Quod VI agat feminam. Husband's authority and domestic violence in the normative and the patristic discourse of hispania in late antiquity

Abstract

On the methodological background of the studies about domestc violence and wife beatng in Late Antquity this work analyses thoroughly the secular and religious legislatve texts and the Christan patristc discourse produced in Hispania in this period (Vth to VIIth centuries) to explore the bounds between the concepts of marriage and husband's authority as they are reflected in these sources and the possibility of a legitmized practse of a direct violent against married women by their husbands in the Spanish society in Late Antquity. Lastly this study has the aim of contributng to place the Spanish society in the context of the common socio-cultural constructons of the Latn Occident related to the historical topic of the violence against women in Late Antquity.