90 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINas well as to the influence of contemporary Byzantium. As with the
mosaic workshops, there may have been more continuity in the stone-
masons' yards than can now be appreciated.
Recent excavation has shown that the urban centre of Merida did
remain in use in the Visigothic period and that, unlike some of the
former towns of Roman Britain, it did not become a deserted or semi-
rustic area. The principal change lay in the way Christian buildings
replaced the former secular public ones in the city centre. Traces of
what appears to be a substantial civic basilica, now obscurely described
as a triumphal arch, survive beside the site of the early Roman forum.
Adjacent to this structure were erected the Church of St Mary, the
Baptistery of St John and the bishop's palace. At least one other
church was built across on the other side of the forum in the sixth
century. It is interesting to note that as well as the probable former
secular basilica, a pagan temple survived more or less physically intact
in the same area until the sixteenth century, when it was incorpor-
ated into the structure of an aristocratic mansion. A similar survival
of the shell of a pagan temple may be found in the Portuguese town
of Evora. It would be of interest to know to what use, if any, such
buildings were put during the Christian centuries of the Visigothic
period and after.
During the episcopates of Paul, Fidelis and Masona, whose deeds
are described in the Lives of the Fathers of Merida, the city underwent
yet another period of substantial building activity and public work.
Unfortunately the chronology of these three bishops is imprecise.
The author gives no indication beyond putting some at least of the
episcopate of Masona in the reign of Leovigild (569-586), and the
absence of conciliar acts from Lusitania in the sixth century rules out
any chance of precision in respect of his two predecessors. Indeed,
with very few exceptions, it is only the survival of episcopal signatures
appended to the rulings of councils that has enabled historians from
the time of Fr Enrique Florez in the mid eighteenth century onwards,
to draw up their far from complete and roughly-dated lists of the
incumbents of the Visigothic sees and their successors after 71l."
Masona of Merida was the first signatory and therefore probably the
senior metropolitan at III Toledo in 589. He must have presided. The
third senior in the list was Leander of Seville, who probably held his
see by 579, the year of Hermenigild's revolt. Previous to the achieve-
ment by the Metropolitan of Toledo of automatic priority over his
fellows in the later seventh century, it is believed that seniority in