Download PDF | (Cornell Paperbacks) Joseph F. O’Callaghan - A History of Medieval Spain-Cornell University Press (1983).
763 Pages
Preface
I began writing this book in the belief that a narrative history of the Hispanic Middle Ages, based upon the research and investigations of the best contemporary historians, would be useful to English readers. Until recently American and most northern European scholars have paid scant attention to the history of the Iberian peninsula in the Middle Ages and have often been content with superficial judgments founded upon antiquated and inaccurate works or on opinions clouded by the prejudices accumulated over the past four hundred years. If this book contributes to a clearer understanding of the formation of medieval Spain it will have served a valuable purpose. As the field of medieval Spanish and Portuguese history is still relatively unexplored, I hope that readers will be encouraged to pursue more intensive investigation into many of the subjects dealt with. Chronologically this book extends from the coming of the Visigoths in the fifth century until the conquest of Granada and the discovery of America in 1492; geographically it embraces the entire peninsula, including both modern Spain and Portugal. Consistency in the spelling of personal and place names is difficult to achieve, but I have tried to be consistent in my fashion. For the Roman and Visigothic periods I generally employ anglicized forms of personal names.
There is no reason why they should be put in Castilian, and though Latin might be appropriate, "Reccesvinth" seems to me preferable to "Reccesvinthus." For Arabic names I usually adopt a simplified spelling based upon the forms used in the Encyclopedia of Islam (1960). I retain Romance names, except in such very familiar cases as Henry the Navigator and Ferdinand and Isabella, and I make use of the Castilian and Portuguese forms, for example, Alfonso, Afonso, Juan, Joâo. Where there are several kings with those names ruling simultaneously, the different spellings will help to identify them more clearly.
Names of rulers in the crown of Aragon pose a problem. I use Catalan spelling for persons distinctly Catalan, such as the counts of Barcelona and the kings of Majorca; but I use the Aragonese form for the kings of Aragon who also ruled Catalonia, for example, Alfonso, Pedro, Jaime, rather than Alfons, Pere, or Jaume. Similarly, when referring to the parliament in the Catalan-speaking areas, I use the form cortSf elsewhere in the peninsula this is spelled cortes. For most place names I use the anglicized forms; however, I use Duero and Mino instead of the Portuguese Douro and Minho, but this should cause no difficulty. All translations appearing in the text are my own, unless otherwise indicated. In preparing this volume I was aided by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in the summer of 1971, a faculty research grant from Fordham University for the same period, and faculty fellowships from the University for the summer and fall of 1966 and the fall and spring of 1961—1962. I am indeed grateful to Fordham and to the Endowment for their essential financial support. I also wish to record my debt of long standing to the Institute of International Education for having first given me the opportunity to do research in Spain in 1955-1956 and to the Fulbright Commission for a fellowship for study in Spain in 1961-1962.
My thanks are due also to Rev. Robert I. Burns and Archibald Lewis, who read the manuscript and offered many helpful suggestions; to my friends C. J. Bishko, the dean of American Hispanists, for his kindness and encouragement; Bernard F. Reilly, for his counsel on many specific points; James F. Powers, for reading the text and offering me many of his photographs for use as illustrations; Betty and John Finkbiner, for their care in preparing the maps; and to my teachers who initiated me into the realm of medieval history: Jeremiah F. O'Sullivan, Gerhart B. Ladner, and James S. Donnelly. My deepest gratitude is owed to my parents, now deceased, who long ago encouraged me in my studies. I can only hope that this book would be a source of joy to them. My most faithful ally has been my wife, Anne, who always lent support and intelligent interest at crucial times. To her and to our children I dedicate this volume. JOSEPH F. O'CALLAGHAN St. Patrick's Day, i973 7ordbam "University
yiispania 7he Problem of Wspanic History Within the thousand years from the coming of the Visigoths in the fifth century to the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella in the fifteenth, the character of Hispanic civilization was shaped and molded in significant ways. In the struggle for existence in an often inhospitable environment the Hispanic peoples developed those distinctive traits cited by Ramôn Menéndez Pidal : austerity, stoicism, individualism, bravery to the point of rashness, and the desire for fame—the imperishable fame that comes through remembrance in history. While historians agree that the medieval centuries were important in the making of Hispanic civilization, they are divided in their estimates of the relative influence of ethnic, religious, and cultural elements. Spanish historians especially have explored their past in an attempt to explain those apparent faults of character they see as causing Spain's decadence in modern times or the retardation of her political and cultural development when compared to that of other European countries. The debate among them is colored by ideological considerations, such as the traditional Castilian ambition to dominate the entire peninsula and the contrary desires of Basque and Catalan nationalists to preserve their identity and to recover their independence.
The Portuguese, having maintained their independence of Spain and of Castilian hegemony, have taken less interest in a controversy that seems not to affect them. José Ortega y Gasset (d. 1956), the great philosopher of our century, expressed the view in his Espana invertebrada that neither the ancient Iberians nor the Romans nor the Arabs provided the determining elements in the development of the essential Spanish character. For him the Visigoths were decisive. Intoxicated by Roman civilization, they were no longer noble savages bursting with vitality, as were the Franks, their neighbors in Gaul, and so were incapable of uplifting and reinvigorating the decadent Hispano-Roman civilization. Thus, he reasoned, the advent of the Visigoths was the source of all the calamities that have befallen Spain over the centuries. This interpretation has been dismissed as superficial and simplistic by Claudio Sanchez Albornoz, the principal historian of medieval Spanish institutions, whose special interest has been to elucidate the role of the Visigoths in Hispanic history. For some years now Sanchez Albornoz has been engaged in a fiery polemic with Américo Castro (d. 1972) concerning the nature of the Spanish character. A philologist and philosopher, Castro expounded his thesis in a book that appeared in several versions and in English translation as 7he Spaniards-.
An Introduction to 7heir "History. At the outset he took strong exception to the idea, commonly expressed by Spanish writers, that the Spanish personality or spirit was permanent and unchanging over the centuries. The ancient Iberians, Romans, and Visigoths, he declared, were not Spaniards and had little to do with the eventual development of the Spanish people; it is folly, therefore, to speak of Seneca and other figures of the Roman world as though they were Spaniards in the same sense as Ferdinand and Isabella, as many modern patriotic writers have been wont to do. Castro believed that the causative factor in the formation of Spain and of the Spanish people was the coexistence in the peninsula from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries of Christians, Muslims, and Jews, who were conscious of their identity primarily as members of separate religious groups. From their interaction, the fundamentally religious nature of the Spanish personality received definitive form. This, he believed, is the key to an understanding of Spanish history and the unique character of Spain in western Europe. Castro was quite right in challenging the concept of an eternal and immutable Spain and Spanish character, but his own vision tends to be static and does not give sufficient importance to the gradual nature of the historical process. There were real differences in the ideas and attitudes of the men of the tenth, the twelfth, and the fifteenth centuries, but these are not made clear.
While properly emphasizing the impact of Muslims and Jews upon Hispanic Christianity, the examples used to illustrate his argument are often quite tenuous. For example, the sug-gestion that the Christians borrowed the Muslim concept of the holy war fails to reckon with Christian traditions and ideas concerning the legitimacy of warfare. His argument that the Jews conducted all significant business activity in Christian Spain does not square with the facts; and the idea that Jews converted to Christianity were primarily responsible for the inquisition, the persecution, and eventual expulsion of their coreligionists is debatable. While Castro's opinions have attracted great interest and acceptance, they have been strongly opposed and rejected in almost every instance by Sanchez Albornoz. In his Espana, un enigma historico, Sanchez Albornoz stresses the fundamental continuity of history and, against Castro, argues that the Iberians, Romans, and Visigoths, as well as the medieval Christians, Muslims and Jews, in their several distinctive ways, made substantial contributions to the formation of the Hispanic personality.
He believes that there are common aspects of the Hispanic character discernible over the centuries, but he recognizes that there were very real differences among the people of Roman times and those who lived in the centuries of the reconquest or of the Golden Age. He repudiates the idea that the character of the Spanish people was immutably fixed or determined in any period of history, as Castro seems to imply. As a Castilian, Sanchez Albornoz inclines to emphasize unity rather than diversity and regionalism, and he takes particular pains to point out those traits which Castilians, Portuguese, Basques, and Catalans, as Hispanic peoples, have in common. Sanchez Albornoz criticizes Castro for neglecting the study of institutions and law where Roman and Germanic influence was especially vigorous and persistent; of exaggerating the impact of Islam and Judaism out of all proportion and of failing to realize that it was uneven and hardly touched some peninsular regions; of not acknowledging indigenous Hispanic, rather than Arabic or oriental, influences in Muslim Spain; and of ignoring the very strong influence of northern Europe upon Christian Spain, particularly from the eleventh century onward, precisely when Christians and Muslims were coming into closer and more continuous contact along the frontiers.
The impassioned tone of Sanchez Albornoz's critique, however, often detracts from the justice of his arguments. The Catalan historian Jaime Vicens Vives (d. 1960), in his Approaches to the History of Spain, stated that the polemic between Castro and Sanchez Albornoz could only result in a sounder interpre- tation of Spanish history, but he suggested that the methodology of both men was now somewhat dated. Fully aware of the hazards of entering the lists against them, he insisted that one must put aside ideological preconceptions and avoid excessive reliance upon literary texts or law codes as accurate reflections of what people at any given moment were thinking or doing. In order to achieve a fuller understanding of peninsular history, in all its complexity and diversity, he argued that one must come down from the world of abstraction and theory and look at the practicalities of life as documents recording daily activities reveal them to us. Admittedly, documents of this kind are not always available to the historian. One of the aims of the present book is to provide a necessary foundation for a proper comprehension and evaluation of these various theories.
I conceive of the history of medieval Spain as the history of Tiispania, the Iberian peninsula in its totality, embracing the modern states of Spain and Portugal, and all the peoples who inhabited the area from the fifth through the fifteenth century. The peninsula was known to the ancient Greeks as Iberia, but the Romans called it TUspania-, in the medieval Romance tongue this became Espana, whence our Spain. In explaining the scope of his Primera Crônica Qeneral (972), Alfonso X of Castile remarked : " In this our general history, we have spoken of all the kings of Spain and of all the events that happened in times past . . . with respect to both Moors and Christians and also the Jews. . . y In the same way, the concern of this book is with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Castilians, Portuguese, Basques, Catalans, Aragonese, Andalusians; in other words, with all the peninsular peoples of medieval times. Though one may look at their ideas, institutions, laws, customs, languages, and religious beliefs and see naught but diversity, they had much more in common than mere geographical propinquity. As descendants of families long settled in the peninsula, they were, in varying degrees, heirs to a common tradition, and at any given period of medieval history they shared a common historical experience.
During the centuries of the reconquest there existed in Christian Spain a religious and cultural community that transcended purely local or regional concerns. Just as the Christian peoples, despite linguistic and other differences, borrowed ideas and institutions from one another, so too were they open to influences from Muslim Spain where a similar community of interests and traditions persisted, in spite of the political fragmentation that often prevailed in that area. This book seeks to illustrate the life of the Hispanic community in all its variety and complexity, pointing up what was common to many, while giving full recognition to their differences. Cfhe Quest for Unity Reflecting upon the history of medieval Spain, one can perceive as the recurrent theme the persistence with which men strove to unify the peninsula. The task was fraught with difficulties arising not only from the internal physical characteristics of the country, but also from the diversity of peoples within its borders. The Romans first established a uniform authority over the peninsula in the first century before Christ. By incorporating Spain into their empire they gave it a cultural foundation that subsisted in large measure through the vicissitudes of later centuries.
The Germanic tribes who crossed the Pyrenees in the fifth century A.D. disrupted the imperial administration, and two centuries elapsed before the Visigoths were able to extend their rule over the entire peninsula. The course of peninsular history during that time was comparable to that of the other barbarian kingdoms of western Europe, but to a greater degree than elsewhere the Visigoths bowed to the superior civilization of Rome and adopted as their own the Latin language, the orthodox Christian religion, and much of the substance of Roman law. In the eighth century Muslim conquerors, Arabs and Berbers, destroyed the unity of the Visigothic kingdom and interjected new religious and cultural elements into peninsular life. From that point the history of medieval Spain took on a unique character that distinguished it from the other western European states. Muslim influence upon Hispanic civilization was profound and is attested even today by architectural remains, the presence of numerous Arabic words in the Hispanic languages, and more subtly, by patterns of thought and behavior. But Spain was not Orientalized, Arabized, Islamized, or Africanized.
The links with the past were not obliterated, nor did Muslim influence overwhelm or wholly displace the Roman, Germanic, and Christian contributions to peninsular development. As a bridge between Europe and Africa, between West and East, between the worlds of Christianity and Islam, Spain experienced in the medieval centuries a continual tension created by the shifting balance of religious and cultural influences. In the end the balance was tipped decisively in favor of the Christian and western European world. Muslim failure to occupy permanently the regions of the far northwest and northeast gave the Christian population an opportunity to establish an independent basis from which to initiate the long and arduous task of reconquering the land they believed to be rightfully theirs. Several Christian states, namely Asturias, Leon, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, and Portugal, emerged in the centuries following the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom, and each evolved distinctive qualities, customs, and language.
Despite these differences the Christian people were conscious of their joint responsibility for the reconquest. In the early centuries the rulers of Asturias and Leon presented themselves as heirs of the Visigoths and hoped to recover all the territory of the Visigothic kingdom. As J. A. Maravall pointed out in his £ I Concepto de £spana en h edad media, the word Jiispania itself became for many medieval men the summons to the reconquest, the symbolic expression of the potential unity of the peninsula. From the tenth to the mid-twelfth century this concept was expressed in terms of an Hispanic empire seated in the kingdom of Leon, but it never achieved lasting juridical reality. Yet even as the Christian states grew steadily stronger from the late twelfth century, and pursued their own aims, without regard for Leonese claims to supremacy, the reconquest remained their common enterprise, a task to be carried to its inexorable conclusion. Though their ambitions might differ, the Christian rulers were united in this, as their collaboration against their common foe and their treaties for the partition of Muslim territory make manifest. Throughout these long centuries the reconquest was the common purpose and the cohesive principle of the Christian states.
The reconquest may be described as a holy war in the sense that it was a conflict prompted by religious hostility. But it was something more than that. By proclaiming oneself a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew, one espoused specific religious doctrines and also accepted a whole system of cultural values that affected one's daily life, one's habits, traditions, laws, and even language. The difficulty, if not the impossibility, of reconciling or assimilating these different religious and cultural points of view was at the root of the struggle. Both sides came to recognize that it could only end with the complete triumph of one over the other. It is one of the ironies of history that in Spain, a land widely known in modern times for religious intolerance, Christians, Muslims, and Jews often lived peacefully with one another in the medieval centuries. Religious minorities in general were tolerated in both Christian and Muslim kingdoms. This does not mean that they were loved or revered, but simply that they were permitted to exist and within certain limits to practice their religion and to be governed by their own laws and by their own judges. Periods of tolerance alternated, however, with persecution, and as the Middle Ages drew to a close the trend toward persecution grew stronger.
This was partly a natural consequence of the successful progress of the reconquest which had reduced Muslim territory to the small kingdom of Granada. But the generally unsettled political and economic conditions prevailing in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also stirred resentment against the Jews. Thus when Ferdinand and Isabella completed the reconquest in 1492, they decided that religious diversity was no longer acceptable; they expelled the Jews and began efforts to convert the Muslims who remained in the peninsula. Even though the Muslims accepted Christianity at least outwardly, they were never wholly trusted and were expelled finally in the seventeenth century. Religious uniformity and intolerance were thus consecrated as public policy. Besides religious differences, a complexity of laws, customs, and languages developed in medieval times, and as the centuries wore on these dissimilarities served to strengthen and encourage regionalism. Roman law was incorporated in very large degree in the Visigothic Code, which remained in vigor during the centuries of the reconquest, but custom, derived principally from the Germanic tradition, challenged the supremacy of the written law.
The fueros of Leon, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal, and the Usages of Barcelona embodied the ancient customs by which the Christian people governed themselves for centuries. Royal attempts in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to bring about legal uniformity by imposing Roman law met with strong popular resistance. In Muslim Spain the law was closely bound up with religion, and consequently its influence upon the Christian states was limited. Among the different linguistic forms* in the peninsula the Basque language survived from prehistoric times in Navarre and the adjacent provinces. While few traces of Visigothic forms have come down to us, Latin eventually gave birth to several Romance languages, such as Gal-lego-Portuguese in Galicia and Portugal; Castilian, born in the central meseta and eventually spreading through the reconquered regions of Extremadura and Andalusia; Catalan, reaching from the French border down through Valencia and also to the Balearic Islands. In Muslim Spain, Arabic was the official language, but in daily affairs Berbers and Jews used their languages, and the Christians there developed a form of Romance.
These linguistic differences were not an insuperable barrier to political union in the medieval era, but they have assumed great importance in modern times and have given impetus to Basque and Catalan demands for autonomy or independence. The unification of Spain was achieved in part by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, whose respective kingdoms, Aragon and Castile, the largest in the peninsula, were brought under their joint rule. The fall of the last Muslim outpost, the kingdom of Granada, in 1492, completed the reconquest and added a significant segment to their dominions. Political union was unfinished, however, because Portugal remained independent and successfully resisted all efforts to be absorbed or united with her larger neighbor. Moreover, Ferdinand and Isabella and their successors learned that the cultural and psychological differences developed during the medieval centuries were not easily resolved and that political union could not assure the spiritual cohesion of the people.
The achievement of a united Spain, incomplete as it was, was the consequence of fortuitous circumstances; in no way was it assured or foreordained. Indeed, if the accidents of history had been otherwise, Spain might be today what it was for so long in the Middle Ages, a congeries of states, both Christian and Muslim. Even so, the quest for unity, whether achieved or not, is the characteristic theme of medieval Hispanic history. CThe Qeographicdl foundations The physical structure of the peninsula has had much to do with its political and cultural development and its regional diversity. One of the most clearly delimited geographical entities on the European continent, its external appearance is deceptive in that it has always encouraged men to attempt to rule it as a whole. Separated from northern Europe by the Pyrenees mountains, it is bounded on three and one-half sides by the Mediterranean, the straits of Gibraltar, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Bay of Biscay.
For centuries the Pyrenees have served as a barrier, though by no means an impenetrable one, to communication between Spain and France. Two good passes through the mountains, Roncesvalles on the west and Le Perthus on the east, have enabled Celts, Visigoths, Franks, Frenchmen, and others to enter Spain. Throughout the medieval era communication was constant between Catalonia in the northeast and Languedoc and Provence in southern France. The oft-quoted phrase, "Africa begins with the Pyrenees" is a superficial judgment which neglects to take into account the diffusion of European ideas and institutions throughout the peninsula. Despite the Pyrenees, Spain remained an integral part of Europe.
To the south the straits of Gibraltar have never hampered communication between Spain and Africa, but have often afforded a facile passage for invaders such as the Arabs and Berbers in the eighth century, the Almoravids and Almohads in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Marinids in the thirteenth and fourteenth. As the Christians brought the conquest of Andalusia near completion, they endeavored to close the ports of Gibraltar and Algeciras to future invaders and contemplated the occupation of North Africa itself.
Although the peninsula appears as a self-contained geographical unit, its natural internal divisions have impeded the achievement of political unity and have encouraged separatism. The central nucleus of the peninsula is composed of a rather desolate meseta, a vast plateau which Madariaga called "the citadel of the Spanish castle/' The rulers of the meseta (the future kingdom of Leon-Castile) strove to impose their authority upon the peripheral areas, but mountains rising sharply from the sea made access to the coastal regions difficult and sheltered rebels against a central power. The great mountain ranges intersect the peninsula in an east-west direction. In the northeast the Pyrenees, the highest and broadest of these, separate Spain from France. The Cantabrian mountains, extending through Asturias into Galicia, border the meseta on the northwest. Crossing the center of the peninsula and dividing the meseta into northern and southern sections are the Serra da Estrela, the Sierra de Gredos, and the Sierra de Guadarrama.
The Iberian mountains of Soria and Teruel form the eastern limit of the meseta, and the Sierra Morena its southern limit. Running through Andalusia south of the Guadalquivir is the Cordillera Bética, of which the Sierra Nevada is the high-est range. The mountains and the meseta give the peninsula the second highest altitude in Europe, after Switzerland. Of the principal rivers, only the Ebro runs in an easterly direction to the Mediterranean. From its source in the province of Santander it makes its way over 465 miles through Aragon and its capital, Zaragoza, and empties into the sea at Tortosa. The other great rivers move westward to the Atlantic. Rising in Galicia, the Mino (Minho) travels a distance of 212 miles, passing through Orense and Tuy, forming the northern boundary of modern Portugal. From the province of Soria, the Duero (Douro) flows 485 miles through Old Castile, Leon, and Portugal, touches Valladolid and Zamora, reaching the Atlantic at Porto (Oporto). The Tagus has its source in the province of Guadalajara and flows westward for 565 miles through Toledo to Lisbon.
The Guadiana originates in the province of Ciudad Real and courses 510 miles through Mérida and Badajoz, where it turns southward, forming part of the Portuguese frontier and emptying into the Gulf of Cadiz at Ayamonte. The Guadalquivir, the great river of Andalusia, rises in the province of Jaén and passes through Cordoba and Seville where it turns southward to the Atlantic, covering a distance of 512 miles. The rivers of Spain, though hardly comparable to the great rivers found in other parts of Europe, played an important role in the medieval history of the peninsula, for the reconquest can be seen as a gradual advance from one river frontier to the next. The particular disposition of the rivers flowing east-west rather than north-south has also been seen by Vicens Vives as a deterrent to political unity. The peninsula has always been known for the harshness of its climate and the aridity of much of its soil. Extremes of heat and cold are common, especially in the meseta ; rainfall is scanty, and the land is rude and poor.
The regions of Andalusia, the Levant, Galicia, and Cantabria are much more fertile than the greater part of the Castilian and Aragonese lands of the central plateau. As a consequence, man has always had to struggle with the land to gain from it sufficient to sustain himself. Perhaps this constant struggle for survival has contributed to the strong individualism that is often suggested as typical of the Spanish character. Homan Spain Over the many centuries Spain, standing at the extremities of Europe and Africa, has served as a natural crossroads and has been populated by many diverse peoples. Here there is no need to discuss the complicated theories concerning prehistoric settlers, of whom the Basques remain as a unique element, whose language is of unknown origin or relationship to any other known to man. Ancient historians spoke of the Iberians, a people who came from Africa and constituted the basic Mediterranean element in the population. The Celts, an Indo-European people, crossed the Pyrenees and settled in the northern and western reaches of the peninsula between 900-600 B.C. and by their wide use of iron weapons, horses, and chariots were able to dominate the earlier arrivals.
Intermarriage between these groups led the geographers and historians to refer to the peninsula as Celtiberia. Attracted by reports of mineral wealth, the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean established colonies on the eastern and southern coasts; around 800 B.C. the Phoenicians founded Gades or Cadiz, and from the seventh century onward the Greeks began to found colonies, like Emporion (Ampurias) on the Catalan coast. In the sixth century B.C. the Carthaginians penetrated the peninsula and overthrew the Tartessians, a people of African origin who had created a powerful kingdom in Andalusia. As Carthage developed a commercial empire in Sicily and southern Spain, she provoked the rivalry of the Roman city state, and a struggle for supremacy in the western Mediterranean ensued.
The contending powers tested their strength in the First Punic War (264-242 B.C.), with Rome emerging as the victor. To repair Carthaginian fortunes Hamilcar Barca, his son-in-law Hasdrubal, and his son Hannibal began to transform Spain into a major military base. Hannibal's sack of Saguntum (219), a peninsular town in alliance with Rome, opened the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.). While Hannibal crossed into Gaul and Italy to carry the fight to the portals of Rome itself, Roman legions commanded by Publius Cornelius Scipio captured Nova Cartago (Cartagena, founded by Hasdrubal) in 209 B.C. and Cadiz in 205 B.C., and destroyed Carthaginian rule in Spain. The indigenous Hispanic population (perhaps 4 million) collaborated in the overthrow of the Carthaginians, but they were not prepared to submit to Roman tutelage. Over the next hundred years the Romans slowly extended their rule into the heart of the meseta, meeting fierce resistance.
The fall of the Celtiberian city of Numancia near Soria in 133 B.C. terminated the most arduous period of the conquest, but it was not until the time of Augustus (27 B.C-1 4 A.D.) that the Romans succeeded in subjugating the wild tribesmen of the far north and west. The names of towns such as Àsturîca Augusta (Astorga), Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza), and Pax Augusta (Badajoz) record the progress of the legions. The Roman conquest brought the Hispanic peoples into the mainstream of European civilization, and for the first time the peninsula was unified under one government. The process of colonizing it and converting it into a province, endowed with Roman administration, citizenship, law, and language was a gradual one, extending over several centuries.
The southern and eastern coastal regions obviously were most receptive to Roman influence, as the geographer Strabo noted in the first century A.D. The stationing of legionaries at strategic points, the settlement of veterans in colonies, and the development of provincial administration were among the chief instruments of the policy of Romanization. Vespasian granted Roman law in 73—74 A.D. to a number of towns in the peninsula, but when Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all residents of the empire in 212 the Romanization of the Hispanic peoples in a legal sense was completed. The adoption of Roman manners, customs, and language was not so easily accomplished. After the conclusion of the Second Punic War, in 197 B.C., Spain was divided into two provinces : Jlispania Citerior f the east, center, and north, and Jlispania Vlterior, the south and west. This division into Hither and Farther Spain explains the usage of the plural form to refer to the peninsula in the Middle Ages, as in rex Wspaniarum, rey de las Sspanas. After the whole peninsula had been subjugated, Augustus in 27 B.C. divided Tïispania Ulterior into the provinces of Baetica and Lusitania.
The former included most of modern Andalusia, and the provincial governor had his capital at Corduba. Lusitania, whose capital was Emerita Augusta (Mérida), consisted chiefly of modern Portugal and Extremadura. Jlispania Citerior, or Tarraconensis as it was also known from the capital city Tarraco (Tarragona), extended from the east coast to Gallaetia in the northwest. At the end of the third century A.D. Diocletian (284-305) effected a final reorganization of the provinces as part of his general attempt to reform imperial administration. The whole of Jlispania formed a diocese within the Prefecture of Gaul and was divided into five provinces: Baetica, Lusitania, Tarraconensis, Cartaginensis, and Gallaetia. Nova Cartago (Cartagena), the capital of Cartaginensis, was located on the southeastern coast; from there the province reached well into the center of the peninsula. Gallaetia, the northwestern province, had its capital at Bracara Augusta (Braga). To these peninsular provinces were added the Balearic Islands and North Africa (Mauritania Tingitana), whose respective capitals were Pollentia (Pollensa) and Tingis (Tangier).
The vicarius Tlispaniarum had general responsibility for the peninsula, but each province was administered by a praeses, rector, or index, who had civil but not military power. The essential unit of local administration was the municipality (raunicipium, civitas). Some of these were of native origin, while others were new Roman foundations. Aside from the provincial capitals already mentioned, the principal towns included: Hispalis (Seville), Toletum (Toledo), Barcino (Barcelona), Pampilona (Pamplona), Pallantia (Palencia), Legio (Leon), and Salmantica (Salamanca). Temples, arches, and other public works gave the towns a distinctly Roman appearance.
The most outstanding symbols of Roman power still extant, and in some cases still used, include the aqueducts of Segovia and Tarragona, the amphitheatre of Tarragona, and the bridges of Alcantara, Mérida, and Salamanca. The urbanization of Spain hastened the process of Romanization. While the rural population long remained attached to ancient traditions, the townspeople more readily accepted Roman law, customs, language, dress, and religion, and consciously thought of themselves as Romans. The municipality included both the urban nucleus (urbs) and an extensive rural district (territorium) including many villages and estates.
The task of governing the municipality was entrusted to a curia of 100 decuriones or curidles, who elected the chief magistrates or duumvires. In the third century the burden of satisfying the insatiable tax demands of the imperial government fell heavily upon the curiales and ruined them as a class, and stifled initiative in municipal administration. In order to prevent the wholesale flight of the curiales from their responsibilities, the imperial government was compelled to bind them by law to their posts and to their station in life. The merchants and artisans who constituted the bulk of the plebeian class in the towns were similarly bound to their crafts and occupations. In the country areas there were many small free holds (fundus, predium) sufficient to maintain a single family, but from the third century onward these lands were absorbed with increasing frequency by great estates (villa, latifundium). Small free proprietors found it more and more difficult to obtain a good yield and also felt the need to seek protection from more powerful men against the disturbances occa-sioned by civil wars and later by the barbarian invasions. As a consequence many proprietors gave up ownership of their land and became tenants on large estates and usually commended themselves to the protection of the landlord who eventually began to enjoy a real juridical power over them. As with other classes in society, the cohni, as the free men cultivating land on great estates were known, were bound to the soil in the fourth century.
A large estate was usually administered by a steward (villicus) appointed by the landlord. The land was divided among the tenants who owed rents and labor services, but a certain portion was reserved for direct exploitation by the landlord. For this purpose he usually owned a large number of slaves, some of whom cultivated the land while others worked in his household. Under the influence of humanitarian impulses and Christianity, landlords often freed their slaves, but the freedman ordinarily remained a client under his lord's protection. The economy of Roman Spain suffered the troubles which affected other regions of the empire in the third and fourth centuries. A flourishing commerce had developed along the southern and eastern coasts; from such ports as Cadiz, Cartagena, Tarragona, and Malaga, wheat, wine, olives, wax, honey, fish, and olive oil were exported to other parts of the Mediterranean world. In the interior the Romans constructed a network of roads covering about 13,000 miles which served to facilitate the transportation of troops and, at a later date, of goods.
The Via Augusta running along the coast from Cadiz to Tarragona and thence into Gaul and Italy was the axis of the system. As trade began to decline in the third century, and gold and silver were steadily drained to the east, the government responded to the economic crisis by attempting to regulate wages and prices. Individuals were deprived of the fundamental freedom of movement and the right to change their occupations. This had deleterious effects upon life in town and country, as all sense of personal independence and initiative was stifled. A decadent economy and a stagnant, stratified society thus were part of the Roman legacy to the Visigoths. The territorial and personal tributes (capitatio terrena, capitatio humand), the system of tolls, and the obligation to perform certain public works (munera) were also part of that legacy. One other element introduced during the Roman era contributed significantly to the civilization of the inhabitants and helped to unify them spiritually. Great obscurity surrounds the beginnings of Christianity in Spain, but there is a tradition that Sts. Peter and Paul consecrated seven bishops to evangelize the people. It is also thought that St. Paul visited Spain, circa 63-67, as he promised to do in the Epistle to the Romans (15:23-28).
The legend of St. James the Great's labors in Spain is of even more profound historical impact. No contemporary and none of the church Fathers mention his role in the peninsula, nor is he mentioned in any special way in the Mozarabic liturgy native to Spain/ his martyrdom in Jerusalem makes it highly unlikely that he visited Spain or spent much time there. Early in the ninth century, however, his tomb supposedly was found in Galicia and became the center of the famous pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela. As the patron of Spain, St. James was often seen fighting in battle by the side of the Christian rulers against the enemies of the faith, or so it was alleged. Yet there is no real historical evidence to demonstrate that he ever participated in the evangelization of the Hispanic people. Whatever the details of evangelization may be, the work was accomplished quickly enough. Tertullian, writing about 202, speaks as if the whole peninsula were Christian. Pagan superstition persisted no doubt in many areas, and people in remote places, for instance, the Basques, remained untouched by Christianity for centuries. During the Decian persecution in the middle of the third century a number of Hispanic Christians were martyred, and there were also numerous victims of Diocletian's persecution at the close of the century. After the conversion of Constantine, as hostility between Rome and the church disappeared, Christianity flourished in Spain and became an effective means of Romanization. Ecclesiastical organization was based upon the civil territorial administration, so that metropolitan sees were established in the provincial capitals.
The growth of the Hispanic church in the fourth century was exemplified in various ways by the distinguished bishop, Hosius of Cordoba (d. 357), friend and counselor of Constantine, and chief papal representative at the Council of Nicaea in 325; by Paul Orosius, author of Seven Books of History against the Pagans, an attempt to demonstrate the failure of the pagan gods to protect their devotees from calamities over the course of history; and by the heresiarch, Priscillian (d. 385), whose execution by imperial officials foreshadowed the later collaboration of state and church in the suppression of heresy. One should also take notice of the Council held at Iliberis (Elvira) near modern Granada around 300-314; its most famous canon required the clergy to observe a life of celibacy, a rule that eventually became general in western Europe. On the eve of the Germanic invasions of western Europe, Tlispania, after six hundred years of Roman presence, was highly Romanized and Christianized. In spite of her subjugation by the barbarians, Roman and Christian Spain survived and vanquished her conquerors.
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