12 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINnot a perspective that fifth-century men would have understood nor
is it necessarily a true one.
A moralising sense of decline had been a feature of certain strands
of Graeco-Roman intellectual life for over five centuries, and was
reinforced by recent tendencies in Christian thought.^3 Neither tradi-
tion had any close correspondence with the realities of material de-
cline. In fact, they were at their most strident in periods of prosperity,
which threatened to undermine the pursuit of other than hedonistic
values. A safer guide than Salvi an to the realities of life in the fifth
century may be found in the Gallic senator, and later bishop, Sidonius
Apollinaris (d. c. 480), who has left us some impression of his public
feelings on passing from under the administration of the emperor to
that of the Visigothic king. But, for all of his regrets, he proved able
to collaborate with new masters, and he and his descendants pre-
served much of their local influence and lifestyle.^4 There is no com-
parable evidence from Spain to put alongside the letters and poems
of Sidonius, but what can be made out of reactions in the peninsula
suggests that attitudes were not dissimilar. The local aristocracies of
towns and provinces, who are the only stratum of society of whom we
are given a real glimpse, proved capable of co-operating effectively
with the regimes of the Germanic kings, and moulding them more
closely along Roman and Christian lines.
This may have been partly due to the almost casual nature of the
way in which certain events occurred that were to be of the greatest
long-term significance. Those units of the Roman army that were still
in Britain were removed in 407 to Gaul to take part in the brief bid
for power of a usurper whom they themselves had created. After his
fall, they were not returned and thus the Empire in practice aban-
doned any responsibility for the protection of its British provinces,
which soon had to turn, with fatal consequences, to the employing of
Saxon mercenaries. Likewise, the garrisons in Africa were led into
Italy in 430 by their commander in an attempt, that proved fatal to
himself, to seize dictatorial power in the heart of the Empire. These
troops were not replaced either, and in 442 the imperial government
had to recognise the authority over their North African provinces of
the Vandals, already established de facto for a decade. The fate of
Spain, as will be shown, was similar.
The removal of troops answerable to the imperial regime in Raven-
na and their replacement under a series of voluntary or forced agree-
ments, by the armed followers of Germanic tribal leaders meant that