Paterno traens linea Getarum. Literary influence of lineage on aristocratic definition in Visigothic Spain (6th-7th centuries)

Abstract

The concept of nobility or aristocracy in Visigothic Spain is a very complex and nuanced one, as it is in any post-Roman kingdom, furthermore it has undergone long and intense debates. What makes an aristocrat in the regnum Gothorum? The answer is, at best, ambiguous, as they can be defined in different ways. This paper explores the extent in which lineage was an established means of ensuring one’s status as noble in literary texts from Visigothic Spain. Rather than being a poetic choice of some provincial aristocrats, high birth claims were a well-established custom in literary sources, and they influenced social and legal structures on some occasions.