse pieces of information based on consularia but also on laterculi or lists of Gothic kings and other types of texts. Since the appearance of the edition by Cardelle de Hartmann, and in accordance with the suggestion in it, this source should be called the Consularia Caesaraugustana. Its text also gives hints that t­ here was local opposition. For instance, it mentions Burdunelus, who in the Consularia is explic­itly called a tyrant (tyranidem assumit, he assumed tyranny) in referring to the arrival of the Goths in 494, and notes for 497 that Burdunelus was betrayed by his own p­ eople and taken to Toulouse, where he was put inside a bronze bull and burnt alive (Tolosam directus in tauro aeneo impositus igne crematus est). Some years ­later, in 506, ­these same Consularia state that the Goths took Dertosa, ­today’s Tortosa, a coastal city south of Tarraco, and that another man, Petrus, was executed—it is surmised in that same place, given the structure of the sentence and the fact the text is at pains to point out that his head was taken to Caesaraugusta. Most likely the references in the Consularia allude to military campaigns against Tarraconensis, the same zone attacked two de­cades before by King Euric’s generals. Their sense would be a reinforcement of the Gothic strategic presence in this zone, which over recent years had been eroded by opposition from local powers in the northeast. The texts give the impression that the Goths, who even ­under Alaric II still did not control all Hispania, had at least succeeded in consolidating their hegemony in parts of

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 4

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

T h e Coll a p s e of t h e Ro m a n Empire in Hispa n i a

5

Tarraconensis and ­were beginning to stamp out re­sis­tance from local magnates, such as Burdunelus and Petrus: the nobilitas to which Isidore was to refer much ­later when recalling the era of Euric.5 The end of the Roman Empire in Iberia, as elsewhere in the West, was a gradual pro­cess. However, it was not just an end but also a time of changes, some of which w ­ ere very long lasting. Two ele­ments in this collapse should be highlighted, apart from the consolidation of the kingdom of the Sueves in the northwest. First, ­there was slowly increasing Gothic interest in Iberia. Second, t­ here was a growth in the importance of local notables in both cities and countryside. All of this is essential to an understanding of the rooting of the regnum Gothorum in Iberia, ­ ill be seen, especially in Chapters 2 and 4. However, with regard to the fifth as w ­century, attention should be drawn to changes in material evidence provided by archaeology.

The Archaeological Revolution ­ ntil a few years ago it was habitual for university textbooks on Hispania in late U antiquity to refer to the idea of decline. This was based on a priori concepts. Hispanic cities from the times of Vespasian or Hadrian, with their forums, columns, and t­ emples, ­were stylistically far ahead of the archaeological remains from ­later periods. All of this has changed radically in recent de­cades. Construction proj­ects for high-­speed trains, airports, and highways have led to urban and rural rescue digs. Moreover, new research proj­ects by t­ oday’s archaeologists have added substantially to the available material evidence. The result is that knowledge of the cities and countryside of the fifth ­century and the post-­Roman era has greatly changed. At this point it is of interest to reflect briefly on how far such a revolution in archaeology has affected knowledge of the Roman collapse in the fifth ­century, ­because ­these structures in transformation ­were ­later to be the foundations for the Visigothic kingdom. Elsewhere in this book (Chapters 2 and 3) attention w ­ ill be paid to deposits from the sixth and seventh centuries when considering this settlement.

In the cities of fifth-­century Hispania it was common for public spaces to be put to new use. In most cities in Hispania in the fifth ­century, as in a large part of the West, forums, amphitheaters, theaters, and ­temples ­were ­either occupied for domestic use or dismantled. Another phenomenon datable to this point is that large domus groups within urban areas ­were split up for diverse uses.

Furthermore, in the fifth ­century, churches began to proliferate, both inside and

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 5

—-1 —0 —+1

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

6 c h a pt er 1

-1— 0— +1—

outside the walled areas of cities. At times, as in Barcino (Barcelona), it is pos­si­ ble to identify the episcopal buildings, which ­later grew more extensive, as in Barcino itself or in Valentia, with sixth-­ century levels seeming clearer than fifth-­century ones. In Barcino it has been shown that ­there was relatively widespread use of pedestals with inscriptions or fragments of columns taken from the forum to build the episcopal buildings. In general, the fifth c­ entury sees a shrinking in ­great public spaces, the impoverishment of materials employed, a steady growth in ecclesiastical construction within the city walls and in suburbia, and the occupation for domestic purposes of former public spaces and even part of the street network.6 In the countryside archaeological evidence provides information on four main phenomena: the end of the Roman uilla (rural properties and estates with land and a luxurious residential complex) the springing up of numerous castella (fortified hilltops), the prob­lem of what w ­ ere formerly known as “necropolis areas along the Douro,” and the beginnings of peasant villages. Th ­ ese four ele­ments form part of the same mass of transformations that involved the cities, in other words, the context of the collapse of the Roman system. The uillae—­one of the most striking power structures in the countryside—­were farming complexes with vari­ous dif­fer­ent types of workers, w ­ hether dependent freemen or slaves. Their residential zones often had a monumental appearance, with numerous rooms and exuberant ornamentation. However, the majority of uillae in Hispania ­were abandoned as the fifth c­ entury advanced. Some did linger on, however, not as uillae as such but as places occupied by peasants or used for burials. The end of the uillae implies a change in the interests of the aristocracy, who channeled their investments in other directions, and partly also a reduction in their overall wealth and capacity. It also signals a turning point in the identity of ­these elites, the most power­ful sectors of which w ­ ere to find scope for their expansion in the ecclesiastical sphere and soon in collaboration with the new po­liti­cal systems in the West, the regna.7 Another phenomenon that current archaeology has detected, especially from the fifth ­century onward, is the emergence of castella, inhabited places on high points, often fortified. When a con­temporary, Hydatius, refers to them, he gives the impression that they played a very active role in the balance of power and conflicts in the northwest. Archaeology has gradually detected them throughout the greater part of Iberia. They range in size from a number of acres to barely more than one. Some have walls similar to ­those around towns; ­others have very modest walls or even no defenses at all. As in the case of cities and villages, more details of castella ­will be given in Chapters 3 and 4, which concentrate on the

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 6

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

T h e Coll a p s e of t h e Ro m a n Empire in Hispa n i a

7

relationship between the Visigothic kingdom and local notables. What should be stressed at this point is that castella are a phenomenon that present-­day archaeology notes especially from the fifth ­century onward.8 A topic much debated by archaeologists is the question of what have traditionally been called “necropolis areas along the Douro.” ­These are burial zones from the early and mid-­fi fth ­century, although some date from a ­little ­earlier.

They are cemeteries that for most of the twentieth c­ entury ­were seen as belonging to the northern part of the Meseta, hence the description “along the Douro.”

They ­were interpreted in very diverse ways, from barbarian burial grounds to cemeteries for soldiers, as distinct from the ­peoples of the north. ­Little by ­little ­these deposits have been reinterpreted as being heterogeneous, a view espoused by both Pérez Rodríguez-­Aragón, who warns of the need not to see ­these necropolises as homogeneous, and Vigil-­Escalera, who views them as an expression of basically peasant management. This does not prevent some archaeologists from maintaining to this day that ­there is a direct connection between certain materials from fifth-­century Hispania and the groups of barbarians (Sueves, Vandals, Alans, Goths) mentioned by Orosius and Hydatius. Nonetheless, an interpretation of ­these cemeteries from the early and mid-­fi fth ­century that is not on strictly ethnic lines may help in understanding a final ­matter that should be highlighted.9 In the fifth ­century peasant villages began to appear, and this phenomenon increased in the sixth and seventh centuries. ­Until around twenty years back a few scattered deposits ­were known. In the case of Iberia, not all the villages arose in the fifth ­century, with some dating to the sixth or even ­later. However, in many instances the phenomenon does date to the fifth ­century. ­These are modest remains, with very ­simple dwellings. At times an associated cemetery has been found, at other times, none. ­There is also diversity in the belongings found, ranging from some striking materials for personal adornment to their complete absence. As in the case of ciuitates and castella, villages ­will receive more detailed attention elsewhere in this book. For the moment it should merely be noted that they started to appear in the fifth ­century, once again in a context of changes arising as the Roman system collapsed.10 To sum up, the archaeological rec­ord has expanded considerably in recent years. Some of the new contexts are late Roman, while o­ thers date to the Visigothic period; they are essential for our view of the establishment of central power that ­will be dealt with in Chapters 3 and 4. The collapse of the Roman Empire was like a whirl­pool from which new structures emerged while ­others dis­appeared. It was on ­these changing structures that the Gothic kingdom would be constructed and its elites would establish its ideological architecture, as we

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 7

—-1 —0 —+1

20/02/20 4:49 PM

UNCORRECTED—not for citation

8 c h a pt er 1

s­ hall see in Chapter 5. References to power w ­ ere no longer the same in cities or countryside. ­There ­were groups who de­cided to build dwellings in high places, sometimes with impressive defensive walls, sometimes with modest ones. At the lowest social levels, the peasantry established new forms of organ­ization. Such changes laid the social basis on which the regnum Gothorum was established in the sixth ­century.

-1— 0— +1—

137-85072_ch01_1P.indd 8

20/02/20 4:49 PM