Spania () was a province of the Eastern Roman Empire from 552 until 624Dates vary. Some (Collins) put the date of landing as early as 551, other (Wallace-Hadrill) as late as 554. The conquest of the last vestiges of the province has been dated to 625 (Collins) or 629 (W-H). in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was established by the Emperor Justinian I in an effort to restore the western provinces of the Empire.
Background In 409 the Vandals, Suevi and Alans, who had broken through the Roman border defences on the Rhine two years before, crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian peninsula. Nevertheless, effective Roman rule was maintained over most areas until after the death of Emperor Majorian in 461.Michael Kulikowski, Late Roman Spain and its Cities (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004). The Visigoths, vassals of the Roman Empire who had settled in Aquitaine by imperial invitation (416), increasingly filled the vacuum left as the Vandals moved into North Africa. In 468 they attacked and defeated the Suevi, who had occupied Roman Gallaecia and were threatening to expand. The Visigoths ended the Roman administration in Spain in 473, and their overlordship of most of the eastern and central peninsula was established by 476. A large-scale migration of the Visigoths into Iberia began in 494 under Alaric II, and it became the seat of their power after they lost most of their territory in Gaul to the Franks after the Battle of Vouillé in 507.
Conquest and foundation In 534, Roman general Belisarius re-established the Byzantine province of Mauretania with the conquest of the Vandal Kingdom in northern Africa. Despite his efforts, the Vandal king Gelimer had been unable to effect an alliance with the Gothic king Theudis, who probably took the opportunity of the collapse of Vandal authority to conquer Ceuta (Septem) across the Straits of Gibraltar in 533, possibly to keep it out of Byzantine hands. This citadel was nevertheless seized the following year by an expedition dispatched by Belisarius. Ceuta (which was briefly recaptured by the Visigoths in 540Thompson, p. 16. The Byzantines attacked on Sunday, while the Goths had laid down their arms to honour the Sabbath.) became a part of Mauretania. It was an important base for reconnaissance of Spain in the years leading up to the peninsula's invasion by Justinian's forces in 552.
In 550, during the reign of Agila I, Spain was troubled by a series of revolts, two of which were serious. The citizens of Córdoba rebelled against Gothic or Arian rule and Agila was roundly defeated, his son killed, and the royal treasure lost. He himself retreated to Mérida.Isidore of Seville, History of the Goths, translation by Guido Donini and Gordon B. Ford, Isidore of Seville's History of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi, 2nd revised ed. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), chapter 47, pp. 21f. The date of the other major revolt cannot be arrived at precisely. Either at the commencement of his reign (549) or as late as 551, a nobleman named Athanagild took Seville, capital of Baetica, and presumed to rule as king in opposition to Agila. Exactly who approached the Byzantines for assistance and when is also disputed; the primary sources are divided.Collins, pp. 47–49. Even the name of the general of the Byzantine army is disputed. Although Jordanes wrote that the Patrician Liberius was its commander: He [Theudis] was succeeded by Agila, who holds the kingdom to the present day. Athanagild has rebelled against him and is even now provoking the might of the Roman Empire. So Liberius the Patrician is on the way with an army to oppose him.Jordanes, Getica, translated by Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes, 1915 (Cambridge: Speculum Historiale, 1966), LVIII, 303, p. 138. James J. O'Donnell, in his biography of Liberius, casts doubt on this statement, since the patrician was an octogenarian at the time, and Procopius reports he had returned to Constantinople when the Byzantines invaded Hispania and could not have led the invasion. O'Donnell states that "Jordanes may have heard that Liberius' name was being mentioned for commander of the Spanish expedition, but, in the end, the fact of his relief from command of the forces in Sicily makes the story of his voyage to Spain incredible."O'Donnell, "Liberius the Patrician", Traditio 37 (1981), p. 67.
However, according to Isidore of Seville in his History of the Goths, it was Athanagild, in autumn of 551 or winter of 552, who begged Justinian for help. The army was probably sent in 552 and made landfall in June or July. Roman forces landed probably at the mouth of the Guadalete or perhaps Málaga and joined with Athanagild to defeat Agila as he marched south from Mérida towards Seville in August or September 552.Thompson, p. 325, based on Isidore. The war dragged on for two more years. Liberius returned to Constantinople by May 553 and it is probable that a Byzantine force from Italy, which had only recently been pacified after the Gothic War, landed at Cartagena in early March 555 and marched inland to Baza (Basti) in order to join up with their compatriots near Seville. Their landing at Cartagena was violent. The native population, which included the family of Leander of Seville, was well disposed to the Visigoths and the Byzantine government of the city was forced to suppress their freedoms, an oppression which lasted decades into their occupation. Leander and most of his family fled and his writings preserve the strong anti-Byzantine sentiment.
In late March 555, the supporters of Agila, in fear of the recent Byzantine successes, turned and assassinated him, making Athanagild the king of the Goths. Quickly the new king tried to rid Spain of the Byzantines, but failed. The Byzantines occupied many coastal cities in Baetica and this region was to remain a Byzantine province until its reconquest by the Visigoths barely seventy years later.
Extent and geography The Byzantine province of Spania never extended very far inland and received relatively little attention from East Roman authorities, probably because it was designed as a defensive bulwark against a Gothic invasion of Africa, which would have been an unnecessary distraction at a time when the Persian Empire was a larger threat in the East.Collins, p. 49. The most important cities of Byzantine Spania were Málaga and Cartagena, the probable landing sites of the Byzantine army, which was renamed from Carthago Nova to Carthago Spartaria. It is unknown which of those two cities was the provincial capital, but it was almost certainly one of them. The cities were the centres of Byzantine power and while a few were retaken by Agila, the ones which were retained were a bulwark against Visigothic attempts at reconquest. The Goths easily ravaged the countryside of Spania but were inept at sieges and the fortified towns were safe centres of Roman administration.
There are few cities which can be confidently considered to have been under Byzantine government in the period. The city of Medina Sidonia (Asidona) was held until 572, when it was reconquered by Leovigild. Gisgonza (also Gigonza, ancient Sagontia)Long misidentified as Sigüenza, Sagunto or Castillo de Gigonza. was also held until the reign of Witteric (603–610) and it indicates that the south of the province of Baetica was completely Byzantine from Málaga to the mouth of the Guadalete. In the province of Carthaginiensis, wherein lay its provincial capital Cartagena, the city of Baza was also Byzantine and it probably resisted the inroads of Leovigild into that territory in 570, though it was Visigothic by 589.
Among the cities which have been disputed as being Byzantine, Córdoba is the greatest. Some historians have suspected it of being the first capital of the province of Spania and ascribed the cities of Ecija (Astigi), Cabra (Egabra), Guadix (Acci), and Granada (Illiberris) to the Byzantines on this basis, but there is no positive evidence in the sources of Roman rule in any of these cities. Córdoba was in a state of rebellion, briefly joined by Seville from 566 to 567, until Leovigild put it down in 572. It may have had a local government during this period, or may have recognised Byzantine suzerainty.Collins, p. 49, considers it unlikely that Córdoba could have been in revolt for so long without coming under Byzantine rule. Thompson, p. 322, sees the lack of primary evidence for Byzantine government in any of the aforementioned cities as conclusive that the Byzantines never could have held Córdoba directly.
Aside from the southern parts of the provinces of Baetica and Carthaginiensis (the southern Levante), the Byzantines also held Ceuta across from the Gibraltar and the Balearic Islands, which had fallen to them along with the rest of the Vandal kingdom. Ceuta, though it had been Visigothic and was destined to be associated with the Iberian peninsula for its subsequent history, was attached to the province of Mauretania Secunda. The Balearics with Baetica and Carthaginiensis formed the new province of Spania. By the year 600 Spania had dwindled to little more than Málaga and Cartagena and the Balearics; it extended no further north than the Sierra Nevada. George of Cyprus recorded only one civitas (city, people) in the province: the "Mesopotamians", though the meaning of this is uncertain. José Soto Chica and Ana María Berenjeno identify this city with modern Algeciras through a translation of the Greek "Mesopotamenoi" to the Arabic "al-Djazirat", of similar meaning.José Soto Chica y Ana María Berenjeno (2014). «La última posesión bizantina en la península ibérica: Mesopotamenoi-Mesopotaminoi. Nuevas aportaciones para su identificación.». II Jornadas de Estudios Bizantinos: De Roma a Bizancio: el territorio en el sureste peninsular.
Administration
Secular government The chief administrative official in Spania was the magister militum Spaniae, meaning "master of the military of Spain". The magister militum governed civil and military affairs in the province and was subordinate only to the Emperor. Typically the magister was a member of the highest aristocratic class and bore the rank of patrician. The office, though it only appears in records for the first time in 589, was probably a creation of Justinian, as was the mint, which issued provincial currency until the end of the province (c. 625).
There were five known magistri in the history of the province, though this certainly does not represent the whole. Two are passingly mentioned by Isidore as successive governors in the time of Suinthila, but he omits their names. The first known governor, Comentiolus (possibly), repaired the gates of Cartagena in lieu of the "barbarians" (i.e. the Visigoths) and left an inscription (dated 1 September 589) in the city which survives to this day.Thompson, p. 331. The gate was augmented with towers, porticoes, and a vaulted chamber. It is in Latin and may reflect the continued use of Latin as the administrative language of the province. (It does not, however, imply that Cartagena was the capital of Spania.) Around 600 there was a governor named Comitiolus who bore the rank of gloriosus, the highest rank after that of emperor. The patrician and magister Caesarius made a peace treaty with Sisebut in 614 and conferred with the emperor Heraclius, who was more concerned with matters in Mesopotamia.