BIBLIOGRAPHIES 267
reading for any serious study of this period; both for its discussion of all of the major
Latin sources and for its author's trenchant views and wit.- POLITICAL AND LEGAL HISTORY
(a) The Later Roman Empire and the Fifth Century
For the complex events of the period c. 406 to 425, that market the end of Roman rule
over most of the Iberian peninsula, the fragments of the history of Olympiodorus can
be found translated in R.C. Blockley (ed.), The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the
Later Roman Empire vol. II (Liverpool, 1983). For Zosimus, the sixth-century pagan
historian whose work, despite its uneven quality, is a major source for events of the
period up to 411, the best text is that edited by F. Paschoud (see B2(a». For an English
translation see J.J. Buchanan and H.T. Davis, Zosimus, Historia Nova (San Antonio, Texas,
1967). The most important source for events in Spain later in the fifth century, the
chronicle written c. 469 by Bishop Hydatius, is available in both a critical Latin text and
English translation in R.W. Burgess (ed.), The 'Chronicle' of Hydatius and the 'Consularia
Constantinopolitana' (Oxford, 1993), which also has a study of the work by the editor.
This can be usefully supplemented by the relevant section of S. Muhlberger, The Fifth-
Century Chroniclers: Prosper, Hydatius and the Gallic Chronicler of 452 (Liverpool, 1990), pp.
193-312. Late Roman law and its adaptation and abridgement under the Visigothic
king Alaric II in 506 can be found in C. Pharr (tr.), The Theodosian Code (New York, 1969).
For the establishment of Roman rule in Spain and an account of Hispano-Roman
society up to the fourth century A.D. see L.A. Curchin, Roman Spain: Conquest and
Assimilation (London, 1991). SJ. Keay, Roman Spain (London, 1988) provides a useful
account of recent archaeological work, and an overview of social and cultural develop-
ments up to the fifth century, as well as a listing of sites that may be visited. The articles
of E.A. Thompson on the end of Roman Spain and on the Suevic kingdom have been
collected in his Romans and Barbarians: the Decline of the Western Empire (Wisconsin, 1982).
This also includes some of the author's consideration of aspects of earlier Visigothic
history. On which see also his The Visigoths in the Age of Ulfila (Oxford, 1966). A chal-
lenging reinterpretation of the processes of establishing the Visigoths in Gaul appears
as part of W. Goffart, Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 418-584: the Techniques of Accomm<>-
dation (Princeton, 1980), especially ch. IV, but the argument of the book needs to be
seen as a whole.
(b) The Visigothic Period
E.A. Thompson's The Goths in Spain (Oxford, 1969) was the first major treatment of the
history of Visigothic Spain in English. It did not take much account of contemporary
Spanish scholarship on the period, and was criticised in consequence. Nor are many of
its principal theses accepted here. However, it remains an important source of informa-
tion and argument. The growth in interest outside of the Iberian peninsula in early
medieval Spanish history has led to the appearance of several of the main sources in
English translation. The chronicle of John of Biclar, which covers the years 567 to 590,
is one of the items included in K.B. Wolf (tr.), Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval
Spain (Liverpool, 1990), which also offers a good translation of Isidore of Seville's
History of the Goths, which will now be more accessible than that of G. Donini and G.B.
Ford (tr.), Isidore of Seville's History of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi (Leiden, 1970). There
is also a useful introduction given to each of the texts. For interpretations of the events
is Spain leading to the conversion to Catholicism of king Reccared and his Gothic
subjects in 587-89, including the rebellion of Hermenegild, see J.N. Hillgarth, 'Coins
and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth Century Spain', Historia, 16 (1966), pp. 482-508
and R. Collins, 'Merida and Toledo, 550-585' in V.S., pp. 189-219. This latter now
needs to be seen in the light of the same author's contribution to the volume of papers