Rebellion and Political Authority in the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo (507-711 CE): Tyrants, Invaders, Sinners, and the Quest for Order

In his Academy project, Fernández undertakes a reassessment of how historians and modern political theorists have approached the question of government during the transitions from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The dominant narrative presumes the Christianization of political discourse and ideas of rulership. By refocusing on the ruler’s antithetical figure, the rebel, Fernández challenges the paradigm of straightforward Christianization and instead argues that order (understood broadly to include political, military, social, and cosmic dimensions) informed ideals of late antique kingship. “Order-granting is neither a typically classical nor a Christian conception of authority, but an aspiration rooted in the realities of the rather autocratic late-Roman emperorship and the emerging post-imperial kingship,” Fernández writes. The Visigothic kingdom of Toledo (507-711) provides a relative wealth of sources on rebels, largely due to the inability of ruling kings to secure a stable succession. Intellectuals and political elites of the time puzzled over different notions of rebel-hood based on three topoi: the rebel as illegitimate tyrant, the rebel as foreign invader, and the rebel as Christian sinner – ideas that evolved in tandem with the vicissitudes of the Visigothic monarchy. While Christianity did inform the late antique political discourse, it was one among several traditions deployed to define and enact political authority. In Berlin, an important center for the study of late Antiquity, Fernández will consult with colleagues on understanding the ancient roots of order-granting political authority in modern political thought.