Borders, Centres and Peripheries in late Roman and Visigothic Iberia. (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wood, Jamie
• Is Part Of: International journal of regional and local history. Volume 10:Number 1(2015)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 17
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: Regions (Administrative and political divisions) -- History -- Periodicals; Cities and towns -- History -- Periodicals; Local government -- History -- Periodicals; Local history -- Periodicals; 900
• DOI: 10.1179/2051453015Z.00000000021
• Languages: German
• ISSNs: 2051-4530

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>This article surveys scholarship on the evolving provincial organization of the Iberian Peninsula in the late and immediately post-Roman periods (fourth to early eighth centuries CE), when the region moved gradually from the control of the Western Roman Empire to that of the kingdom of the Visigoths, a "barbarian" group who had gradually integrated themselves into the late Roman order in the fourth and fifth centuries. My analysis of this issue over a long time frame suggests that the internal divisions and external boundaries of the late antique Iberian Peninsula (Roman <italic>Hispania</italic>) were highly fluid and liable to change in response to economic, military, religious and, above all, political factors. The exact make up of <italic>Hispania</italic> in this period was largely dependent on an ongoing dialogue – sometimes peaceful, sometimes conflictual – between central sources of authority, whether imperial or royal, and more regionally-based powers.</p> </abstract>