Introduction

This chapter explores Narbonne and its territory from subsequent competing national narratives of France and Spain, by presenting it as a distinct geopolitical region. Frequently ignored, it took shape from the late fifth century, evolving into the eighth century as an autonomous province of the nascent Carolingian Empire. Details, textual and epigraphical, are scanty for Narbonne, but what is generally known about the evolution of Roman civitates can be applied to the city. Even if the early beginnings of Narbonne as a pre-Roman Celtic settlement are important, the city acquires its pedigree, from the foundation of a Roman colony. Looking back from the late medieval period, the period of control by the Visigoths at any rate their time of influence causes the city to be absent from French national history. Discourses of literary criticism suggested by Curtius and Northrop Frye lie behind aspects discussed in the ensuing study of Narbonne, mapped around a series of textual commentaries.