THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS

At the beginning of the fifth century AD, Hispano-Roman life in Lusitania and Gallaecia had been undisturbed by outside intruders for four centuries. It is true that in the late third century, Frankish raiding parties had come uncomfortably close to the two provinces and had plundered nearby Tarraconensis (AD 270–5). Lusitania and Gallaecia had shared in the widespread disruption of those times and had been prompted to fortify some of their unwalled towns. Nevertheless, when the fifth century began, neither province had ever been the target of a serious barbarian attack.

This was now all about to change. In the autumn of AD 409, a loose confederation of Vandals, Suevi and Alans broke through the Pyrenean passes from Gaul into Hispania virtually unopposed. Three years earlier, these barbarian peoples had breached the Rhine frontier, then wrought systematic havoc in Gaul. They were now seeking fresh territory to pillage, and an intact and prosperous Hispania seemed ripe for the picking. No detailed account of what followed in the critical period between late 409 and 411 has ever been found; but Hydatius and Orosius, fifth-century Gallaecian chroniclers, provide the broad outline. The intruders apparently crossed and re-crossed the two provinces plundering, killing and destroying as they went. Many communities lying in their path sought safety in the nearest walled city or even retreated to one of the ancient castros. Plague, famine and the oppressive demands of tax collectors, more insistent than ever in such troubled times, compounded the misery.