This volume interrogates the assumption that Visigothic practices and institutions were mere imitations of the Byzantine empire. Contributors rethink these practices not as uncritical and derivative adoptions of Byzantine customs, but as dynamic processes in dialogue with not only the Byzantine empire but also with the contemporary Iberian context, as well as the Roman past. The goal of the volume is to approach Visigothic customs not as an uncritical adoption and imitatio of contemporary Roman models (an "acculturation" model), but as unique interpretations of a common pool of symbols, practices, and institutions that formed the legacy of Rome. The contributors argue that it is necessary to reconsider the idea of imitatio imperii as a process that involved specific actors taking strategic decisions in historically contingent circumstances.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Damián Fernández, Molly Lester, and Jamie Wood
- 1. Visigothic Spain and Byzantium
- The Story of a Special (Historiographical) Relationship
- 2. The Development of the Visigothic Court in the Hagiography of the Fifth and Sixth Centuries
- 3. Experiments in Visigothic Rulership
- Minting and Monetary Reforms under Alaric II
- 4. A Comparison of Roman and Visigothic Approaches to Exile
- 5. The Roman Jewel in the Visigothic Crown
- A Reassessment of the Royal Votive Crowns of the Guarrazar Treasure
- 6. Capitalhood in the Visigothic Kingdom
- 7. Making Rite Choices
- Roman and Eastern Liturgies in Early Medieval Iberia
- 8. Ethnicity and Imitatio in Isidore of Seville
- 9. Re-imagining Roman Persecution in the Visigothic Passions
- 10. Romanness in Visigothic Hagiography
- 11. Empire and the Politics of Faction
- Mérida and Toledo Revisited
- 12. The Agents and Mechanics of Connectivity
- The Mediterranean World and the Cities of the Guadiana Valley in the Sixth Century
- 13. Staying Roman after 711?
- Index
- List of Figures and Tables
- Figure 1: Map of Visigothic Gaul and Spain
- Figure 3.1: Bronze 40 nummi of Anastasius I, Eastern Roman, Constantinople, 498–518 CE. ANS 1997.31.1.obv.600 and ANS 1997.31.1.rev.600
- Figure 3.2: Bronze 40 nummi of Theodoric and Athalaric, Ostrogothic, Rome, 522–534 CE. ANS 1944.100.61978.obv.490 and ANS 1944.100.61978.rev.490
- Figure 3.3: Bronze 42 nummi of Hilderic, Vandal, Carthage, 523–530 CE. ANS 1944.100.73746.obv.490 and ANS 1944.100.73746.rev.490
- Figure 3.4: Visigothic Regal Coinage, Gold tremissis of Leovigild, Toledo, 575–586 CE. ANS 2016.29.9.obv.1800 and ANS 2016.29.9.rev.1800
- Figure 3.5: Gold tremissis of Gundobad, ‘Burgundian’, after 501–516 CE. ANS 2014.44.55.obv.2300 and ANS 2014.44.55.rev.2300
- Figure 3.6: Gold tremissis of the Visigoths, after 501–518 CE. ANS 1944.74.1.obv.3950 and ANS 1944.74.1.rev.3950
- Figure 3.7: Gold Solidus of Constantine I, Nicomedia, 315–316 CE. ANS 1948.19.315.obv.600 and ANS 1948.19.315.rev.600
- Figure 3.8: Gold solidus of Julius Nepos, Visigoths, 474–480 CE. ANS 2014.44.12.obv.2300 and ANS 2014.44.12.rev.2300
- Figure 5.1: Frontispiece of Ferdinand de Lasteyrie, Description du Trésor de Guarrazar, accompagnée de recherches sur toutes les questions archéologiques qui s’y rattachent (Paris: Gide, 1860). Image in the Public Domain, gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque de
- Figure 5.2: The Guarrazar Treasure (Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid). Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Inv. RP-2013-10-18. Photo: Doctor Sombra.
- Figure 5.3: Sapphire and Pearl Cross, Guarrazar Treasure (Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid). Museo Arqueológico Nacional. Inv. 71203. Photo: Fundación ITMA, Santiago Relanzón.
- Figure 5.4: Crown of King Suinthila, Guarrazar Treasure (now lost). Photo: Biblioteca del Ateneo de Madrid.
- Figure 5.5: Crown of King Recceswinth with Cross, Guarrazar Treasure (Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid). Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Inv. C663. Photo: Fundación ITMA, Santiago Relanzón.
- Figure 11.1: The City of Mérida in Late Antiquity
- Figure 13.1: Andalusi dinar dated Indiction XI, also dated XCIII = AH 71/711. From http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/gov_trans_types.htm; thanks to Ibrahim and Gaspariño.
- Figure 13.2: Seal of Andalusi governor al-Samḥ (718–21). From http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/Seals.html; thanks to Ibrahim and Gaspariño.
- Table 1: The internal structure and chronology of the Vitas sanctorum patrum Emeretensium.Sources: Kampers 1979, 95, ‘Paulus’, 32–33; 96, ‘Fidelis’, 33; 195, ‘Nanctus’, 57–58; 361, ‘Augustus’,93; García Moreno 1974, 435, ‘Massona’, 166–69; 437, ‘Innocentius’, 170; 438, ‘Renovatus’, 171; Jorge2002, 76.
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