The Visigoths: Spain’s forgotten conquerors

When most people think of the fall of the Roman Empire, they think of hordes of howling barbarians swarming over the frontier and laying waste to civilization. That’s only partially true. In reality, many tribes were invited, and even those that weren’t came with their families not just to conquer, but to settle. This is why historians prefer the term “Migration Period”. And although these tribes conquered, the Romans ended up changing them more than they changed the Romans.

Take the gravestone pictured here, for instance. The product of “barbarians” who had taken Spain, it has Christian symbolism and is written in Latin. It reads, “Cantonus, servant of God, lived 87 years. He rested in peace on 22 December 517 AD.”

The Visigoths spread over much of the western Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. Their attacks prompted the emperor Honorius to withdraw his legions from Britain so he could get reinforcements, but this didn’t stop the Visigoths from sacking Rome itself in 410 AD. Like other Germanic tribes, they came to settle, and eventually moved as far as southern France and Spain. There they took over the government but left the society pretty much intact. Roman bureaucrats still ran day-to-day affairs. The Visigoths were already Christian like most Romans by this time, and since they lacked a written language they started using Latin.

Their kingdom lasted from 475 to 711, when they were defeated by the Umayyid Muslims. That’s a long time, but the Visigoths have basically become the Invisigoths, a forgotten people sandwiched in time between the Romans and the Moors. Why? Because they had little effect on the people they ruled. The Iberian Romans continued pretty much as they were, developing from the crumbling Classical era into the Early Middle Ages. These Ibero-Romans vastly outnumbered their Visigothic rulers. The only Visigothic word to make it into Spanish is verdugo, which means “executioner”.

If you look hard enough, you can still see traces of the Visigoths. Four of their churches still stand, two in Spain and two in Portugal. One of the best is San Pedro de la Nave near Campillo, Spain. Two shots of this church are in the gallery. Bits of other buildings have been incorporated into later structures. In Mérida, a Moorish fortress called the Alcazaba uses a bunch of pillars taken from a Visigothic hospital. They’re shown in the gallery too. The Visigoths had a distinct artistic style of carvings in low relief, showing plants or animals or people in Biblical or battle scenes. The Visigothic Museum in Mérida has an excellent collection of these.

The Germanic tribes were also good at making jewelry, and the Visigoths were no exception. They liked huge, intricately carved pins called fibulae to hold their cloaks, and wore bejeweled belt buckles big enough to make any Texan proud. Several of their chunky gold crowns also survive, with the names of their kings spelled out in gold letters hanging like a fringe around the edge.

So when visiting Spain’s many museums and historic sights, keep an eye out for remnants of Spain’s underrated rulers!

Don’t miss the rest of my series: Exploring Extremadura, Spain’s historic southwest

Coming up next: The wine and cuisine of Extremadura!

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Galley Gossip: Ivana Trump harasses two little kids on a flight

Ivana, Ivana, Ivana, you do not – I repeat – you do NOT call a child a barbarian. Out loud. On a flight. Oh sure, you can think it, we’re all probably thinking it, but to outright say it….I don’t think so. Not a good idea.

Now I probably would not have believed this story about a passenger who is suing Ivana Trump for calling his two adorable children names – ages 3 and 18 months – or the fact that Ivana has filed her own counter suit against the passenger who created those little barbarians. But the fact that the word barbarian was used to describe two little children, well…that is just so so wrong. Which only means it has to be true!

I mean who else but Ivana would use such a word? Brat. Fine. Terror. Okay. Monster. Sure. But barbarian? That’s a bit much, don’t you think? Which is exactly why I believe this outlandish story. And why I’ll be using the word barbarian as often as I can throughout this post. And on my flights. But only to myself. And maybe the crew. Possibly you. But that’s it.
So anyway, after the children were told to shut up – oh yeah, that’s what Ivana apparently said – the parents asked the flight attendant to get the Captain.
The Captain?
Ummm….okay.

Man oh man, I would have loved to have seen how the Captain handled that little situation. I wonder what our own pilot, Kent, would have done?

Now when I imagine a barbarian passenger, I do not think of two little kids, no matter how terrible they may have acted at 35,000 feet. Oh no. The thought that comes to my mind is a visual of the guy who was sitting in the row behind and across the aisle from me on my flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles last Wednesday. Now that, dear readers, was a barbarian.

He, the barbarian who was big and bald with one of those weird little hair patches sprouting off his chin, had the audacity to ring his call light and yell at the teeny tiny flight attendant for ten minutes about the thirty minute delay we took on the ground. This took place after he had already called the airline while we were on the ground to find out why, EXACTLY, we were still on the ground.

What I wanted to know was why, EXACTLY, he was using his cell phone when were on the tarmac and about to takeoff. And what, EXACTLY, he was trying to prove by pushing his weight, all 250 pounds of it, around.

Of course ripping the airline a new one wasn’t enough. He then went on to complain to the man wearing the dark blue designer jeans sitting beside me about the thirty minute delay. On and on the barbarian went as Mr. trendy nodded in agreement. When he finally stopped, it was only because he had another delay on another airline to complain about, and so on, and so on, until it was finally our turn to grab our things and deplane the aircraft.

“I (BLEEPING) hate this airline,” he growled, as he stepped aside to allow his nine year-old daughter into the aisle.

Barbarians, I tell you, they’re (BLEEPING) everywhere.


You think she’s bad? Get a load of what these women did!