In 673, the recently elected King Wamba of Spain was confronted with a
separatist rebellion in Visigothic Gaul and other territories in the
northeast of his realm. After recapturing Barcelona and Gerona, the
ruler crossed the Pyrenees at the head of his armies and, taking one
fortress after another, followed the retreating rebel forces to the
final bastion of Nimes. From there Wamba led them back to Toledo as
captives in a triumphal procession. Soon thereafter, Julian, a young
priest at the court of Toledo, wrote his Historia Wambae regis, an
account of Wamba's accession to the throne and his victory in the first
campaign under his command. Julian's work is one of few political
narratives of the early middle ages. The author found himself at the
beginning of a career that would raise him to the apex of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy as bishop of Toledo, but that would also see
him involved, suspiciously, in the deposition of Wamba that same year.
The Story of Wamba offers the first complete English translation of
Julian's work. The text is fully annotated and preceded by a thorough
introduction to its historical and literary backgrounds. The historical
study focuses mainly on the tension between royal and aristocratic power
during the reigns of Wamba and his two predecessors, Chindasvind and
Reccesvind. The position of the church, caught in these secular
conflicts, is analyzed in detail as is the plight of Julian, the son of
converted Jews, as he took his first steps at court and in the
Visigothic church. The literary study focuses on the political
vocabulary of the text, the ideological messages implicit in its various
sources and models, and its unique combination of classical, late
antique, and medieval elements.
Joaquín Martínez Pizarro, professor of English at the State University
of New York at Stony Brook, is author of Writing Ravenna: The Liber
Pontificalis of Andreas Agnellus and A Rhetoric of the Scene: Dramatic
Narrative in the Early Middle Ages.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
Selected as AN OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE FOR 2007 by Choice Magazine
(Amreican Library Association)
"Joaquín Martínez Pizarro's excellent translation of Julian's Historia
Wambae regis makes easily available a very important group of narrative
texts for the history of Spain in the later seventh century. The
translation, itself, will be of great value as a text reading for
courses in medieval history and Spanish history. Pizarro's learned
discussion of the history and literary context of the Historia will be
of considerable value to scholars as well as students."--Bernard S.
Bachrach, The University of Minnesota
"With this book, Pizarro establishes the importance of late Latin
panegyric as a major source for this historiographic monument. Besides a
very thorough historical setting, Pizarro also provides an excellent
introduction that summarizes and weaves together the major issues of
Visigothic Spanish intellectual history."--Jeremy duQuesnay Adams,
Southern Methodist University
"With equal skill in literary and historical approaches, Pizarro has
mined precious metal from a Visigothic historical monument that now gets
the attention it deserves."--Walter Goffart, Yale University
"The Historia Wambae is unique, both as literature and as a source for
the history of Visigothic Spain in the seventh century. To have it in
this elegant and accurate translation is marvelous. The notes can stand
in for the full-scale commentary that the Latin still requires, and the
introduction reaches far beyond the Historia to tackle major problems of
seventh-century literary history."--Michael Kulikowski, University of
Tennessee
"Pizarro has made a significant contribution to the field of Visigothic
history and culture. The combination of a translation and a detailed
study full of descriptive notes wil
