Continuity, transformation and extinction of the curiae in Spain from the 4th to the 9th centuries

Abstract

The article deals with the historical destiny of the curiae and other institutions connected with them in the system of Roman free cities-municipia. The common opinion of experts (C. Sánchez Albornoz, M. I. Rostovtzeff, A. H. M. Jones and some others) is that Roman municipal institutions (including the curiales) disappeared in the former Roman Hispanic provinces no later than the middle of the 7th century. In contrast to this opinion, the article suggests another view of one of the classical problems of Roman studies, based on Hispanic primary sources from the 4th–9th centuries (including those of Arab-Hispanic origin). Information found in these sources points to the preservation of influential local oligarchies (including the Hispanic families of Roman origin which governed their cities in the epoch of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo) in Córdoba and Seville in the period following the Moslem invasion; at the same time, we see the influence of urban councils (senatus or curiae of the Latin texts), consisting of representatives of these families in the same cities. The fact of continuity and transformation of the curiae (consisting of successors of the Late Roman principales) is confirmed in the case of other cities and urban centers of Andalucia. The central and northern regions of Iberian Peninsula demonstrate the same tendency. Particular attention is paid to the role of bishops as successors of the Late Roman magistrates tradition and to the comites civitatum as a position which was genetically connected with the Roman urban government since the period of the 5th–6th centuries and which existed until the end of the Early Middle Ages at least.