Description
Book SynopsisThis 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.
Table of Contents(Damián Fernández, Molly Lester, and Jamie Wood), Introduction
1. (Céline Martin), Visigothic Spain and Byzantium. The story of a special (historiographical) relationship
2. (Ian Wood), The development of the Visigothic court in the hagiography of the fifth and sixth centuries
3. (Merle Eisenberg), Experiments in Visigothic Rulership: Minting and Monetary Reforms under Alaric II
4. (Margarita Vallejo Girvés), A comparison of Roman and Visigothic Approaches towards Exile
5. (Cecily Hilsdale), The Roman Jewel in the Visigothic Crown: A Reassessment of the Royal Votive Crowns of the Guarrazar Treasure
6. (Damián Fernández), Capitalhood in the Visigothic Kingdom
7. (Molly Lester), Making Rite Choices: Roman and Eastern Liturgies in Early Medieval Iberia
8. (Erica Buchberger), Ethnicity and Imitatio in Isidore of Seville
9. (David Addison), Re-imagining Roman Persecution in the Visigothic Passions
10. (Santiago Castellanos), Romanness in Visigothic Hagiography
11. (Graham Barrett), Empire and the Politics of Faction: Mérida and Toledo Revisited
12. (Jamie Wood), The agents and mechanics of connectivity: The Mediterranean world and the cities of the Guadiana valley in the sixth century
13. (Ann Christys), Staying Roman after 711?
