David Johnson, a physicist and retired schoolmaster, has lived in the Algarve for the past ten years and has become fascinated with the ancient history of Portugal and Spain, particularly during the Roman Empire and its decline, a period which is very largely ignored by many of us as we jump straight from the Roman period to the Moorish occupation of the peninsula. David Johnson will remind us that at the end of the 4th century the future kingdoms of Spain and Portugal remained largely peaceful and prosperous parts of the Roman Empire, as they had been for more than 450 years. By the year 500, the empire had disintegrated and the Iberian Peninsula was in the hands of barbarians, notably the Visigoths and the Suevi. Using the accounts of contemporary eyewitnesses, this talk will explain how these world-changing events unfolded, and how the Visigoths came in the end to rule the whole of Iberia. David Johnson will illustrate his lecture with his own photographs of buildings and artefacts surviving from the Visigothic era.
Drinks will be served at the beginning of the evening and the talk will be followed by a group dinner.
The price for the whole evening is €30 per person and members who do not have the original enrolment form to hand are requested to contact info@bhsportugal.org not later than 19th January.