When the Western Roman Empire finally fell, the Visigoth kingdom became independent in 476 AD. This enormous kingdom stretched all the way from the river Loire in Gaul to the Straits of Gibraltar, and was governed from its capital in Tolosa (Toulouse). In the second period (476-507) the Visigoths founded a federal kingdom which was part of the Roman Empire. The Suebi in the north-east of the peninsula were the only ones who succeeded in holding out against the military onslaught of the Visigoths. By the middle of the 5th century the Visigoths had taken control of the peninsula, having defeated the Vandals and the Alani, who fled to northern Africa in search of refuge and new lands. In response, the authorities in Rome put their Visigoth allies in charge of recovering military control over Hispania, in return for the promise of economic and territorial concessions. In 425 the Vandals made a military raid on the Carthaginensis province, pillaging the city of Carthago Nova, now Cartagena. The tribe of the Suebi settled in the province of Gallaecia, (see intro) while the Alani took over in Lusitania and Carthaginensis, and the Vandals in the Bética province. As Rome became weaker, Germanic tribes from northern Europe invaded Spain and the Balearic Isles in the early 5th century. The history of Hispania (Spain) under the Visigoths can be divided into three periods: the first of which lasts from 418 to 476 AD. Initially, the Romans saw the goths as a fertile recruitment ground for their own armies, and used them to fight the tribes of Vandals, Alans and Suevi who had invaded Roman Spanish territories, giving them land on which to settle in France, but eventually the Goths took over Spain and established the Visigothic kingdom Hispania, with its capital at Toulouse. Initially a migratory population, the Visigoths were known by the Romans as the Wesi, or Wisi, a gothic word for good, the word visigoth a name invented to define the Wesi as "western goths" as opposed to the Ostrogoths, or eastern goths. In the briefest fashion possible, the Goths were Germanic tribes, mentioned for the first time just before the end of the 3rd century. Its a period of time which is quite difficult to grasp, unfamiliar names combining with the lack of what we can identify today in terms of a modern territory or kingdom, the Visigoths being a race which combined many influences and origins, and a nation which doesn´t survive in our modern world as a recognisable entity. There is little physical evidence of the Visigoths in Murcia, Begastri being a site of great importance as much of what has been uncovered to date relates to the Visigoth era of occupation. There is a general tendency to associate the Germanic tribes with fire and fighting, and the Spanish-Visigoth period as a dark age of continual economic and social crisis due to the constant power struggles between the nobles and tribes, or clans. The important buildings within the town were dismantled and the stone used to construct defensive walls, surrounding the town with a thick impenetrable wall. Gone were the days of safety, and the townspeople began to fortify the town for the dark days ahead. Throughout the 3rd, 4th and into the 5th centuries, Germanic and Franco tribes began to cause problems for the Roman empire, and life became more dangerous for residents in Begastri as news reached the town that barbarian raiding parties were sweeping down through Europe, and the vandals across from Africa. The Moors in Begastri, Click Moors in Begastriīy the beginning of the third century Rome had expanded its empire to such a degree that it struggled to retain control of its vast holdings and entered a time of instability, an era which became known as the crisis of the third century, with 25 different emperors ruling between 235 and 284 AD.īetween 284 and 305 the Emperor Diocletian regained control and broke the Empire into two, creating the Eastern ( commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire, although its inhabitants saw themselves as Roman citizens, calling themselves Romania, Basileia Romaion or Pragmata Romaion, meaning "Land of the Romans" or "Kingdom of the Romans" ) and Western Roman Empires, sub dividing the Spanish peninsula into five provinces during 293 AD these were Gallaecia (capital city “Lucus”, or Lugo), Tarraconensis (capital city “Tarraco” or Tarragona), Lusitania (capital city “Emérita Augusta” or Mérida), Bética (capital city “Híspalis” or Sevilla) and Cartaginensis (capital city “Carthago Nova” or Cartagena). The Romans in Begastri, Click Romans in Begastri The Iberians in Begastri, Click Iberians in Begastri Introduction to Begastri, Click Begastri Cehegin
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