This past summer I read Michael Kulikowski’s excellent book, Late Roman Spain and Its Cities (Baltimore, 2004). I’m hoping to write a longer note on the book soon, but for now I’ll give just a few short comments. Kulikowski, like Peter Brown and others, downplays the idea of a general third century crisis. He admits that for the elite the third century was a tumultuous time, but questions whether the crisis in the imperial administration would have had the large-scale economic and social impact that many other scholars claim it did. Kulikowski looks at the archeological record first, primarily because of the lack of written sources, to try to detect signs of continuity in the urban society of late antique Spain. Starting in the fifth century, literary sources, although sparse, can begin to add to the picture. Kulikowski continues his study of Spain up to the mid-seventh century. Overall, I found Kulikowski’s claims plausible and impressively argued. The book is very well written with excellent endnotes and bibliography. I only wish I had time to write a more comprehensive review right now.
After reading Kulikowski’s book, I began reading Rachel L. Stocking’s Bishops, Councils and Consensus in the Visigothic Kingdom, 589-633 (Ann Arbor, 2000). Stocking starts her book just a few decades before the Visigothic conversion from Arian Christianity to Catholicism in 589. The events in the decade before the conversion, around 580 under king Leovigild, are fascinating. Particularly interesting was the new statement of Arian belief that acknowledged the Son as coeval with the Father (while still rejecting the Spirit as part of the Godhead). Stocking’s primary focus really begins with the famous Third Council of Toledo in 589, and she uses the extant documents of this council to illuminate the social structure of late sixth-century Spain. More on this later.
Although I’m still giving a lot of thought to these topics and trying to form a clear thesis statement, I do have two more classes to take, and those classes (and my day job) will keep me pretty busy for the remainder of the semester. In addition to some shorter works (mostly journal articles or book chapters) and some books not yet acquired, the reading list for my classes includes the following:
- A. T. Fear, Rome and Baetica: Urbanization in Southern Spain c. 50 BC-AD 150. Oxford, 1996.
- J. H. W. G. Liebescheutz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City. Oxford, 2001.
- John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City. Baltimore, 1988.
- Ernst Kantorowicz, Frederick the Second, 1194-1250. New York, 1931.
- David Abulafia, Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor. New York, 1992.
I need to start a new project on Peter de Venea (Piero della Vigna). I’m just getting my bearings for that work.
Don’t worry. I’ve still found time to watch some episodes of Family Guy and Entourage. It’s just blogging that hasn’t been getting much attention lately.
And more important than all of this, my wife and I still have dinner together every night, and we’ll be going to a nice restaurant for our anniversary.
