Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain - (Translated Texts for Historians) 2nd Edition (Paperback)

About the Book

From the perspective of the Hispano-Romans, the Visigoths who invaded Spain in the mid-fifth century were heretical barbarians. But Leovigild's military success and Reccared's conversion to Catholic Christianity led to more positive assessments of the Gothic role in Iberian history. John of Biclaro (c.590) and Isidore of Seville (c.625) authored histories that projected the Gothic achievements back on to their uncertain beginnings, transforming them from antagonists of the Roman Empire to protagonists of a new, independent Chistianity in Spain.

Book Synopsis

From the perspective of the Hispano-Romans, the Visigoths who invaded Spain in the mid-fifth century were heretical barbarians. But Leovigild's military success and Reccared's conversion to Catholic Christianity led to more positive assessments of the Gothic role in Iberian history. John of Biclaro (c.590) and Isidore of Seville (c.625) authored histories that projected the Gothic achievements back on to their uncertain beginnings, transforming them from antagonists of the Roman Empire to protagonists of a new, independent Chistianity in Spain.

Review Quotes

... undoubtedly ... convenient for those who would teach and study early medieval Spanish history...
Bryn Mawr Classical Review

About the Author

Kenneth Baxter Wolf was educated at Stanford University, where he received his B.A. degree in religious studies and his Ph.D. degree in history. He is the author of Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain and Making History: The Normans and Their Historians in Eleventh-Century Italy, available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. He is Associate Professor of History at Pomona College in Claremont, California.