ABSTRACT
One of the main political distinguishing features of the Visigothic Kingdom is that during the period of state formation (roughly 560–630 CE), the monarchy invested its resources into founding new cities, expanding existing settlements, and promoting secondary towns to city status. While this underlines the urban nature of the central administration and the importance of the ideal of civic life in the post-Roman centuries, the practicalities of building a new city and the experience of settling in a newly established site are two topics which have largely passed unnoticed in the academic discussions about urban life in Visigothic Hispania. This chapter will analyse from the information available in the sources, the archaeological record, and anthropological comparanda the nature of these new cities, understanding them in the Isidorian dual sense of civitas (city-community) and urbs (city-space).
