Late Roman Spain and Its Cities

by Kulikowski, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780801898327
• ISBN10: 0801898323
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-07
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

The history of Spain in late antiquity offers important insights into the dissolution of the western Roman empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. Nonetheless, scholarship on Spain in this period has lagged behind that on other Roman provinces. Michael Kulikowski draws on the most recent archeological and literary evidence to integrate late antique Spain into the broader history of the Roman empire, providing a definitive narrative and analytical account of the Iberian peninsula from A.D. 300 to 600. Kulikowski begins with a concise introduction to the early history of Roman Spain, and then turns to the Diocletianic reforms of 293 and their long-term implications for Roman administration and the political ambitions of post-Roman contenders. He goes on to examine the settlement of barbarian peoples in Spain, the end of Roman rule, and the imposition of Gothic power in the fifth and sixth centuries. In parallel to this narrative account, Kulikowski offers a wide-ranging thematic history, focusing on political power, Christianity, and urbanism. Kulikowski's portrait of late Roman Spain offers some surprising conclusions. With new archeological evidence and a fresh interpretation of well-known literary sources, Kulikowski contradicts earlier assertions of a catastrophic decline of urbanism, finding that the physical and social world of the Roman city continued well into the sixth century despite the decline of Roman power. This groundbreaking study will prompt further reassessments of the other Roman provinces and of medieval Spanish history.--

Author Biography

Michael Kulikowski is a professor and head of the Department of History at Pennsylvania State University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
The Creation of Roman Spain	p. 1
Urban Institutions in the Principate	p. 17
Urban Institutions in the Third and Fourth Centuries	p. 39
Diocletian and the Spanish Fourth Century	p. 65
Change in the Spanish City	p. 85
Town and Country	p. 130
Imperial Crisis and Recovery	p. 151
The End of Roman Spain	p. 176
The Aftermath of Empire	p. 197
The Impact of Christianity in the Fifth Century	p. 215
The Earlier Sixth Century and the Goths in Spain	p. 256
The New World of the Sixth Century	p. 287
The Epistula Honorii	p. 311
Magistrates of Late Roman Spain	p. 313
Notes	p. 317
Bibliography	p. 417
Index	p. 475
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.