12 Facts About Spania

Spania was a province of the Eastern Roman Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.

Spania [Theudis] was succeeded by Agila, who holds the kingdom to the present day.

The most important cities of Byzantine Spania were Malaga and Cartagena, the probable landing sites of the Byzantine army, which was renamed from Carthago Nova to Carthago Spartaria.

The Goths easily ravaged the countryside of Spania but were inept at sieges and the fortified towns were safe centres of Roman administration.

Some historians have suspected it of being the first capital of the province of Spania and ascribed the cities of Ecija, Cabra, Guadix, and Granada to the Byzantines on this basis, but there is no positive evidence in the sources of Roman rule in any of these cities.

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Province of Spania was predominantly Latin Christian, while the Byzantine governors were the same, though many were Eastern Christians.

The church of Spania was less independent of the Papacy than the Gothic church, which was composed largely of Hispano-Romans.

Spania came to the defence of the property of two deposed bishops and lorded it over the magister militum Comitiolus, whom he accused of interfering in ecclesiastical affairs.

Spania implicitly accused Licinianus of Cartagena of ordaining ignoramuses to the priesthood, but Licinianus simply replied that to not do so would leave the diocese of the province empty: a sad commentary on the state of clerical education in Spania.

Architectural and artistic style prevalent in Spania was not that of Byzantium proper but rather the Byzantinist styles of northern Africa.

Spania conquered as far as the Mediterranean coast and razed many cities to the ground, enough even to catch the attention of the Frankish chronicler Fredegar:.

In 621, the Byzantines still held a few towns, but Suinthila recovered them shortly and by 624 the entire province of Spania was in Visigothic hands save the Balearic Islands, which were an economic backwater in the 7th century.