Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

CHAPTER 5
THE WESTERN KINGDOMS
roger collins
i. gaul: visigothic kingdom, 418,507
In 418 the patrician Constantius concluded a peace treaty with the
Visigothic king Wallia (415–18), giving him and his following the province
of Aquitania Secunda and some adjacent territories to occupy. This completed
a process initiated in 416 when Wallia returned his predecessor’s
widow, Galla Placidia, to her brother, the emperor Honorius. He had subsequently
campaigned for the emperor in Spain, destroying the kingdoms
of the Alans and of the Siling Vandals. The nature of the Visigothic presence
established in Aquitaine by the treaty of 418 remains controversial.
The argument concerns the nature of the process known as hospitalitas.
Traditionally, this has been interpreted as involving a major change in land
ownership, with the Visigothic ‘guests’ receiving two-thirds of all Roman
estates within the designated regions. More recent arguments have seen it
as involving not a physical redistribution of land, which would involve
large-scale expropriation by the empire of aristocratic property, but a revision
of tax obligations, with the Roman landowners having to pay the fiscal
burden on two-thirds of their property directly to the designated
Visigothic recipients rather than to the imperial administration. 1 According
to the view adopted, the Visigoths can be seen in the aftermath of the
treaty either as being settled on the land and widely distributed throughout
southern Aquitaine or as forming a purely military presence, based on a
limited number of urban garrisons.
The next thirty years saw several fluctuations in relations between the
newly established Visigothic kingdom, with its centre in Toulouse, and the
western imperial government. Under Theoderic I (418–51), who was not a
descendant of the previous kings but may have married a daughter of
Alaric I (395–410), the area of southern Gaul under Visigothic control was
expanded whenever Roman authority was too weak to prevent it. Thus,
unsuccessful attempts were made to seize Arles in both 425 and 430. More
general warfare broke out in 436 when the Visigoths tried to take
Narbonne. The use of Hun mercenaries, a practice espoused by Aetius as
1 Goffart, Barbarians and Romans. Durliat (1988). Heather, Goths and Romans 220–4.
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