Sabine Panzram is Professor of Ancient History at Hamburg University (Germany). She focuses on social history of power in the Western Mediterranean, and in particular on urban history in the Iberian Peninsula. Currently she is preparing a study on Christendom without the Church: The Genesis of an Institution in the Dioecesis Hispaniarum (4th to 7th centuries). Paulo Pachá is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). He works on the history of the Visigothic kingdom and the development of its political structure and power relationships.