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Networks and Neighbours (N&N)

Binghamton University, Comparative Literature, Faculty Member

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Networks and Neighbours (N&N) is an independent, post-national, extra/multi-institutional, non-profit interdisciplinary research project with a diverse collection of scholars and teachers creating, communicating and disseminating radical new theses about and critical alternative directions in the study of the global world of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Our collaborative network includes students, junior researchers and leading faculty whose work complements each others' in various ways, providing emulative models of historical interrogation, narration and representation of 'the' past. We are a mix pragmatic analytic folks, theoretical subjectivists, hands-in-the-dirt archaeology-types, manuscript-philes (and the occasional -phobes), and plenty of junior scholars who are constantly thinking about what on Earth our study of the past can mean for society today. Come join us!

We plan, convene, organize and coordinate symposia, conferences, masterclasses, panels and other events in many places. We have published journal volumes, articles, and reviews, and now have an affiliated imprint (Gracchi Books) publishing an array of texts, including monographs and edited volumes. We also run symposia series, such as the Visigothic Symposia and Capitalism's Past. On the principle of democratic intellectual exchange, all of our events are free and open to all and all of our publishing is no-fees (creative commons) open-access, oh, and peer-reviewed. If you are interested in publishing with us, don't be shy, our reviewers won't bite...but they may just crush your dreams of being an academic, just kidding, really. We are very friendly.

We have been in close dialogue with and supported by other related academic projects, research institutes and funding bodies, including: The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the American Numismatic Society, Networks of Knowledge, Transformation of the Roman World, Texts and Identities, and HERA: Cultural Memory and Resources of the Past and Networks of Knowledge.

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72 Visigothic Symposia
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Visigothic Symposia by Networks and Neighbours (N&N)

Visigothic Symposia 5: Visigoths, Goths, and Early Medieval Barbarians in Popular Culture

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Michael J. Kelly

Visigothic Symposia, 2021

VgS 5 CfP - In English, Português, y Español

Visigothic Symposia 4: Manuscripts and Editions

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Michael J. Kelly

Visigothic Symposia, 2020

Visigothic Symposia 4: Manuscripts and Editions, December 2020-July 2021

Julia Aguilar Miquel, Basel: Center for the Dissemination of Taio Caesaraugustanus’s Sententiae in the 15th Century, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 1-17

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Julia Aguilar

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

Taio Caesaraugustanus’s main work, the Sententiarum Libri V, was written in the mid-seventh centu... more Taio Caesaraugustanus’s main work, the Sententiarum Libri V, was written in the mid-seventh century and is transmitted by at least twenty-two complete manuscripts, dating from the end of the eighth to the end of the seventeenth centuries. This paper tackles the relationship between four of these codices (P = Paris, BnF, lat. 12264; Q = Colmar, BM, 129 [206]; U = Basel, UB, A IV 6; X = Basel, UB, B I 14), all of them produced in the second half of the fifteenth century and, one way or another, linked with the city of Basel (Switzerland). The collation and the inspection of the manuscripts reveal that a dependency relationship exists between them, since Q U X derive directly or indirectly from P.

In addition, the textual evidence could be reinforced by codicological and historical data, which allow me to outline the history of the manuscripts and to establish at which moment they came into contact with each other. Furthermore, I will analyze the paratextual elements (tituli, capitulationes, colophons and so on) which disclose, for instance, that Taio’s work lost its true authorship throughout the Middle Ages and ended up being commonly attributed to Gregory the Great. This fact is unsurprising, as the Sententiae are a sort of cento based principally on Gregory’s Moralia, but, anyway, this erroneous attribution could be one of the causes which contributed to its wide transmission in the same place and in so brief a period of time.

Graham Barrett, The Text of Visigothic Law in Practice, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 18-63

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

This essay is a case study in the textual transmission of the Visigothic law code or Book of Judg... more This essay is a case study in the textual transmission of the Visigothic law code or Book of Judgements (Liber Iudiciorum). Rather than relying solely on manuscript copies, I draw on charters as sources for the text, and by tracking the citation of treason law across the corpus of documentation from early medieval Asturias-León and Navarra, I identify three new witnesses. On the basis of this methodology and its results, I then propose a new approach to reading the code through its use in practice which should be taken into account in the revision of the standard Monumenta Germaniae Historica edition.

Ainoa Castro Correa, Towards a Review of the "Visigothic Symptoms": Formal Writing in Visigothic Hispania, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 64-84

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Ainoa Castro Correa

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

In a set of essays (Visigothic Symposium 4) intended to present a review of literary production i... more In a set of essays (Visigothic Symposium 4) intended to present a review of literary production in Visigothic Hispania, from the perspective of historical contextualization, it is of course fundamental to be able to date the sources we have with some certainty. As is usual, to trace the outlines of this basic corpus we begin from two premises: on the one hand, there is the surviving production, which permits a direct approach to the subject treated in the source and to its context; on the other, there is what has not survived but which, since it is mentioned in other works or its subject is a constant of the period in question, we must assume to have existed. By addressing both cases together, we should be able to begin to understand what was produced in the peninsula, who produced it, and to which specific interests it responded – the point of departure that makes it possible to carry out a study of cultural contextualization. What is missing will be as revealing as what is available or what we can suppose once was, reflecting the interests of elites and institutions both secular and ecclesiastical who, after all, guided the production. Therefore, in this essay, after some brief notes on what could have been in this vast set of literary documents, preserved or lost, I focus on a survey of the criteria that have traditionally been used to identify codices produced in Hispanic centers. That is to say, I propose here a review of the so-called “Visigothic symptoms,” paleographic aspects that have served to categorize certain codices copied in book hand, Uncial, and Half-uncial scripts as Hispanic production in centers within the Visigothic kingdom.

Robert Kasperski, Was there a Revision of Isidore's Histories in the early 630s, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 85-99

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Robert Kasperski

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

The Historia Gothorum (or De Origine Gothorum) by Isidore of Seville is known to us in two versio... more The Historia Gothorum (or De Origine Gothorum) by Isidore of Seville is known to us in two versions – a shorter one written c. 619 during the reign of Sisebut (r. 612-621), and a longer version written c. 624 during the period of Swintila (r. 621-631/633). However, there exists in modern historiography a conjecture that Isidore may have composed a third version dedicated to another Visigothic king – Sisenand (r. 631/633-636). In large part, the argument for this rests on the “Dedication to King Sisenand” (Dedicatio ad Sisenandum regem) which is transmitted effectively by only one manuscript of the later version, MS Madrid BU 134 (M) produced in the thirteenth century, although it is also in the derivative manuscripts of Lucas de Tuy [d. 1249]). According to some scholars, Isidore prepared, at the behest of Sisenand, a final redaction of the longer version during the years 633-636, but this thesis rests upon on controversial evidence. Inter alia, the Dedicatio ad Sisenandum may not be authentic. Moreover, according to the Dedicatio, the work contained a history not only of Goths, Vandals, and Sueves, but also of the Alans (Alanos) and even Spaniards (Hispanos). The latter clearly are not considered as a separate gens in the narrative of the longer version of the Historia Gothorum, which does not describe their history. The second major problem is that the longer version was written as a panegyric for Swintila and his son Riccimer. Sisenand was an enemy of these figures, having deposed Swintila in 631 (or 633). It can be argued that the hypothetical final redaction of the Historia Gothorum dedicated to Sisenand would have omitted praise of Swintila and Riccimer. The M manuscript mentioned above belongs to a family of manuscripts of the text referred to as the “mixed version.” This cannot be regarded as the final version of Historia Gothorum, but rather an intermediate one standing between the shorter and the longer versions. Moreover, all of the manuscripts of the “mixed version” (including M) contain the panegyric for Swintila which thus indicates that the hypothetical existence of a third version dedicated to Sisenand is built on rather shaky ground. The aim of this essay is to reconsider the arguments put forward by those who defend the thesis of a third Isidorian revision of the Historia Gothorum and, through manuscript analysis, finally answer whether Isidore did or did not revise his Historia Gothorum in the early 630s.

Evina Steinova, The Oldest Manuscript Tradition of the Etymologiae (eighty years after A. E. Anspach), Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 100-143

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Evina Stein

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

The Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville was one of the most widely read works of the early Middle A... more The Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville was one of the most widely read works of the early Middle Ages, as is evidenced by the number of surviving manuscripts. August Eduard Anspach’s handlist from the 1940s puts their number at almost 1,200, of which approximately 300 were estimated to have been copied before the year 1000. This article, based on a new manuscript survey of the early medieval manuscripts transmitting the Etymologiae, brings the number of known surviving pre-1000 manuscripts transmitting the Etymologiae to almost 450. Of these, 84 well-preserved codices and 24 fragments contain the canonical Etymologiae, i.e., they reflect the integral transmission of Isidore’s work as an encyclopedia, while 300 well-preserved codices and 21 fragments reflect the selective or non-canonical transmission of the Etymologiae, principally not as an encyclopedia. Due to the uneven survival rates of manuscripts of canonical and non-canonical Etymologiae, it seems likely that the latter accounted for perhaps as much as 80-90% of manuscripts transmitting Isidore’s work before the year 1000. Four non-canonical formats emerge as having been particularly influential in the early Middle Ages: the separate transmission of the first book of the Etymologiae as an ars grammatica; the compilation of various catechetical collections, sometimes in question-and-answer form, from books VI, VII, and VIII of the Etymologiae; the incorporation of material from books V and IX into law collections; and the incorporation of segments from books III, V, VI, and XIII into computistic manuals. The surviving manuscripts suggest that the latter format emerged in the insular world, while the others are more distinctly Carolingian. Northern France and northern Italy emerge as the two most important regional hubs of the copying of the Etymologiae in the ninth and tenth centuries. While in the former region, non-canonical formats seem to have been the most important vehicle of the transmission of material from Isidore’s work, in the latter, the canonical format may have been more influential, indicating that there existed regional differences in the reception of the Etymologiae.

Dolores Castro & Michael J. Kelly, Isidore's Sententiae, the Liber Iudiciorum, and Paris BnF Lat. 4667, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020); 144-168

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Michael J. Kelly

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

Isidore of Seville’s three-book theological treatise, the Sententiae, instructs readers in the pr... more Isidore of Seville’s three-book theological treatise, the Sententiae, instructs readers in the principles of Catholic doctrine and morality, and on how faith can unite one with the eternal divine. Isidore began composing the Sententiae in the earlier 600s, likely first in the 610s, and edited it into finished form in the 630s. However, like its dating, various aspects of the text still confound scholars and tend to leave us debating more than agreeing. Part of the complexity of studying the Sententiae is that it became a foundational text in medieval Christianity. As such, it enjoyed multiple lives throughout the Middle Ages, just as it continues to find itself in novel contexts today. The two-part aim of this essay is first to elicit more about the symbolic structure of the Sententiae and then to analyze the ontology of one its actualizations, that one found at the start of Paris BnF Lat. 4667, a manuscript otherwise comprised of a version of the Liber Iudiciorum. This complementary approach to exploring Isidore’s aims with those of later copyists will help link the Sententiae – and the Liber Iudiciorum – into the wider historical plateau of Isidorian networks and performative nodal points.

Rebecca Maloy, Receiving and Reshaping Scripture in the Visigothic Liturgy, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 169-190

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Rebecca Maloy

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

Seventh-century Hispania has left us a legacy of work that was widely read and cited in the middl... more Seventh-century Hispania has left us a legacy of work that was widely read and cited in the middle ages, with the writings of Isidore of Seville assuming pride of place. These texts were the products of a cultural renewal among a handful of bishops in seventh-century Hispania, whose ultimate goal was to form a society unified in Nicene belief under the Visigothic kings. Central to these aims was Christian formation through the education of clergy. Isidore, Ildefonsus, and other bishops collected, compiled, and glossed a vast corpus of patristic writings for this purpose. But we know too little about the reach of this project, or how the normative ideals reflected in the bishops’ project relate to social reality. Liturgical texts can yield valuable insights into the project: both its aims and intellectual foundations and how it was put into practice. Although it had earlier roots, much of the Visigothic (or Old Hispanic) liturgy was a product of the seventh-century renewal and was carefully designed to work toward its goals. This essay examines liturgical texts as a product of the distinctive culture of textual production that emerged in seventh-century Hispania, beginning with overview of the textual culture itself, then examining how the liturgy relates to it. I then address how the experience of these texts was mediated through melody.

Elena Marey, Intellectual Communication between Rome and Spain: Judge and Judgment in Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job and Taio of Zaragoza’s Sententiae, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 191-205

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Elena Marey

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts... more Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job was well known in the Visigothic kingdom thanks to the efforts of Taio of Zaragoza and his Sententiarum libri V. The aim of the present essay is to study the ways in which Gregory’s text was used by Taio to build his. As a case-study example, I focus specifically on the Taio’s engagement with Gregory’s concepts of judge and judgement because of their religious centrality. Taio, who dedicated to the judge a chapter of the fifth book, presents thee ideal judge not as one with the “technical” qualities of the knowledge of law, for example, but rather is one who must be a pious and God-fearing man. Isidore of Seville in his Sententiae described the ideal judge in sufficient detail, yet Taio did not use the treatise of Isidore. Instead, he preferred to follow fragments of the Moralia concerning the way of living of the righteous man. In fact, Taio used Gregory’s text like a collection of bricks for his own treatise, embedding them in his own structure. Sometimes he shortened or altered the words of the original text, thus changing the content – and, in doing so, for instance, the righteous man of Gregory became the ideal judge.

Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Immortalizing the "Martyrs of Córdoba:" A Tale of Two Centuries, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2020): 206-227

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Kenneth Baxter Wolf

Networks and Neighbours, 2020

Between the years 850 and 857, forty-six Christians were decapitated by the Muslim authorities in... more Between the years 850 and 857, forty-six Christians were decapitated by the Muslim authorities in Córdoba for religious offenses against Islam. There are a number of remarkable things about these executions. First, the majority of the victims were condemned for blasphemy, having deliberately flouted well-known proscriptions against public expressions of disrespect for Muhammad. Second, the Córdoban Christians were far from one mind when it came to interpreting such provocative acts; while some were inclined to embrace their executed coreligionists as martyrs of the classic Roman type, others criticized them as self-immolators, whose unprovoked outbursts only complicated the working relationship between the Christian community and the Muslim host society. Third, the debate between these two factions sheds unusually bright light on the surprisingly wide spectrum of religious identities within a dhimmi Christian community, ranging from those who had learned to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar´s” to those for whom the dhimmi condition was no longer acceptable. Given the focus of this symposium, one could easily add a fourth admirandum to this list: the fact that we know so much about this unusual incident in the first place. For this we are particularly indebted to the efforts of two denizens of Córdoba separated by over 700 years: a ninth-century priest named Eulogius (d. 859) who took it upon himself to record the events in the first place, and a sixteenth-century historian named Ambrosio de Morales (d. 1591) who edited Eulogius’s works, saving them, as it turned out, from oblivion. This paper will explore the very different challenges that Eulogius and Morales faced in their respective efforts to immortalize the neomartyrs of Córdoba.

Reed Johnston Morgan, Communal Cultures of Knowledge: The Practice and Performance of Editing in Visigothic Iberia, Visigothic Symposia 4 (2021): 228-255

Networks and Neighbours, 2021

Several writers in the Visigothic Kingdom composed prefatory letters which request editing and co... more Several writers in the Visigothic Kingdom composed prefatory letters which request editing and correction of their work, including Justus of Urgell, Isidore of Seville, Braulio of Zaragoza, and Julian of Toledo. The conspicuous advertisement of these requests at the head of major works indicates that the process of editing was meant to be noticed. In this essay, I argue that the practice and performance of editing during the Isidorian Renaissance represent a changing culture of authorship. Following broader late antique developments, authority was increasingly felt to derive from collective efforts and consensus. Christian authors wanted to emphasize, rather than conceal, the community of men involved in textual production. This communal culture of knowledge can be seen clearly in the discussion of editing, but also reaches more widely into the conciliar production of royal and ecclesiastical law, and especially into the greatest communal composition of the period: the liturgy.

Visigothic Symposia 3: Communication and Circulation

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Michael J. Kelly

Visigothic Symposia, 2019

Visigothic Symposia 3: Communication and Circulation, January 2018-January 2019

Rebecca Devlin, Introduction to Visigothic Symposium 3, 2018-2020: Communication and Circulation, Visigothic Symposia 3 (2020), pp. i-xv

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Rebecca A Devlin

Visigothic Symposia, 2020

The period after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century and the subsequent... more The period after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century and the subsequent establishment of successor kingdoms was one of dynamic transformation.

Liubov Chernin, Visigothic Jewish Converts: A Life in Between, Visigothic Symposia 3 (2018), 1-18

Networks and Neighbours, 2018

The Visigoths had very distinctive conceptions about the structure of their society. The Isidoria... more The Visigoths had very distinctive conceptions about the structure of their society. The Isidorian formula of rex, gens et patria Gothorum created a kind of social ideal, and the striving for its implementation in many respects called forth the anti-Jewish campaign(s) of the seventh century. Visigothic authorities made a series of attempts to solve the imagined problem of the social integration of the alien element personified by the Jews. As a result, the Jews were replaced by another group whose social status was even more precarious: converts. This constructed population category was distinct from the Jews, but it was almost as far from common Christians as from them. Converts had to pay a special tax; their rights were infringed upon by various prohibitions and restrictions. Attempts to integrate the converts, or at least to normalize their position, were made more than once throughout the seventh century. The most striking examples can be found in three declarations which ex-Jews were supposed to make, respectively, in 637, 654 and 681. The purpose was to build client-patron relations between the converts and Iberian Christian society, represented by the authorities and by the Church. Theologically, it was based on the concept of liberation from spiritual slavery typical for the professing Jews, and according to ecclesiastical doctrine. The following essay explores how this specific status was elaborated and what influence it could have had on the failures of anti-Jewish campaigns.

Alberto Ferreiro, The Bishops of Hispania and Pope Innocent I (401-417), Visigothic Symposia 3 (2018), 19-35

Networks and Neighbours, 2018

The topic that I am laying out in this brief essay is related to my forthcoming monograph, curren... more The topic that I am laying out in this brief essay is related to my forthcoming monograph, currently in its final stages, titled: Epistolas Plenas: The Correspondence of the Bishops of Hispania with the Bishops of Rome: Third through Seventh Centuries. There is a growing interest in the extant letters that were exchanged between the bishops of Hispania and the See of Rome from the third to the seventh centuries. In many books and scholarly articles, they have often been mentioned, but almost always in passing and without in-depth analysis of their content. This essay focuses on one example from among eleven letters involving the bishops of Hispania and the See of Rome.

Javier Martínez Jiménez, Engineering, Aqueducts, and the Rupture of Knowledge Transmission in the Visigothic Period, Visigothic Symposia 3 (2018), 36-54

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Javier Martínez Jiménez

Networks and Neighbours, 2018

The agitated existing debate between traditional historiography and revisionist positions regardi... more The agitated existing debate between traditional historiography and revisionist positions regarding the nature of the so-called "Visigothic" churches derives, fundamentally, from the proposal that a series of techniques and skills were lost during Late Antiquity. In this paper, I would like to add to the debate by introducing the results from my research on the evolution of aqueducts and water supply in the cities of post-Roman Iberia. The evident lack of proper maintenance and structural repairs fits within general patterns of late antique urban transformations such as the declining interest of curiales in public munificence and the crisis of the municipal institution. But added to this we must see a technical and technological disruption between the Roman past and the Visigothic centuries, which becomes evident when compared with the situation in the Umayyad period and parallels similar developments in other technical skills, such as pottery productions. In this context, the aqueduct of Reccopolis stands out as a unique example of brand new hydraulic infrastructure. Considering how unique the circumstances of Reccopolis are (i.e., royal foundation) and the links between the Visigothic monarchy and the Eastern Empire (where engineering skills were preserved), there is also a case to propose the eventual presence of Eastern engineers linked to this main construction project.

Overall, I propose a model in which the lack of demand throughout the fifth and sixth centuries, together with the dismantling of the Imperial state apparatus and the disarticulation of the early Roman municipal system (which favored the construction of aqueducts in the first place) caused a fatal disruption in the transmission of engineering knowledge which, by the period of Visigothic state formation, could only be satisfied by tapping into the active networks of engineering training of the East.

Jason Osborne, A Call to Arms: Cross-Regional Communication and the Visigothic Military, Visigothic Symposia 3 (2018), 55-71

Networks and Neighbours, 2018

During the course of the sixth century, the nature and organization of the Visigothic military ch... more During the course of the sixth century, the nature and organization of the Visigothic military changed substantially. These changes were part of a larger process in which the Visigothic kingdom itself underwent a radical reorganization that included the loss of most of its Gallic territory, a few very large revolts, as well as a massive invasion by the Eastern Roman Empire as part of Justinian's attempted reconquest of the western Mediterranean. Possibly the most important events that occurred during this era were related to the efforts by Liuvigild (r. 567-586) and Reccared (r. 586-601) to unite the Iberian Peninsula under the leadership of the Visigothic monarchy. One of the key elements in this process was the establishment of cross-regional ties that served to connect regions as far apart as the Gothic territories in the south of Gaul and the western portions of the Iberian Peninsula, and to bring them under the leadership of a single administrative entity, which attempted to unite its territories in political and theological purpose. In this essay, I analyze the role and evolution of the Visigothic military during this era and its connection to these larger events, especially in terms of that cross-regional communication. I argue that the development of a high degree of native support for the ambitions of the Visigothic monarchy served to facilitate unification, even while that monarchy itself often faced resistance from much of the Gothic nobility. The result was that by the end of the sixth century the Visigothic monarchy, which had begun the century as Germanic invaders, ended the century as the legitimate rulers of a new Romano-Gothic kingdom. The following affords not only some suggestions as to how this process occurred, but also some insight into how a small conquering force became a legitimate governing body.

Fernando Ruchesi, Military Matters in the Visigothic Kingdom: Initial Considerations, Visigothic Symposia 3 (2018), 72-87

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Fernando Ruchesi

Networks and Neighbours, 2018

Battles, as well as the information related to military matters, always have been an important pa... more Battles, as well as the information related to military matters, always have been an important part of Visigothic history-medieval and modern. Such information has been transmitted amongst various political circles and, partly because of that, there exists different interpretations of the most important events in the history of the Visigoths. Despite previous and lingering historiographical disagreements, most contemporary and near-contemporary sources of the period describe the Battle of Vouillé and its consequences as a catastrophic event for the Visigoths. The negative portrayal of the episode is magnified by two events that are present in most of the sources: the death of King Alaric II (r. 485-507), and the theft of the royal Visigothic treasure. The aim of this essay is to analyze the manner in which sources composed in Hispania, compared as well as to sources written outside the Regnum, describe warfare and military events related to the Visigoths during the sixth and seventh centuries. To conceptualize the contemporary historiography of this major event, I will focus on the possible character of the audiences and the authorial intentions (political, ideological, and cultural) behind these fragments of military information.

Tomás Cordero Ruiz, At the Center and the Periphery of Lusitania: The Evolution of the City of Egitania and its Territory (4th -8th centuries), Visigothic Symposia 3 (2018), 88-111

by Networks and Neighbours (N&N) and Tomas Cordero Ruiz

Networks and Neighbours, 2018

The Suevic-Visigothic episcopal city of Egitania (Idanha-a-Velha, Portugal), erected over the Rom... more The Suevic-Visigothic episcopal city of Egitania (Idanha-a-Velha, Portugal), erected over the Roman city of Civitas Igaeditanorum, was located at the heart of the old Roman province of Lusitania. Yet, this space has been considered by scholars as secondary in the general context of the Iberian Peninsula during the Roman and Suevic-Visigothic periods (4 th-8 th centuries). The textual and archaeological records together allow a general reconstruction of the evolution of the city during those centuries, but detailed conclusions remain elusive due to our poor knowledge of the urban and rural inhabitants of Egitania. This subsequently prevents a clearer understanding of the social, economic and cultural dynamics of the city and its territory, which so far have not been sufficiently studied in tandem. The following essay merges these disparate historiographical themes into a synthetic thesis. This research is twofold. First, I attempt to elicit a solid basis of historical information by analyzing the main lines of general evolution of the city and the broad interactions of the urban community of Egitania. Second, I examine rural communities, paying special attention to the analysis of how they relate to the city and to each other. This methodology is based on the research carried out on Emerita (Mérida, Spain), capital of the Roman province of Lusitania and, later, of the Diocesis Hispaniarum. In this case, the landscape between the fourth and eighth centuries was structured by the superposition of administrative, economic, ecclesiastical and social networks that would unite the city with its territory. Thus, although recognizing that the city-territory relationship would have been variable in each region of the Iberian Peninsula, it seems fair to employ this epistemological model for analyzing Egitania.

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