Abstract
This collective volume reflects on the motivations underpinning the writing of history in Late Antique Iberia, emphasising its theoretical and practical aspects and outlining the social, political, and ideological implications of the constructions and narrations of the past. The writing of History in Late Antique Iberia was penned by ecclesiastics, most of them bishops, linked to the privileged sectors of society and intimately connected to groups of episcopal, monastic and political power, who were also the main recipients of their writings. Their vision of History became one of the main propagandistic agents of the ideology of the elites in the final centuries of the Roman Empire and in the nascent barbarian kingdoms, especially in the Visigothic Catholic Kingdom of Toledo.
Keywords: Historiography, Late Antique Iberia, Historian, Church, History Writing
In antiquity, there was no such figure as the professional academic historian as we understand it today. Transmission of and reflection on past or present was conceived of as a service to the state, society, God, or the Church. It was done by persons belonging to the elite, who utilised History as a source of social power. The writing of History in Late Antique Iberia was penned by ecclesiastics such as Hydatius of Lemica, John of Biclaro, Isidore of Seville or Julian of Toledo, among others; most of them bishops, linked to the privileged sectors of society and intimately connected to groups of episcopal, monastic, and political power, who were also the main recipients of their writings. According to their vision, God was the rerum actor of historical events. In line with this perception, the rerum gestarum scriptor became a passive figure, a mere transmitter of the divine incidence in human history. A careful examination of the historical works by ecclesiastics shows us, however, that the Christian rerum gestarum scriptor was not an impartial or passive emissary of the events of the past. On the contrary, his presentation and reflection on that past, which, on many occasions, was about his own present, was active and committed and obeyed particular political and ideological motivations and interests.