THE SEVENTH-CENTURY KINGDOM 103despatched to the local official in charge of the lands belonging to
the royal fisc.^25 Unfortunately no complete charter survives from the
Visigothic period, but in view of such references as this, and the need
for some antecedents to the later procedures that can be documented,
it is not unreasonable to suspect their existence.^26
One story in the Lives of the Fathers of Merida provides a unique
insight into the obligations of social status in Visigothic Spain. It is
clear, from such evidence as laws which lay down different penalties
for offenders of higher and lower social class, that society was strati-
fied. Emphases on lineage and prerogatives may also suggest that
distinctions of class were fairly rigid. There is no evidence of social
mobility and the upper levels of society were clearly expected to dis-
play a magnificence and probably a munificence that not only re-
flected their own status but also shed lustre upon their dependants
and clients.
The story in question shows what could happen when such con-
ventions, which imposed restrictions on the behaviour of all levels of
society, were flouted. The Mrican hermit Nanctus, invested with royal
estates in the vicinity of Merida by Leovigild, preserved his original
unkempt appearance and pastured his own sheep. His new slaves,
those tied to the estates, were so horrified that they murdered him,
proclaiming that it was better for them to die than to have to serve
such a master. Of course, they all came to a bad end, which for the
author was the point of the story, but it does also provide us with a
brief glimpse of social attitudes and expectations in Visigothic Spain,
to lay alongside less personal and immediate impressions to be gleaned
from the laws.^27
The conclusions to be drawn from studying Merida in the Visigothic
period, slight and partial as they may be, suggest that we are looking
at a city that had changed surprisingly little from its Late Roman past.
Buildings remained and new ones were erected within a tradition
recognisably linked with earlier centuries. The commercial impor-
tance of the city, as in Roman times, was still considerable, as may be
seen from the distribution of its artistic products over a wide area of
south-western Spain. Its coinage was plentiful throughout the later
sixth and seventh centuries and examples of it have come to light in
most parts of the peninsula.^28 In the sixth century at least, merchants
could visit it from as far away as the eastern Mediterranean, and
Greek doctors and Mrican hermits could take up residence there.
Such openness to the wider world must have continued into the