Les Juifs et la cité. Pour une clarification du statut personnel des juifs de l’Antiquité tardive à la fin du royaume de Tolède (iv^e-vii^e siècles)

The evolution of the personal status of Jews in the post-classical Roman and Visigothic law should be read within the scope of the general history of the juridical situation of persons at the same period. From the 4^th to the 6^th century, Jews were Roman citizens benefiting from the essential aspects of civil legal capacity; their status presenting no juridical originality contrary to what has often been stated. The fact by which a certain number of Jews, in certain places, at certain times, have received privileges, leads in no way to signify they were given a singular status, a notion resulting from a misunderstanding of the proper definition of privilege. It is only at the very end of the 7^th century in the Visigothic world that Jews will lose their ingenui status by a measure that will abase them to slavery. This event, unprecedented in the history of Jews in the Western world, was brought forth in a context in which the status of freemen was becoming fragile throughout society.