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70-562: When Alaric II was killed while fighting Clovis I , king of the Franks , in the Battle of Vouillé (507), his kingdom fell into disarray. "More serious than the destruction of the Gothic army," writes Herwig Wolfram , "than the loss of both Aquitanian provinces and the capital of Toulose , was the death of the king." Alaric had made no provision for a successor, and although he had two sons, one

140-536: A Visigothic hermitage, Santa Maria de Lara . It also embodied the continuity of Roman order. Native Hispano-Romans continued to run the civil administration and Latin continued to be the language of government and of commerce on behalf of the Visigoths. Religion was the most persistent source of friction between the Chalcedonian ( Catholic ) native Hispano-Romans and their Arian Visigothic overlords, whom

210-521: A granary and a major source of metals for the Roman market, and its harbors exported gold , tin , silver , lead , wool , wheat , olive oil , wine , fish , and garum . Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use today. The Romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists had all achieved

280-569: A move which coincides to the Vandal occupation of Carthage late the same year. Rome made attempts to restore control in 446 and 458. Success was temporary. After the death of emperor Majorian in 461 Roman authority collapsed except in Tarraconensis the northeastern quadrant of the peninsula. The Visigoths, a Germanic people , whose kingdom was located in southwest Gaul, took the province when they occupied Tarragona in 472. They also confined

350-476: A rabbit. Others derive the word from Phoenician span , meaning 'hidden', and make it indicate "a hidden", that is, "a remote", or "far-distant land". Other theories have been proposed. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania of Iberian origin and derived it from the pre-Roman name for Seville , Hispalis . This was revived for instance by the etymologist Eric Partridge (in his work Origins ) who felt that this might strongly hint at an ancient name for

420-593: A struggle for the throne between the Visigothic kings Agila and Athanagild , the Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent an army under the command of Liberius to take back the peninsula from the Visigoths. This short-lived reconquest recovered only a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast roughly corresponding to the ancient province of Baetica , known as Spania . Under the Visigoths, culture

490-661: A timorous race." The Franks then imprisoned Syagrius, and once his control over Syagrius' former kingdom was secure, Clovis had him beheaded. However, Wolfram points out that at the time "Clovis got no farther than the Seine; only after several more years did the Franks succeed in occupying the rest of the Gallo-Roman buffer state north of the Loire ." Any threat of war Clovis could make would only be effective if they were neighbors; "it

560-700: Is considered to have been decisive in hastening the decline of the Western Roman Empire. However, their departure allowed the Romans to recover 90% of the Iberian peninsula until 439. After the departure of the Vandals only the Sueves remained in a northwest corner of the peninsula. Roman rule which had survived in the eastern quadrant was restored over most of Iberia until the Sueves occupied Mérida in 439,

630-640: Is generally known as the Breviarium Alaricianum or Breviary of Alaric . The Montagne d'Alaric  [ fr ] (Alaric's Mountain), near Carcassonne , is named after the Visigoth king. Local rumour has it that he left a vast treasure buried in the caves beneath the mountain. The Canal d'Alaric  [ fr ] (Alaric's Canal ) in the Hautes-Pyrénées department is named after him. Hispania Hispania

700-594: Is mentioned for the first time in the work of the Roman historian Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus , in the 1st century BC. Although Hispania is the Latin root for the modern name Spain , the words Spanish for Hispanicus or Hispanic , or Spain for Hispania , are not easily interchangeable, depending on context. The Estoria de España ('The History of Spain') written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile El Sabio ('the Wise'), between 1260 and 1274, during

770-458: Is nowhere written that Syagrius was handed over in 486 or 487." Despite Frankish advances in the years that followed, Alaric was not afraid to take the military initiative when it presented itself. In 490, Alaric assisted his fellow Gothic king, Theodoric the Great , in his conquest of Italy by dispatching an army to raise Odoacer 's siege of Pavia , where Theodoric had been trapped. Then when

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840-593: Is primarily about Alaric's death in that battle. The earliest-documented event in Alaric's reign concerned providing refuge to Syagrius , the former ruler of the Domain of Soissons (in what is now northwestern France ) who had been defeated by Clovis I , King of the Franks . According to Gregory of Tours ' account, Alaric was intimidated by Clovis into surrendering Syagrius to Clovis; Gregory then adds that "the Goths are

910-587: The Reconquista ('reconquest') of Spain, is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish using the words España ('Spain') and Españoles ('Spaniards') to refer to Medieval Hispania. The use of Latin Hispania , Castilian España , Catalan Espanya and Old French Espaigne , among others, to refer to Roman Hispania or Visigothic Hispania was common throughout all

980-643: The Carthaginians , the Iberians , the Lusitanians , the Gallaecians and other Celts . It was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC–AD 14) was able to complete the conquest (see Cantabrian Wars ). Until then, much of Hispania remained autonomous. Romanization proceeded quickly in some regions where there are references to the togati, and very slowly in others, after

1050-749: The Cro-Magnon ) migrated and recolonized all of Western Europe . In this period one finds the Azilian culture in Southern France and Northern Iberia (to the mouth of the Douro river), as well as the Muge Culture in the Tagus valley. The Neolithic brought changes to the human landscape of Iberia (from the 5th millennium BC onwards), with the development of agriculture and the beginning of

1120-729: The European Megalith Culture . This spread to most of Europe and had one of its oldest and main centres in the territory of modern Portugal , as well as the Chalcolithic and Beaker cultures. During the 1st millennium BC, in the Bronze Age , the first wave of migrations into Iberia of speakers of Indo-European languages occurred. These were later (7th and 5th centuries BC) followed by others that can be identified as Celts . Eventually urban cultures developed in southern Iberia, such as Tartessos , influenced by

1190-912: The Late Middle Ages . A document dated 1292 mentions the names of foreigners from Medieval Spain as Gracien d'Espaigne . Latin expressions using Hispania or Hispaniae (e.g. omnes reges Hispaniae ) were often used in the Middle Ages, while the Spain Romance languages of the Reconquista use the Romance version interchangeably. In the James Ist Chronicle Llibre dels fets , written between 1208 and 1276, there are many instances of this. The borders of modern Spain do not coincide with those of

1260-524: The Phoenician colonization of coastal Mediterranean Iberia, with strong competition from the Greek colonization. These two processes defined Iberia's cultural landscape – Mediterranean towards the southeast and Continental in the northwest. Roman armies invaded the Iberian peninsula in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against

1330-628: The Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage . Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate ʾī šāpān ( 𐤀𐤉 𐤔𐤐𐤍 ) of Hebrew ʾī šāfān ( Hebrew : אִי שָׁפָן ) meaning literally 'island of the rabbit ', referring to the European rabbit (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are both Canaanite languages and therefore closely related to each other). Some Roman coins of the Emperor Hadrian, born in Hispania, depict Hispania and

1400-701: The Roman province of Hispania or of the Visigothic Kingdom , and thus medieval Spain and modern Spain exist in separate contexts. The Latin term Hispania , often used during Antiquity and the Low Middle Ages , like with Roman Hispania, as a geographical and political name, continued to be used geographically and politically in the Visigothic Spania , as shown in the expression laus Hispaniae , 'Praise to Hispania', to describe

1470-458: The Roman usurper Peter and had him executed. After a few years, however, Clovis violated the peace treaty negotiated in 502. Despite the diplomatic intervention of Theodoric , king of the Ostrogoths and father-in-law of Alaric, Clovis led his followers into Visigothic territory. Alaric was forced by his magnates to meet Clovis in the Battle of Vouillé (summer 507) near Poitiers; there

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1540-845: The Sarmatian Alans moved into Iberia in September or October 409 at the request of Gerontius , a Roman usurper. The Suevi established a kingdom in Gallaecia in what is today modern Galicia and northern Portugal . The Alans' allies, the Hasdingi Vandals, also established a kingdom in another part of Gallaecia. The Alans established a kingdom in Lusitania – modern Alentejo and Algarve , in Portugal . The Silingi Vandals briefly occupied parts of South Iberia in

1610-468: The 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, only Navarra and Portugal were left to complete the whole peninsula under one monarchy . Navarre followed soon after in 1512, and Portugal, after over 400 years as an independent and sovereign nation, in 1580. During this time, the concept of Spain was still unchanged. It was after the restoration of Portugal's independence in 1640 when

1680-589: The 5th century. The Council of Bishops became an important instrument of stability during the ascendancy of the Visigoths . The last vestiges of (Western·classical) Roman rule ended in 472. The undoing of Roman Spain was the result of four tribes crossing the Rhine in 406. After three years of depredation and wandering about northern and western Gaul, the Germanic Buri , Suevi and Vandals , together with

1750-521: The Burgundians capture Arles. Alaric exiled him for a year to Bordeaux in Aquitania, then allowed him to return unharmed when the crisis had passed. Alaric displayed similar wisdom in political affairs by appointing a commission headed by the referendary Anianus to prepare an abstract of the Roman laws and imperial decrees, which would form the authoritative code for his Roman subjects. This

1820-655: The Carthaginians and then by the Romans for its abundant silver deposits developed Hispania into a thriving multifaceted economy. Several metals, olives, oil from Baetica, salted fish and garum , and wines were some of the goods produced in Hispania and traded throughout the Empire. Gold mining was the most important activity in the north-west parts of the peninsula. This activity is attested in archaeological sites as Las Médulas (Spain) and Casais ( Ponte de Lima , Portugal). Precipitation levels were unusually high during

1890-591: The East. You are the honor and ornament of the orb and the most illustrious portion of the Earth ... And for this reason, long ago, the golden Rome desired you In modern history, Spain and Spanish have become increasingly associated with the Kingdom of Spain alone, although this process took several centuries. After the union of the central peninsular Kingdom of Castile with the eastern peninsular Kingdom of Aragon in

1960-575: The Franks attacked the Burgundians in the decade after 500, Alaric assisted the ruling house, and according to Wolfram the victorious Burgundian king Gundobad ceded Avignon to Alaric. By 502 Clovis and Alaric met on an island in the Loire near Amboise for face-to-face talks, which led to a peace treaty. In 506, the Visigoths captured the city of Dertosa in the Ebro valley. There they captured

2030-569: The Goths were defeated and Alaric slain, according to Gregory of Tours, by Clovis himself. The most serious consequence of this battle was not the loss of their possessions in Gaul to the Franks; with Ostrogothic help, much of the Gallic territory was recovered, Herwig Wolfram notes, perhaps as far as Toulouse . Nor was it the loss of the royal treasury at Toulouse, which Gregory of Tours writes Clovis took into his possession. As Peter Heather notes,

2100-495: The Ostrogoths sent an army, led by his sword-bearer Theudis , against Gesalec, ostensibly on behalf of Amalaric; Gesalec fled to Africa. The Ostrogoths then drove back the Franks and their Burgundian allies, regaining possession of "the south of Novempopulana , Rodez , probably even Albi , and even Toulose". Following the 511 death of Clovis, Theodoric negotiated a peace with Clovis' successors, securing Visigothic control of

2170-493: The Sueves who had ruled most of the region to Galicia and northern Portugal. In 484 the Visigoths established Toledo as the capital of their kingdom. Successive Visigothic kings ruled Hispania as patricians who held imperial commissions to govern in the name of the Roman emperor. In 585 the Visigoths conquered the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia , and thus controlled almost all of Hispania. A century later, taking advantage of

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2240-424: The Visigothic king Ataulf). The Visigoths, the remnants of the two tribes who joined them and the Sueves were confined to a small area in the northwest of the peninsula. The diocese may even have been re-established with its capital at Mérida in 418. The Roman attempt under General Castorius to dislodge the Vandals from Cordoba failed in 422. The Vandals and Alans crossed over to North Africa in 429, an event which

2310-457: The Visigothic kingdom was thrown into disarray "by the death of its king in battle." Alaric's heirs were his eldest son, the illegitimate Gesalec , and his younger son, the legitimate Amalaric who was still a child. Gesalec proved incompetent, and in 511 King Theodoric assumed the throne of the kingdom ostensibly on behalf of Amalaric—Heather uses the word "hijacked" to describe his action. Although Amalaric eventually became king in his own right,

2380-652: The abolition of the imperial Tetrarchs under the Western Emperor (in Rome itself, later Ravenna). The diocese, with its capital at Emerita Augusta (modern Mérida ), comprised: Before the Punic Wars, Hispania was a land with much untapped mineral and agricultural wealth, limited by the primitive subsistence economies of its native peoples outside of a few trading ports along the Mediterranean . Occupation by

2450-667: The advancing migrations of modern humans . In the 40th millennium BC, during the Upper Paleolithic and the last ice age , the first large settlement of Europe by modern humans occurred. These were nomadic hunter-gatherers originating on the steppes of Central Asia . When the last ice age reached its maximum extent, during the 30th millennium BC, these modern humans took refuge in Southern Europe , namely in Iberia , after retreating through Southern France . In

2520-577: The apparatus of the Roman state but not the ability to make it operate to their advantage. In the absence of a well-defined hereditary system of succession to the throne, rival factions encouraged foreign intervention by the Greeks , the Franks , and finally the Muslims in internal disputes and in royal elections . According to Isidore of Seville , it is with the Visigothic domination of Iberia that

2590-540: The concept of Spain started to shift and be applied to all the Peninsula except Portugal. Latin was the official language of Hispania during Roman rule, which exceeded 600 years. By the empire's end in Hispania around 460 AD, all the original Iberian languages, except the ancestor of modern Basque, were extinct. Even after the fall of Rome and the invasion of the Germanic Visigoths and Suebi , Latin

2660-402: The country of *Hispa , presumably an Iberian or Celtic root whose meaning is now lost. Hispalis may alternatively derive from Heliopolis (Greek for 'city of the sun'). However, according to modern research by Manuel Pellicer Catalán, the name derives from Phoenician spal 'lowland' . Occasionally Hispania was called Hesperia ultima 'farthest western land' by Roman writers since

2730-510: The daughter of Clovis. However, this was not successful, for according to Gregory of Tours , Amalaric pressured her to forsake Orthodoxy and convert to Arian Christianity , at one point beating her until she bled; she sent to her brother Childebert I , king of Paris , a towel stained with her own blood. Ian Wood noted that although Gregory provides the fullest information for this period, where it touches Merovingian affairs, he often "allowed his religious bias to determine his interpretation of

2800-429: The depiction of the geography, climate and inhabitants of the peninsula, writing: This Hispania produces tough soldiers, very skilled captains, prolific speakers, luminous bards. It is a mother of judges and princes; it has given Trajan , Hadrian , and Theodosius to the Empire. Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century. However, little headway

2870-474: The emperor Caracalla made a new division which lasted only a short time. He split Hispania Citerior again into two parts, creating the new provinces Provincia Hispania Nova Citerior and Asturiae-Calleciae . In the year 238 the unified province Tarraconensis or Hispania Citerior was re-established. In the 3rd century, under the Soldier Emperors, Hispania Nova (the northwestern corner of Spain)

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2940-415: The events." Peter Heather agrees with Wood's implication in this instance: "I doubt that this is the full story, but the effects of Frankish intervention are clear enough." Childebert defeated the Visigothic army and took Narbonne . Amalaric fled south to Barcelona , where according to Isidore of Seville , he was assassinated by his own men. According to Peter Heather, Theodoric's former governor Theudis

3010-455: The former considered heretical. At times this tension invited open rebellion, and restive factions within the Visigothic aristocracy exploited it to weaken the monarchy. In 589, Recared , a Visigothic ruler, renounced his Arianism before the Council of Bishops at Toledo and accepted Chalcedonian Christianity ( Catholic Church ), thus assuring an alliance between the Visigothic monarchy and

3080-417: The greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis . Herwig Wolfram opens his chapter on the eighth Visigothic king, "Alaric's reign gets no full treatment in the sources, and the little they do contain is overshadowed by his death in the Battle of Vouillé and the downfall of the Toulosan kingdom." One example is Isidore of Seville 's account of Alaric's reign: consisting of a single paragraph, it

3150-402: The history of the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula of Isidore of Seville 's Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum : You are, O Spain , holy and always happy mother of princes and peoples, the most beautiful of all the lands that extend far from the West to India . You, by right, are now the queen of all provinces, from whom the lights are given not only the sunset, but also

3220-453: The idea of a peninsular unity is sought after, and the phrase Mother Hispania is first spoken. Up to that date, Hispania designated all of the peninsula's lands. In Historia Gothorum , the Visigoth Suinthila appears as the first monarch under whose rule Hispania is dealt with as a Gothic nation. During the first stages of Romanization, the peninsula was divided in two by the Romans for administrative purposes. The closest one to Rome

3290-455: The millennia that followed, the Neanderthals became extinct and local modern human cultures thrived, producing pre-historic art such as that found in L'Arbreda Cave and in the Côa Valley . In the Mesolithic period, beginning in the 10th millennium BC, the Allerød Oscillation occurred. This was an interstadial deglaciation that lessened the harsh conditions of the Ice Age. The populations sheltered in Iberian Peninsula (descendants of

3360-466: The most part, emerged as the qualified personnel to manage higher administration in concert with local powerful notables who gradually displaced the old town councils. As elsewhere in early medieval Europe, the church in Hispania stood as society's most cohesive institution. The Visigoths are also responsible for the introduction of mainstream Christianity to the Iberian peninsula; the earliest representation of Christ in Spanish religious art can be found in

3430-454: The name Hesperia 'western land' had already been used by the Greeks to refer to the Italian peninsula. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Jesuits scholars like Larramendi and José Francisco de Isla tied the name to the Basque word ezpain 'lip', but also 'border, edge', thus meaning the farthest area or place. During Antiquity and Middle Ages, the literary texts derive the term Hispania from an eponymous hero named Hispan , who

3500-544: The native Hispano-Romans. This alliance would not mark the last time in the history of the peninsula that political unity would be sought through religious unity. Court ceremonials – from Constantinople – that proclaimed the imperial sovereignty and unity of the Visigothic state were introduced at Toledo. Still, civil war, royal assassinations, and usurpation were commonplace, and warlords and great landholders assumed wide discretionary powers. Bloody family feuds went unchecked. The Visigoths had acquired and cultivated

3570-689: The peninsula's population were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class and they participated in governing Hispania and the Roman Empire, although there was a native aristocracy class who ruled each local tribe. The latifundia (sing., latifundium ), large estates controlled by the aristocracy, were superimposed on the existing Iberian landholding system. The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon ( Olissipo ) and Tarragona ( Tarraco ), established Zaragoza ( Caesaraugusta ), Mérida ( Augusta Emerita ), and Valencia ( Valentia ), and reduced other native cities to mere villages. The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. Hispania served as

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3640-428: The persecution policy of his father Euric toward the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde . He was on uneasy terms with the Catholic bishops of Arelate (modern Arles ) as epitomized in the career of the Gallo-Roman Caesarius, bishop of Arles , who was appointed bishop in 503. Caesarius was suspected of conspiring with the Burgundians , whose king had married the sister of Clovis, to assist

3710-414: The political continuity of the Visigothic kingdom was broken; "Amalaric's succession was the result of new power structures, not old ones," as Heather describes it. With Amalaric's death in 531, the Visigothic kingdom entered an extended period of unrest which lasted until Leovigild assumed the throne in 569. In religion Alaric was an Arian , like all the early Visigothic nobles, but he greatly mitigated

3780-516: The province of Baetica . In an effort to retrieve the region, the Western Roman emperor, Honorius (r. 395–423), promised the Visigoths a home in southwest Gaul if they destroyed the invaders in Spain. They all but wiped out the Silingi and Alans. The remnant joined the Asding Vandals who had settled first in the northwest with the Sueves but south to Baetica. It is a mystery why the Visigoths were recalled by patrician Constantius (who in 418 married Honorius' sister who had been married briefly to

3850-402: The so-called Iberian–Roman Humid Period . Roman Spain experienced its three phases: the most humid interval in 550–190 BC, an arid interval in 190 BC–150 AD and another humid period in 150–350. In 134 BC the army of Scipio Aemilianus in Spain had to march at night due to extreme heat, when some of its horses and mules died of thirst (even though earlier, in 181 BC, heavy spring rains prevented

3920-403: The southernmost portion of Gaul for the rest of the existence of their kingdom. In 522, the young Amalaric was proclaimed king, and four years later, on Theodoric's death, he assumed full royal power, although relinquishing Provence to his cousin Athalaric . His kingdom was faced with a Frankish threat from the north; according to Peter Heather, this was his motivation for marrying Chrotilda ,

3990-453: The status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The Iberian denarii, also called argentum oscense by Roman soldiers, circulated until the 1st century BC, after which it was replaced by Roman coins. Hispania was separated into two provinces (in 197 BC), each ruled by a praetor : Hispania Citerior ("Hither Hispania") and Hispania Ulterior ("Farther Hispania"). The long wars of conquest lasted two centuries, and only by

4060-400: The time of Augustus did Rome managed to control Hispania Ulterior. Hispania was divided into three provinces in the 1st century BC. In the imperial era, three Roman emperors were born in Hispania: Trajan (r. 98–117), Hadrian (r. 117–138), and Theodosius (r. 379–395). In the 4th century, Latinius Pacatus Drepanius , a Gallic rhetorician, dedicated part of his work to

4130-462: The time of Augustus , and Hispania was divided into three separately governed provinces, and nine provinces by the 4th century. More importantly, Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road . But the impact of Hispania on the newcomers was also substantial. Caesar wrote that the soldiers from the Second Legion had become Hispanicized and regarded themselves as hispanici . Some of

4200-409: Was also used in the period of Visigothic rule . The modern place names of Spain and Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania . The origin of the word Hispania is disputed. The evidence for the various speculations is based merely upon what are at best mere resemblances, likely to be accidental, and suspect supporting evidence. The most commonly held theory holds it to be of Punic origin, from

4270-404: Was called Citerior and the more remote one Ulterior . The frontier between both was a sinuous line which ran from Cartago Nova (now Cartagena ) to the Cantabrian Sea . In 27 BC, the general and politician Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa divided Hispania into three parts: The emperor Augustus in that same year returned to make a new division leaving the provinces as follows: By the 3rd century

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4340-490: Was implicated in Amalaric's murder, "and was certainly its prime beneficiary." As for Chrotilda, in Gregory's words, she died on the journey home "by some ill chance". Childebert had her body brought to Paris where she was buried alongside her father Clovis. [REDACTED] Media related to Amalarico at Wikimedia Commons Alaric II Alaric II ( Gothic : 𐌰𐌻𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃 , Alareiks , "ruler of all"; Latin : Alaricus ; c.  458/466 – August 507)

4410-432: Was later renamed "Callaecia" (or Gallaecia , whence modern Galicia ). From Diocletian 's Tetrarchy (AD 293) onwards, the south of the remainder of Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis , and all of the mainland Hispanic provinces, along with the Balearic Islands and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana , were later grouped into a civil diocese headed by a vicarius . The name Hispania

4480-453: Was made in the countryside, until the late 4th century, by which time Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. Some heretical sects emerged in Hispania, most notably Priscillianism , but overall the local bishops remained subordinate to the Pope . Bishops who had official civil as well as ecclesiastical status in the late empire continued to exercise their authority to maintain order when civil governments broke down there in

4550-466: Was not as highly developed as it had been under Roman rule, when a goal of higher education had been to prepare gentlemen to take their places in municipal and imperial administration. With the collapse of the imperial administrative super-structure above the provincial level (which was practically moribund) the task of maintaining formal education and government shifted to the Church from the old ruling class of educated aristocrats and gentry. The clergy, for

4620-426: Was of age but illegitimate and the other, Amalaric, the offspring of a legal marriage but still a child. Amalaric was carried for safety into Spain , which country and Provence were thenceforth ruled by his maternal grandfather, Theodoric the Great , acting through his vice-regent, an Ostrogothic nobleman named Theudis . The older son, Gesalec , was chosen as king but his reign was disastrous. King Theodoric of

4690-401: Was split off from Tarraconensis, as a small province but the home of the only permanent legion in Hispania, Legio VII Gemina . After Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform in AD 293, the new Diocese of Hispania became one of the four dioceses —governed by a vicarius —of the praetorian prefecture of Gaul (also comprising the provinces of Gaul , Germania and Britannia ), after

4760-432: Was spoken by nearly all of the population, but in its common form known as Vulgar Latin , and the regional changes which led to the modern Iberian Romance languages had already begun. The Iberian peninsula has long been inhabited, first by early hominids such as Homo erectus , Homo heidelbergensis and Homo antecessor . In the Paleolithic period, the Neanderthals entered Iberia and eventually took refuge from

4830-434: Was the King of the Visigoths from 484 until 507. He succeeded his father Euric as king of the Visigoths in Toulouse on 28 December 484; he was the great-grandson of the more famous Alaric I , who sacked Rome in 410. He established his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour ( Vicus Julii ) in Aquitaine . His dominions included not only the majority of Hispania (excluding its northwestern corner) but also Gallia Aquitania and

4900-430: Was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula . Under the Roman Republic , Hispania was divided into two provinces : Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior . During the Principate , Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania , while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis . Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, initially as Hispania Nova, which

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