01-07-2019, 01:41 PM
(01-07-2019, 12:07 AM)Barbula Wrote: a still full romanized state in Spain ,with a Roman aristocracy and a Roman leader, which still had independent military forces... still Roman resistance in Visigothic Spain
The Roman aristocracy (landowners) certainly remained, but I doubt there was much state infrastructure after 460, or even perhaps earlier. What would have remained is the church, which mirrored the secular hierarchy and would have taken on a lot of the authority of government, with bishops coming from the higher levels of the local landowning class and acting as leaders.
At the other end of the social scale we have the bacaudae - a mysterious bunch who could have been rebellious peasants, independent-minded provincials, small-scale usurpers or anything in between. The Roman state launched a series of military campaigns against them in Tarraconensis in the 440s, but they kept reappearing.
So, while the church and the landowners probably found ways to accommodate themselves to barbarian rule, those lower down the scale perhaps did not - I expect 'Burdunelles', who from his name was probably not a very high-class person, was one of them. Ironically, it could have been theĀ bacaudae who put up the last 'Roman' resistance to the barbarians in Spain!
Nathan Ross