Germanic people of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages
Ethnic group
Visigoths
Visigothi
The eagles represented on thesefibulae from the 6th century, and found inTierra de Barros (Badajoz), were a popular symbol among the Goths in Spain.[a]
TheVisigoths (/ˈvɪzɪɡɒθs/;Latin:Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were aGermanic people united under the rule of a king and living within theRoman Empire duringlate antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in theBalkans, as a Roman-alliedbarbarian[1] military group united under the command ofAlaric I. Their exact origins are believed to have been diverse but they probably included many descendants of theThervingi who had moved into the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had played a major role in defeating the Romans at theBattle of Adrianople in 378.[2] Relations between the Romans and Alaric's Visigoths varied, with the two groups making treaties when convenient, and warring with one another when not.[3] Under Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Italy andsacked Rome in August 410.
The Visigoths were subsequently settled in southernGaul asfoederati to the Romans, a relationship that was established in 418. This developed as an independent kingdom with itscapital atToulouse, and they extended their authority intoHispania at the expense of theSuebi andVandals who had taken control of large swathes of Roman territory. In 507, Visigothic rule in Gaul was ended by theFranks underClovis I, who defeated them in theBattle of Vouillé.
It is within what is now Spain and Portugal that the Visigoths created thepolity for which they are best remembered. During their governance of Hispania, the Visigothsbuilt several churches that survived and left many artifacts, items which have been discovered in increasing numbers by archaeologists in recent years. TheTreasure of Guarrazar ofvotive crowns and crosses are the most spectacular among the finds thus far. In or around 589, the Visigoths underReccared I converted fromArian Christianity toNicene Christianity, gradually adopting the culture of their Hispano-Roman subjects.[4] Their legal code, theVisigothic Code (completed in 654), abolished the longstanding practice of applying different laws for Hispano-Roman population and Visigoths. Once legal distinctions were no longer being made betweenRomani andGothi, they became known collectively asHispani. In the century that followed, the region was dominated by theCouncils of Toledo and the episcopacy. In 711, aninvading force of Arabs and Berbers defeated the Visigoths during theBattle of Guadalete. The Visigoth king,Roderic, and many members of the Visigothic governing elite were killed and their kingdom rapidly collapsed.[5] This was followed by the subsequent formation of theKingdom of Asturias in northern Spain and the beginning of theReconquista by Christian troops underPelagius.[6]
The Visigoths founded the only new cities in western Europe from the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire until the rise of theCarolingian dynasty. Many Visigothic names are still in use in the modernSpanish andPortuguese languages. Their most notable legacy, however, was theVisigothic Code, which served, among other things, as the basis for court procedure in most of ChristianIberia until theLate Middle Ages, centuries after the demise of the kingdom.
The Visigoths were never called Visigoths, only Goths, untilCassiodorus used the term, when referring to their loss againstClovis I in 507. Cassiodorus apparently invented the term based on the model of the "Ostrogoths", but using the older name of the Vesi, one of the tribal names which the fifth-century poetSidonius Apollinaris, had already used when referring to the Visigoths.[7][8] The first part of the Ostrogoth name is related to the word "east", andJordanes, the medieval writer, later clearly contrasted them in hisGetica, stating that "Visigoths were the Goths of the western country."[9] According to Wolfram, Cassiodorus created this east–west understanding of the Goths, which was a simplification and literary device, while political realities were more complex.[10] Cassiodorus used the term "Goths" to refer to only the Ostrogoths, whom he served, and reserved the geographic reference "Visigoths" for the Gallo-Spanish Goths. The term "Visigoths" was later used by the Visigoths themselves in their communications with theByzantine Empire, and was still in use in the 7th century.[10]
Europe in 305 AD
Two older tribal names from outside the Roman empire are associated with Visigoths who formed within the empire. The first references to any Gothic tribes by Roman and Greek authors were in the third century, notably including theThervingi, who were once referred to as Goths byAmmianus Marcellinus.[11] Much less is known of the "Vesi" or "Visi", from whom the term "Visigoth" was derived. Before Sidonius Apollinaris, the Vesi were first mentioned in theNotitia Dignitatum, a late-4th- or early-5th-century list of Roman military forces. This list also contains the last mention of the "Thervingi" in a classical source.[11]
Although he did not refer to the Vesi, Tervingi or Greuthungi, Jordanes identified the Visigothic kings fromAlaric I toAlaric II as the successors of the fourth-century Tervingian kingAthanaric, and the Ostrogoth kings fromTheoderic the Great toTheodahad as the heirs of the Greuthungi kingErmanaric.[12] Based on this, many scholars have traditionally treated the terms "Vesi" and "Tervingi" as referring to one distinct tribe, while the terms "Ostrogothi" and "Greuthungi" were used to refer to another.[13]
Wolfram, who still recently defends the equation of Vesi with the Tervingi, argues that while primary sources occasionally list all four names (as in, for example,Gruthungi, Austrogothi, Tervingi, Visi), whenever they mention two different tribes, they always refer either to "the Vesi and the Ostrogothi" or to "the Tervingi and the Greuthungi", and they never pair them up in any other combination. In addition, Wolfram interprets theNotitia Dignitatum as equating the Vesi with the Tervingi in a reference to the years 388–391.[14] On the other hand, another recent interpretation of theNotitia is that the two names, Vesi and Tervingi, are found in different places in the list, "a clear indication that we are dealing with two different army units, which must also presumably mean that they are, after all, perceived as two different peoples".[7] Peter Heather has written that Wolfram's position is "entirely arguable, but so is the opposite".[15]
Wolfram believes that "Vesi" and "Ostrogothi" were terms each tribe used to boastfully describe itself and argues that "Tervingi" and "Greuthungi" were geographical identifiers each tribe used to describe the other.[8] This would explain why the latter terms dropped out of use shortly after 400, when the Goths were displaced by theHunnic invasions.[16] Wolfram believes that the people Zosimus describes were those Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest.[17] For the most part, all of the terms discriminating between different Gothic tribes gradually disappeared after they moved into the Roman Empire.[8]
Many recent scholars, such asPeter Heather, have concluded that Visigothic group identity emerged only within the Roman Empire.[18]Roger Collins also believes that the Visigothic identity emerged from theGothic War of 376–382 when a collection of Tervingi, Greuthungi and other "barbarian" contingents banded together in multiethnicfoederati (Wolfram's "federate armies") under Alaric I in the easternBalkans, since they had become a multi ethnic group and could no longer claim to be exclusively Tervingian.[19]
Other names for other Gothic divisions abounded. In 469, the Visigoths were called the "Alaric Goths".[10] TheFrankish Table of Nations, probably of Byzantine or Italian origin, referred to one of the two peoples as theWalagothi, meaning "Roman Goths" (from Germanic *walhaz, foreign). This probably refers to the Romanized Visigoths after their entry into Spain.[20]Landolfus Sagax, writing in the 10th or 11th century, calls the Visigoths theHypogothi.[21]
The nameTervingi may mean "forest people", with the first part of the name related to Gothictriu, and English "tree".[8] This is supported by evidence that geographic descriptors were commonly used to distinguish people living north of theBlack Sea both before and after Gothic settlement there, by evidence of forest-related names among the Tervingi, and by the lack of evidence for an earlier date for the name pair Tervingi–Greuthungi than the late third century.[22] That the nameTervingi has pre-Pontic, possibly Scandinavian, origins still has support today.[23]
The Visigoths are calledWesi orWisi byTrebellius Pollio, Claudian and Sidonius Apollinaris.[24] The word isGothic for "good", implying the "good or worthy people",[8] related to Gothiciusiza "better" and a reflex ofIndo-European *wesu "good", akin toWelshgwiw "excellent",Greekeus "good",Sanskritvásu-ş "id.". Jordanes relates the tribe's name to a river, though this is probably afolk etymology or legend like his similar story about the Greuthung name.[23]
The Visigoths emerged from the Gothic tribes, probably a derivative name for theGutones, a people believed to have their origins inScandinavia and who migrated southeastwards into eastern Europe.[25] Such understanding of their origins is largely the result of Gothic traditions and their true genesis as a people is as obscure as that of theFranks andAlamanni.[26] The Visigoths spoke an eastern Germanic language that was distinct by the 4th century. Eventually the Gothic language died as a result of contact with other European people during theMiddle Ages.[27]
Long struggles between the neighboringVandili andLugii people with the Goths may have contributed to their earlier exodus into mainland Europe. The vast majority of them settled between theOder andVistula rivers until overpopulation (according to Gothic legends or tribal sagas) forced them to move south and east, where they settled just north of theBlack Sea.[28] However, this legend is not supported by archaeological evidence so its validity is disputable. Historian Malcolm Todd contends that while this largeen masse migration is possible, the movement of Gothic peoples south-east was probably the result of warrior bands moving closer to the wealth of Ukraine and the cities of the Black Sea coast. Perhaps what is most notable about the Gothic people in this regard was that by the middle of the third century AD, they were "the most formidable military power beyond the lower Danube frontier".[29][30]
Throughout the 3rd and 4th centuries there were numerous conflicts and exchanges of varying types between the Goths and their neighbors. After the Romans withdrew from the territory of Dacia, the local population was subjected to constant invasions by the migratory tribes, among the first being the Goths.[31] In 238, the Goths invaded across the Danube into the Roman province ofMoesia, pillaging and exacting payment through hostage taking. During the war with the Persians that year, Goths also appeared in the Roman armies ofGordian III.[32] When subsidies to the Goths were stopped, the Goths organized and in 250 joined a major barbarian invasion led by the Germanic king,Kniva.[32] Success on the battlefield against the Romans inspired additional invasions into the northernBalkans and deeper intoAnatolia.[33] Starting in approximately 255, the Goths added a new dimension to their attacks by taking to the sea and invading harbors which brought them into conflict with the Greeks as well. When the city ofPityus fell to the Goths in 256, the Goths were further emboldened. Sometime between 266 and 267, the Goths raided Greece but when they attempted to move into the Bosporus straits to attack Byzantium, they were repulsed. Along with other Germanic tribes, they attacked further into Anatolia, assaulting Crete and Cyprus on the way; shortly thereafter, they pillaged Troy and the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.[34] Throughout the reign of emperorConstantine the Great, the Visigoths continued to conduct raids on Roman territory south of the Danube River.[27] By 332, relations between the Goths and Romans were stabilized by a treaty but this was not to last.[35]
The Goths remained inDacia until 376, when one of their leaders,Fritigern, appealed to the Eastern Roman EmperorValens to be allowed to settle with his people on the south bank of theDanube. Here, they hoped to find refuge from theHuns.[36] Valens permitted this, as he saw in them "a splendid recruiting ground for his army".[37] However, afamine broke out and Rome was unwilling to supply them with either the food they were promised or the land. Generally, the Goths were abused by the Romans,[38] who began forcing the now starving Goths to trade away their children so as to stave off starvation.[39] Open revolt ensued, leading to 6 years of plundering throughout the Balkans, the death of a Roman Emperor and a disastrous defeat of the Roman army.[40]
TheBattle of Adrianople in 378 was the decisive moment of the war. The Roman forces were slaughtered and the EmperorValens was killed during the fighting.[41] Precisely how Valens fell remains uncertain but Gothic legend tells of how the emperor was taken to a farmhouse, which was set on fire above his head, a tale made more popular by its symbolic representation of a heretical emperor receiving hell's torment.[42] Many of Rome's leading officers and some of their most elite fighting men died during the battle which struck a major blow to Roman prestige and the Empire's military capabilities.[43] Adrianople shocked the Roman world and eventually forced the Romans to negotiate with and settle the tribe within the empire's boundaries, a development with far-reaching consequences for the eventualfall of Rome. Fourth-century Roman soldier and historianAmmianus Marcellinus ended his chronology of Roman history with this battle.[44]
Despite the severe consequences for Rome, Adrianople was not nearly as productive overall for the Visigoths and their gains were short-lived. Still confined to a small and relatively impoverished province of the Empire, another Roman army was being gathered against them, an army which also had amid its ranks other disaffected Goths.[45] Intense campaigns against the Visigoths followed their victory at Adrianople for upwards of three years. Approach routes across the Danube provinces were effectively sealed off by concerted Roman efforts, and while there was no decisive victory to claim, it was essentially a Roman triumph ending in a treaty in 382. The treaty struck with the Goths was to be the firstfoedus on imperial Roman soil. It required these semi-autonomous Germanic tribes to raise troops for the Roman army in exchange for arable land and freedom from Roman legal structures within the Empire.[46][c]
The new emperor,Theodosius I, made peace with the rebels, and this peace held essentially unbroken until Theodosius died in 395.[48] In that year, the Visigoths' most famous king,Alaric I, made a bid for the throne, but controversy and intrigue erupted between the East and West, as GeneralStilicho tried to maintain his position in the empire.[49] Theodosius was succeeded by his incompetent sons:Arcadius in the east andHonorius in the west. In 397, Alaric was named military commander of the eastern Illyrian prefecture by Arcadius.[38]
Over the next 15 years, an uneasy peace was broken by occasional conflicts between Alaric and the powerful Germanic generals who commanded the Roman armies in the east and west, wielding the real power of the empire.[50] Finally, after the western general Stilicho was executed by Honorius in 408 and the Roman legions massacred the families of thousands of barbarian soldiers who were trying to assimilate into the Roman empire, Alaric decided to march on Rome.[51] After two defeats in Northern Italy and a siege of Rome ended by a negotiated pay-off, Alaric was cheated by another Roman faction. He resolved to cut the city off by capturing its port. On August 24, 410, however, Alaric's troops entered Rome through theSalarian Gate, andsacked the city.[52] However, Rome, while still the official capital, was no longer thede facto seat of the government of the Western Roman Empire. From the late 370s up to 402,Milan was the seat of government, but after the siege of Milan the Imperial Court moved toRavenna in 402. Honorius visited Rome often, and after his death in 423 the emperors resided mostly there. Rome's fall severely shook the Empire's confidence, especially in the West. Loaded with booty, Alaric and the Visigoths extracted as much as they could with the intention of leaving Italy from Basilicata tonorthern Africa. Alaric died before the disembarkation and was buried supposedly near the ruins of Croton. He was succeeded by his wife's brother.[53]
Europe at the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD
The Visigothic Kingdom was a Western European power in the 5th to 8th centuries, created first in Gaul, when the Romans lost their control of the western half of their empire and then in Hispania until 711. For a brief period, the Visigoths controlled the strongest kingdom in Western Europe.[54] In response to the invasion ofRoman Hispania of 409 by theVandals,Alans, andSuebi,Honorius, the emperor in the West, enlisted the aid of the Visigoths to regain control of the territory. From 408 to 410 the Visigoths caused so much damage to Rome and the immediate periphery that nearly a decade later, the provinces in and around the city were only able to contribute one-seventh of their previous tax shares.[55]
In 418, Honorius rewarded his Visigothicfederates by giving them land inGallia Aquitania on which to settle after they had attacked the four tribes—Suebi, Asding and SilingVandals, as well asAlans—whohad crossed the Rhine nearMogontiacum (modernMainz) the last day of 406 and eventually were invited into Spain by a Roman usurper in the autumn of 409 (the latter two tribes were devastated). This was probably done underhospitalitas, the rules for billeting army soldiers.[56] The settlement formed the nucleus of the future Visigothic kingdom that would eventually expand across thePyrenees and onto the Iberian peninsula. That Visigothic settlement proved paramount to Europe's future as had it not been for the Visigothic warriors who fought side by side with the Roman troops under generalFlavius Aetius, it is perhaps possible thatAttila would have seized control of Gaul, rather than the Romans being able to retain dominance.[57]
The Visigoths' second great king,Euric, unified the various quarreling factions among the Visigoths and, in 475, concluded the peace treaty with the emperorJulius Nepos. In the treaty the emperor was called a friend (amicus) to the Visigoths, while requiring them to address him as lord (dominus).[58] Though the emperor did not legally recognize Gothic sovereignty, according to some views[59] under this treaty the Visigothic kingdom became an independent kingdom. Between 471 and 476, Euric captured most of southern Gaul.[60] According to historian J. B. Bury, Euric was probably the "greatest of the Visigothic kings" for he managed to secure territorial gains denied to his predecessors and even acquired access to theMediterranean Sea.[61] At his death, the Visigoths were the most powerful of the successor states to the Western Roman Empire and were at the very height of their power.[62] Not only had Euric secured significant territory, he and his son,Alaric II, who succeeded him, adopted Roman administrative and bureaucratic governance, including Rome's tax gathering policies and legal codes.[63]
Visigothic power throughout Gaul was not lost in its entirety due to the support from the powerful Ostrogothic king in Italy,Theodoric the Great, whose forces pushed Clovis I and his armies out of Visigothic territories.[67] Theodoric the Great's assistance was not some expression of ethnic altruism, but formed part of his plan to extend his power across Spain and its associated lands.[67]
After Alaric II's death, Visigothic nobles spirited his heir, the child-kingAmalaric, first toNarbonne, which was the last Gothic outpost in Gaul, and further across the Pyrenees into Hispania. The center of Visigothic rule shifted first toBarcelona, then inland and south toToledo.[69] From 511 to 526, the Visigoths were ruled by Theoderic the Great of the Ostrogoths asde jure regent for the young Amalaric. Theodoric's death in 526, however, enabled the Visigoths to restore their royal line and re-partition the Visigothic kingdom through Amalaric, who incidentally, was more than just Alaric II's son; he was also the grandson of Theodoric the Great through his daughter Theodegotho.[70] Amalaric reigned independently for five years.[71] Following Amalaric's assassination in 531, another Ostrogothic ruler, Theudis took his place.[64] For the next seventeen years, Theudis held the Visigothic throne.[72]
Sometime in 549, the VisigothAthanagild sought military assistance from Justinian I and while this aide helped Athanagild win his wars, the Romans had much more in mind.[64] Granada and southernmostBaetica were lost to representatives of theByzantine Empire (to form the province ofSpania) who had been invited in to help settle this Visigothic dynastic struggle, but who stayed on, as a hoped-for spearhead to a "Reconquest" of the far west envisaged by emperorJustinian I.[73] Imperial Roman armies took advantage of Visigothic rivalries and established a government at Córdoba.[74]
Visigothic Hispania and its regional divisions circa 711, before the Muslim conquest
The last Arian Visigothic king,Liuvigild, conquered most of the northern regions (Cantabria) in 574, the Suevic kingdom in 584, and regained part of the southern areas lost to theByzantines,[75] which KingSuintila recovered in 624.[76] Suintila reigned until 631.[77] Only one historical source was written between the years 625 through 711, which comes from Julian of Toledo and only deals with the years 672 and 673.[78]Wamba was the king of the Visigoths from 672 to 680.[78] During his reign, the Visigothic kingdom encompassed all of Hispania and part of southern Gaul known asSeptimania. Wamba was succeeded by King Ervig, whose rule lasted until 687.[79] Collins observes that "Ervig proclaimed Egica as his chosen successor" on 14 November 687.[80] In 700, Egica's son Wittiza followed him on the throne according to theChronica Regum Visigothorum.[81]
A Visigothic nobleman,Pelayo, defeated the Umayyad forces in theBattle of Covadonga in 718 and established theKingdom of Asturias in the northern part of the peninsula.[83] According to Joseph F. O'Callaghan, the remnants of the Hispano-Gothic aristocracy still played an important role in the society of Hispania. At the end of Visigothic rule, the assimilation of Hispano-Romans and Visigoths was occurring at a fast pace.[84] Their nobility had begun to think of themselves as constituting one people, thegens Gothorum or theHispani. An unknown number of them fled and took refuge in Asturias or Septimania. In Asturias they supported Pelagius's uprising, and joining with the indigenous leaders, formed a new aristocracy. The population of the mountain region consisted of nativeAstures,Galicians,Cantabri,Basques and other groups unassimilated into Hispano-Gothic society.[85] Other Visigoths who refused to adopt the Muslim faith or live under their rule fled north to the kingdom of theFranks, and Visigoths played key roles in the empire ofCharlemagne a few generations later. In the early years of theEmirate of Córdoba, a group of Visigoths who remained under Muslim dominance constituted the personal bodyguard of theEmir,al-Haras.[86]
During their long reign in Spain, the Visigoths were responsible for theonly new cities founded in Western Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is certain (through contemporary Spanish accounts) that they founded four:Reccopolis, Victoriacum (modernVitoria-Gasteiz, though perhapsIruña-Veleia), Luceo andOlite. There is also a possible 5th city ascribed to them by a later Arabic source:Baiyara (perhaps modernMontoro). All of these cities were founded for military purposes and three of them in celebration of victory. Despite the fact that the Visigoths reigned in Spain for upwards of 250 years, there are few remnants of the Gothic language borrowed into Spanish.[87][d][e]The Visigoths as heirs of the Roman empire lost their language and intermarried with the Hispano-Roman population of Spain.[89]
The medieval Spanish nobility has its most remote origin in the Visigothic Monarchy. After the Arab invasion of the peninsula in the eighth century, Christians were forced to retreat to the north of the peninsula where that primitive Visigoth nobility settled. Among these Christians who took refuge in the north were a large part of the nobles linked to the disappeared Visigoth monarchy of Don Rodrigo (King Roderic), and who were welcomed by the local population and later became part of the local nobility.[90]
A genetic study published inScience in March 2019 analyzed the remains of eight Visigoths buried atPla de l'Horta, dating to the 6th century. The genetic analysis of these individuals revealed that 73% of their ancestry derives from 7th-8th century Northeast Iberian populations (described as approximately 3/4 Iron-Age Iberian and 1/4 Central/Eastern Mediterranean). Additionally, 23% of their ancestry was linked to Central/Northern European populations, while the remaining 4% was traced to supplementary Central/Eastern Mediterranean origins.[91] A preprint posted onBioRxiv in March 2024 also reveals that the Ostrogoths and Visigoths derive the majority of their ancestry from Southern Europe. However, two Iberian Gothic samples have around 50% northern European ancestry. These outliers share genetic similarity with populations from the Baltic Bronze Age and those associated with the spread of Slavic populations in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, indicating origins in Northeast Europe.[92]
TheVisigothic Code of Law (Latin:Forum Iudicum), also calledLiber Iudiciorum (English: Book of the Judges) andLex Visigothorum (English: Law of the Visigoths), is a set of laws first promulgated by kingChindasuinth (642–653 AD) that had been part ofaristocratic oral tradition and were set in writing in the year 654. This book survives in two separatecodices preserved atel Escorial (Spain). It goes into more detail than a modern constitution commonly does and reveals a great deal about Visigothic social structure.[93] The code abolished the old tradition of having different laws for Romans (leges romanae) and Visigoths (leges barbarorum), and under which all the subjects of the Visigothic kingdom ceased beingromani andgothi and instead becamehispani. All the kingdom's subjects were under the same jurisdiction, which eliminated social and legal differences and facilitated greater assimilation of the various population groups.[94] The Visigothic Code marks the transition fromRoman law toGermanic law.
One of the greatest contributions of the Visigoths tofamily law was their protection of the property rights of married women, which was continued bySpanish law and ultimately evolved into thecommunity property system now in force throughout the majority of western Europe.[95]
Before theMiddle Ages, the Visigoths, as well as other Germanic peoples, followed what is now referred to asGermanic paganism.[96] While the Germanic peoples were slowly converted toChristianity by varying means, many elements of the pre-Christian culture and indigenous beliefs remained firmly in place after the conversion process, particularly in the more rural and distant regions.[97]
The Visigoths,Ostrogoths andVandals were Christianized while they were still outside the bounds of theRoman Empire; however, they converted toArianism rather than to theNicene version (Trinitarianism) followed by most Romans, who considered themheretics.[98] There was a religious gulf between the Visigoths, who had for a long time adhered to Arianism, and their Catholic subjects in Hispania. There were also deep sectarian splits among the Catholic population of the peninsula which contributed to the toleration of the Arian Visigoths on the peninsula. The Visigoths scorned to interfere among Catholics but were interested in decorum and public order.[f] KingLiuvigild (568–586), attempted to restore political unity between the Visigothic-Arian elite and the Hispano-Roman Nicene Catholic population through a doctrinal settlement of compromise on matters of faith, but this failed.[99] Sources indicate that the Iberian Visigoths maintained their Christian Arianism, especially the Visigothic elite until the end of Liuvigild's reign.[100] When Reccared I converted to Catholicism, he sought to unify the kingdom under a single faith.[101][102]
While the Visigoths retained their Arian faith, theJews were well tolerated. Previous Roman and Byzantine law determined their status, and it already sharply discriminated against them, but royal jurisdiction was in any case quite limited: local lords and populations related to Jews as they saw fit. We read of rabbis being asked by non-Jews to bless their fields, for example.[103] Historian Jane Gerber relates that some of the Jews "held ranking posts in the government or the army; others were recruited and organized for garrison service; still others continued to hold senatorial rank".[104] In general, then, they were well respected and well treated by the Visigothic kings, that is, until their transition from Arianism to Catholicism.[105] Conversion to Catholicism across Visigothic society reduced much of the friction between the Visigoths and the Hispano-Roman population.[106] However, the Visigothic conversion negatively impacted the Jews, who came under scrutiny for their religious practices.[107]
King Reccared convened the Third Council of Toledo to settle religious disputations related to the religious conversion from Arianism to Catholicism.[108] The discriminatory laws passed at this Council seem not to have been universally enforced, however, as indicated by several more Councils of Toledo that repeated these laws and extended their stringency. These entered canon law and became legal precedents in other parts of Europe as well. The culmination of this process occurred under King Sisibut, who officially decreed a forced Christian conversion upon all Jews residing in Spain.[109] This mandate apparently achieved only partial success: similar decrees were repeated by later kings as central power was consolidated. These laws either prescribed forcible baptism of the Jews or forbade circumcision, Jewish rites, and the observance of the Sabbath and other festivals. Throughout the 7th century the Jews were persecuted for religious reasons, had their property confiscated, were subjected to ruinous taxes, forbidden to trade and, at times, dragged to the baptismal font. Many were obliged to accept Christianity but continued privately to observe the Jewish religion and practices.[110] The decree of 613 set off a century of difficulty for Spanish Jewry, which was only ended by the Muslim conquest.[g]
The political aspects of the imposition of Church power cannot be ignored in these matters. With the conversion of the Visigothic kings toChalcedonian Christianity, the bishops increased their power, until, at theFourth Council of Toledo in 633, they selected a king from among the royal family, a practice previously reserved for nobles. This was the same synod that spoke out against those who had been baptized but had relapsed into Judaism. As far as the Visigoths were concerned, the time for religious pluralism "was past".[111] By the end of the 7th century, Catholic conversion made the Visigoths less distinguishable from the indigenous Roman citizens of the Iberian peninsula; when the last Visigothic strongholds fell to the Muslim armies, whose subsequent invasions transformed Spain from the beginning of the 8th century, their Gothic identity faded.[112]
During their governance of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches in thebasilical orcruciform style that survive, including the churches ofSan Pedro de la Nave in El Campillo,Santa María de Melque inSan Martín de Montalbán, Santa Lucía del Trampal in Alcuéscar, Santa Comba in Bande, andSanta María de Lara in Quintanilla de las Viñas.[114] The Visigothiccrypt (the Crypt of San Antolín) in thePalencia Cathedral is a Visigothic chapel from the mid-7th century, built during the reign of Wamba to preserve the remains of the martyrSaint Antoninus of Pamiers, a Visigothic-Gallic nobleman brought from Narbonne to Visigothic Hispania in 672 or 673 by Wamba himself. These are the only remains of the Visigothic cathedral of Palencia.[115]
Reccopolis, located near the tiny modern village ofZorita de los Canes in theprovince of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain, is an archaeological site of one of at least four cities founded inHispania by the Visigoths. It is the only city in Western Europe to have been founded between the 5th and 8th centuries.[h] The city's construction was ordered by the Visigothic kingLiuvigild to honor his sonReccared and to serve as Reccared's seat as co-king in the Visigothic province ofCeltiberia, to the west ofCarpetania, where the main capital, Toledo, lay.[116]
In Spain, an important collection of Visigothic metalwork was found inGuadamur, in theProvince of Toledo, known as theTreasure of Guarrazar. Thisarcheological find is composed of twenty-sixvotive crowns and goldcrosses from the royal workshop in Toledo, with signs of Byzantine influence. According to Spanish archaeologists, this treasure represents the high point of Visigothic goldsmithery.[118] The two most important votive crowns are those ofRecceswinth and ofSuintila, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid; both are made of gold, encrusted with sapphires, pearls and other precious stones.[119]The discoverer of the second lot gave Spanish Queen Elizabeth II some of the pieces that she still had in her possession, including the crown of Suintila, this crown was stolen in 1921 and never recovered.[120] There are several other small crowns and many votive crosses in the treasure.[119]
These findings, along with others from some neighbouring sites and with the archaeological excavation of the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and the Royal Spanish Academy of History (April 1859), formed a group consisting of:
Royal Palace of Madrid: a crown and a gold cross and a stone engraved with the Annunciation. A crown and other fragments of a tiller with a crystal ball were stolen from the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1921 and its whereabouts are still unknown.
The aquiliform (eagle-shaped)fibulae that have been discovered innecropolises such asDuratón,Madrona or Castiltierra (cities ofSegovia), are an unmistakable example of the Visigothic presence in Spain. These fibulae were used individually or in pairs, as clasps or pins in gold, bronze and glass to join clothes, showing the work of the goldsmiths of Visigothic Hispania.[122]
Visigothic belt buckle. Copper alloy with garnets, glass and inclusion of lapis lazuli. TheMetropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
The Visigothic belt buckles, a symbol of rank and status characteristic of Visigothic women's clothing, are also notable as works of goldsmithery. Some pieces contain exceptionalByzantine-stylelapis lazuli inlays and are generally rectangular in shape, with copper alloy, garnets and glass.[123][i]
^Other sources dispute the contents of the supposed "treaty" and claim it was a Gothic surrender.[47]
^The Words such as:werra >guerra (war), falda > falda (skirt) and skankjan > escanciar (to pour out); SeeLa época visigoda Susana Rodríguez Rosique (Spanish) in Cervantes Virtual. Accessed 15 October 2017.
^The linguistic remnants of the Gothic people in Spain are sparse. A few place names and a mere handful of well-known "Spanish" first names, such as Alfonso, Fernando, Gonzalo, Elvira, and Rodrigo are of Germanic (Visigothic) origin.[88]
^At least one high-ranking Visigoth,Zerezindo,dux of Baetica, was a Catholic in the mid-6th century.
^Cf. the extensive accounts of Visigothic Jewish history by Heinrich Graetz,History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1956 reprint [1894]), pp. 43–52 (on Sisibut, pp. 47–49); Salo W. Baron,A Social and Religious History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957), pp. 33–46 (on Sisibut pp. 37–38); N. Roth,Jews, Visigoths and Muslims in Medieval Spain: Cooperation and Conflict (Leiden: Brill, 1994), pp. 7–40; Ram Ben-Shalom, "Medieval Jewry in Christendom," in M. Goodman, J. Cohen and D. Sorkin,The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 156.
^According to E. A Thompson, "The Barbarian Kingdoms in Gaul and Spain",Nottingham Mediaeval Studies,7 (1963:4n11), the others were (i)Victoriacum, founded by Leovigild and may survive as the city ofVitoria, but a twelfth-century foundation for this city is given in contemporary sources, (ii)Lugo id est Luceo in theAsturias, referred to byIsidore of Seville, and (iii)Ologicus (perhapsOlogitis), founded usingBasque labour in 621 bySuinthila as a fortification against the Basques, is modernOlite. All of these cities were founded for military purposes and at least Reccopolis, Victoriacum, and Ologicus in celebration of victory. A possible fifth Visigothic foundation isBaiyara (perhaps modernMontoro), mentioned as founded by Reccared in the fifteenth-century geographical account,Kitab al-Rawd al-Mitar, cf. José María Lacarra, "Panorama de la historia urbana en la Península Ibérica desde el siglo V al X,"La città nell'alto medioevo,6 (1958:319–358). Reprinted inEstudios de alta edad media española (Valencia: 1975), pp. 25–90.
^Important findings have also been made in the Visigothicnecropolis of Castiltierra (Segovia) in Spain.[124]
Barbero, Alessandro; Loring, Marie Isabel (2005). "The Formation of the Sueve and Visigothic Kingdoms in Spain". In Rosamond MicKitterick (ed.).The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. I [c.500–c.700]. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-52136-291-7.
Bardiès-Fronty, Isabelle (2015).Musée de Cluny: Le Guide. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais.ISBN978-2-7118-5631-2.
Burns, Thomas (2003).Rome and the Barbarians, 100 B.C.–A.D. 400. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN978-0-80187-306-5.
Calderón Ortega, José Manuel (2009). "La nobleza en España: reflexiones en torno al nacimiento de un estamento privilegiado". In Luis Palacios Bañuelos; Ignacio Ruiz Rodríguez (eds.).La nobleza en España. Historia, presente y perspectivas de futuroactas del VI Curso de Verano Ciudad de Tarazona [The Nobility in Spain. History, Present and Future Perspectives Minutes of the VI Summer Course in the City of Tarazona] (in Spanish). Dykinson.ISBN978-8-49849-727-4.
Carr, Karen (2004). "Visigoths". In Peter Bogucki; Pam J. Crabtree (eds.).Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C.–A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World (Vol. 2, Bronze Age to Early Middle Ages). Vol. 2. New York: Thomson Gale.ISBN0-684-31421-5.
Claude, Dietrich (1998). "Remarks to the Relationship between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans in the seventh Century". In Walter Pohl; Helmut Reimitz (eds.).Strategies of Distinction: Construction of Ethnic Communities, 300–800 (The Transformation of the Roman World, vol. 2). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.ISBN978-9-00410-846-2.
Collins, Roger (1992).Law, Culture, and Regionalism in Early Medieval Spain. Great Yarmouth: Variorum.ISBN0-86078-308-1.
Collins, Roger (1995).The Arab Conquest of Spain, 710–797. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.ISBN978-0-63119-405-7.
Collins, Roger (1999).Early Medieval Europe, 300–1000. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN978-0-33365-808-6.
Collins, Roger (2000). "Visigothic Spain, 409–711". In Raymond Carr (ed.).Spain: A History. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19280-236-1.
Collins, Roger (2004).Visigothic Spain, 409–711. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.ISBN0-631-18185-7.
Coolidge, Grace (2011).Guardianship, Gender, and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain. Surrey and Burlington, VT: Ashgate.ISBN978-1-40940-053-0.
Durant, Will (1950).The Age of Faith. The Story of Civilization. Vol. IV. New York: Simon and Schuster.ASINB000HFCEIO.
Fuller, J.F.C. (1998).Armaments & History. New York: Da Capo Press.ISBN978-0-30680-859-3.
Galeano, Rafael (2016)."Historia y arquitectura visigoda".Historia del Arte UNED (National University of Distance Education-Spain). Archived fromthe original on October 7, 2019. RetrievedJune 12, 2020.
Georgescu, Vlad (1991).The Romanians. A History. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.ISBN0814205119.
Gonzalez-Salinero, Raul (1999). "Catholic Anti-Judaism in Visigothic Spain". In Alberto Ferreiro (ed.).The Visigoths: Studies in Culture and Society. Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-9-00411-206-3.
Guerra, M.F; Galligaro, T.; Perea, A. (2007). "The Treasure of Guarrazar: Tracing the Gold Supplies in the Visigothic Iberian Peninsula".Archaeometry.49 (1):53–74.doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2007.00287.x.
Halsall, Guy (2007).Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-52143-543-7.
Heather, Peter (1998).The Goths. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.ASINB00RWST3HE.
Heather, Peter (2005).The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19515-954-7.
Heather, Peter (2013).The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19936-851-8.
Hillgarth, J. N. (2010).The Visigoths in History and Legend. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.ISBN978-0-88844-166-9.
Mathisen, Ralph W.; Sivan, Hagith S. (1999). "Forging a New Identity: The Kingdom of Toulouse and the Frontiers of Aquitania, 418–507". In Alberto Ferreiro (ed.).The Visigoths: Studies in Culture and Society. Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill.ISBN978-9-00411-206-3.
Ostler, Nicholas (2006).Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. New York: Harper Perennial.ISBN978-0-06093-572-6.
Ripoll, Gisela (2011). "The Archaeological Characterisation of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo: The Question of the Visigothic Cemeteries". In Matthias Becher; Stefanie Dick (eds.).Reiche und Namen im frühen Mittelalter. Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-3-77054-891-0.
Sarris, Peter (2002). "The Eastern Roman Empire from Constantine to Heraclius, 306–641". In Cyril Mango (ed.).The Oxford History of Byzantium. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19814-098-6.
Sivan, Hagith (1987). "OnFoederati,Hospitalitas, and the Settlement of the Goths in A.D. 418".American Journal of Philology.108 (4):759–772.doi:10.2307/294799.JSTOR294799.
Wolfram, Herwig (1988).History of the Goths. Berkeley: University of California Press.ISBN978-0-52005-259-8.
Wolfram, Herwig (1997).The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.ISBN0-520-08511-6.
Wood, Jamie (2012).The Politics of Identity in Visigothic Spain : Religion and Power in the Histories of Isidore of Seville. Brill. p. 16.ISBN9789004209909.
.jpg)
