Gallaeciense Regnum

ABSTRACT

GALLAECIA GOTHICA: FROM CONSPIRACY OF DUX ARGIMUNDUS (589/590 AD) TO INTEGRATION IN THE VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM OF TOLEDO.
The rebellion of the dux Argimundus was one of the most delicate moments of the reign of Reccared. We have no precise details of how the plot unfolded but certainly the throne was seriously threatened: the John of Biclaro’s Chronicle underline the seriousness of this threat expounding on punishment suffered by the rebel and his accomplices. All this topped with a lapidary phrase with John of Biclaro closes its chronic (et docuit famulos dominis non esse superbos). This categorical condemnation of the attempted overthrow King is unmatched by any other uprisings narrated throughout the pages of his chronicle. It gives us an idea of transcendence that John of Biclaro gave it in his story. The fact that the Biclarensis mentions that Argimundus was not only a member of the Aula Regia but also dux prouinciae, the name of the rebel, the Gallaecia situation and the circumstance of being a newly conquered province, and last, the parallel with the revolt of the Duke Paulus regarding modus operandi and subsequent punishment, are arguments that incline us to think that of dux Argimundus complot was not just a palace conspiracy, but a genuine revolt of the province of Gallaecia that could have ruined the political work built by Leovigild and Reccared. This interpretation confirms an old hypothesis defended decades ago by the Portuguese historian A. M. de Faria, who, based on the study of numismatics Reccared’s reign, suggested that this attempt of usurpation would have taken place in Gallaecia.
However, due to the inaccuracy of our source, it is difficult to prove what the ultimate goal of the dux Argimundus was: if Reccared overthrow the Visigothic throne or, conversely, to restore the old Suebian kingdom in Gallaecia. Some indications seem to suggest rather the latter. First, the province had recently conquered thanks in part to a clash between two factions of the Suebic nobility, and the rebel could belong one of them. Secondly, there is the deafening silence of Biclarensis on the development of the facts, silence that contrasts with the details that contributes to other similar events. And finally, we are inclined to believe in this option the way the rebels were punished, with a final ride on the back of a donkey through the streets of Toledo, in a kind of mock triumph or parody ceremony investiture, which certainly seems more akin to a military triumph than a palace conspiracy. These, in general, were solved with a series of summary trials and subsequent execution of the sentence, as we have seen in the case of conspiracies of Segga in Merida and Uldila in Toledo. In this regard, significantly, in our opinion, the punishment inflicted Argimundus is virtually identical to suffer years after dux Paulus after his unsuccessful revolt in Septimania. Through the study of Onomastic, we propose in this paper the hypothesis of a Suebian origin of dux Argimundus and his possible relationship to the Suebian royal dynasty as well as the possibility that the news transmitted by John of Biclaro hide actually an attempt to restore the Suebian kingdom of Gallaecia.
In our own point of view, the importance of the rebellion of dux Argimundus is mainly to be seen as the beginning of a phenomenon that marks the future of Gallaecia in Visigothic times: the militarization of the Duchy. An analysis of the various literary and archaeological sources that we have been doing confirms the idea that the incorporation of old Suebian kingdom to the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo not has been as peaceful and complete as described in unison the chronicles of the time. On the contrary it seems clear that it was a long and gradual process, alternating with difficulties and successes, which resulted in a significant military presence in the area. In relation with this matter, we also discussed here geography Leovigild’s military campaigns in the Northwest aimed at the conquest of the Suebian kingdom of Gallaecia and location of the territory inhabited by the Ruccones and the Aregenses mountains, whose location is today discussed. We propose here that the Ruccones of the Visigothic literary sources will be identified with old Luggones, an ethnic group related to the ancient Astures, who should inhabit the current region of Bierzo (province of León). And we also propose that the Aregenses mountains will be located in Cabrera’s montains, around the river Eria valley, in the border between de current provinces of León and Zamora.
Definitely Visigothic conquest prompted the province to acquire a strong military character, which would explain the emergence of a strong Suebian-Gothic aristocracy eventually get done with the reins of power and held power in Toledo during second half of 7th Century. In a certain sense, it can be assumed to Gallaecia a situation not unlike of Septimania, but in this case its closeness of Merovingian and Burgundian realms provokes a greater risk and greater chance of success on holdup, hence the need to place in front of Duchy nobles with blood ties with the ruling dynasty.
Anyway, and similar to the Narbonensis case, it seems that Gallaecia was considered a foreign body within the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo. As underlined by one author is highly significant that chronic of Alfonso III of Oviedo mentions the kingdom of the Suebi a century and a half after its conquest. The literary sources, in fact, suggest the existence of a certain feeling of uniqueness in Visigothic Gallaecia that would have kept alive well into the Middle Ages. The heavy militarization of the territory and the enormous power accumulated by his aristocratic circle will make up an important faction within the Visigothic nobility. As mentioned, unlike Narbonensis, geographic isolation of Gallaecia and the impossibility of having foreign allies difficult here any attempt of usurpation, but instead it served to tie important kinship between the Suebian nobility and Gothic one. This should further strengthen the personality of the territory and give it some political content that will hatch in the Middle Ages. In any case, the situation experienced by Gallaecia and Narbonensis during the Visigoth period will have a certain parallel with the events that followed the Arab conquest at 711 with a Kingdom of Asturias isolated and left to their fate and some counties of Septimania and Northern Tarraconensis willing to agree with the Franks. In this sense, if the Galician origin of kings who occupied the throne Toledo in the second half of the seventh Century will confirmed, the mechanisms that led to the emergence of a core of political and military domination of Islamic resistance in the Northwestern area of the Iberian Peninsula would better understand.