428-580]

Leovigild. The Sueves

165

the Spanish part, keeping for himself the territory in Gaul. It has been observed that John of Biclar, a chronicler of the latter part of the sixth century, states that Leovigild obtained Hispania Citerior. This phrase seems to confirm what has been said before, that from the beginning of the reign of Athanagild, Hispania Ulterior, or the greater part of the districts which belonged to it, was either in the hands of the Byzantines or, at any rate, was not loyal to the Visigoths. This evidence, viewed in connexion with the results of Leovigild's campaigns, shews that several districts of north-western Spain, such as Oviedo, Leon, Palencia, Zamora, Ciudad Rodrigo, etc., were independent, under petty princes or rulers, the majority of whom belonged to the Spanish-Roman nobility: it also shews that the district of Vasconia could only nominally be considered as belonging to the Visigothic kingdom.

To remedy this, Leovigild adopted as a guiding principle the ideal of hegemony in the Peninsula. He began by surrounding himself with all the external pomp which adds so much to the prestige of a sovereign; he adopted the ceremonial of the Emperors and celebrated his proclamation in Toledo by striking gold medals, bearing an effigy of himself in regal vestments. But he did this with a view to his relations towards his subjects, and took care not to arouse the jealousy of the Empire: on the contrary, he made use of it to further his own designs. He revived the former connexion between the Visigothic kings and the Emperors, by communicating to Justin II the news of his election as king, and by acknowledging his authority he made a truce with the Byzantine army in the Peninsula, and persuaded it to join with him in opposing the advance of the Sueves.

We hear very little of the Sueves. Since the year 428, when they had been delivered from their barbarous enemies, the Vandals, they had been trying to obtain possession of the territories formerly occupied by the latter, which extended towards the south-east and south-west of the Peninsula. This attempt at territorial expansion gave rise to constant wars, usually between the Sueves and the Romans, sometimes between the Sueves and the Visigoths, though in some cases the two barbarian powers united. (Thus Theodoric I allied with Rechiarius the Sueve against the Romans, and in 460, Theodoric II with Remismund against Frumar, another petty king of the Sueves.) The consequence of this last alliance was that the Sueves, who were partly Catholics and partly Pagans, were converted to Arianism. In 465, Remismund, with the help of the Visigoths, took possession of Coimbra, and shortly afterwards of Lisbon and Anona. But in 466 Euric put an end to these friendly relations, and in a terrible war, to the horrors of which Idatius refers, he forced the Sueves to fall back on their ancient possessions in the north-west. There is a considerable gap in the history of the Sueves, from 468-in which year the chronicle of Idatius comes to an end, until 550 when Carrarich appears as king.

166

Campaigns of Leovigild against the Sueves [559-573

In the reign of Carrarich, or in that of Theodomir who succeeded him (559-570), this people was converted to Catholicism, through the influence of Martin, bishop of Braga (St Martin). During this same period, the Sueves had again extended their eastern and southern boundaries to the Navia in the province of Asturias, to the Orbigo and the Esla in Leon, to the Douro in the country of the Vettones, to the Coa, and the Eljas where they join the Tagus, in the direction of Estremadura (west of Alcántara), and in Lusitania to the Atlantic, by way of Abrantes, Leiria, and Parades.

In 569 Leovigild began his campaign against the Sueves and the independent districts in the north-west. He very quickly took possession of Zamora, Palencia, and Leon, but Astorga resisted bravely. Nevertheless, the victories which he had gained sufficed to justify him in striking a new medal in commemoration of them. On this medal Leovigild stamped the bust of the Emperor Justin and applied to himself the adjective clarissimus. In 570 we see Leovigild, forgetful of his protestations of submission, attacking the district called Bastania Malagneña (the ancient Bastetania, which extended from Tarifa to Agra) where he defeated the imperial forces. Continuing the war in 571 and 572, he took Medina Sidonia (Asidona) and Cordova with their adjacent territories. These victories moved the Sueves, at that time ruled by King Mir or Miron, who in 570 had succeeded Theodomir and who possibly bore the same name, to make war in their turn. They therefore invaded the country round Plasencia and Coria, Las Hurdes and Batuecas - that is, the valleys of the Jerte, Alagors, and Arrago—and afterwards the territory of the Riccones.1

In 573, whilst Leovigild was preparing to check the advance of the Sueves, he received the news of the death of his brother Liuwa, which left him king of all the Visigothic dominion. Immediately he made his two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, dukes of Narbonne and Toledo, although it is not certain which of the two duchies was given to which. He thus reassured himself in this direction, and, when he had secured the capital, he set forth on a new campaign in which he conquered the district of Sabaria, i.e. according to the best geographers, the valley of the Sabor, the province of Braganza, and Torre de Moncorvo, which bordered on the Suevic frontier.

These expeditions were interrupted by internal troubles for which the nobles were responsible. From the political point of view the fundamental fact on which all the history of the Visigoths turns, is the opposition between the nobles and the kings. Of these, the nobles were continually struggling to maintain their predominance, and the right to bestow the crown on any one of their members, while the kings were

1 According to Fernandez Guerra the Riccones occupied the places now known as Jaraicejo, Trujillo, Logrosán, and La Conquista, although other historians believe that their territory was nearer to Cantabria and Vasconia.

574-578]

continually endeavouring to suppress all possible rivals, and to make the succession to the throne hereditary or at any rate dynastic. Gregory of Tours states that the kings were in the habit of killing all the males who were in a position to compete with them for the crown; and the frequent confiscation of the property of the nobles to which the laws of the period refer, shews clearly the means to which the kings had recourse in the struggle. Whether Leovigild exceeded his power by dividing the kingdom between his two sons (and this is the view taken by Gregory of Tours); or whether he tried in general to lessen the authority of the nobles and perhaps not only that of the Visigothic nobility, but also of the Spanish-Romans-the result was that the nobles stirred up several insurrections; first amongst the Cantabri, secondly amongst the people of Cordova and the Asturians, and thirdly, in Toledo and Evora, at a time when the Sueves and Byzantines were planning attacks. Leovigild, undismayed by these manifold dangers, attended to everything and, by dint of good luck, with the help of Recared, he succeeded in subduing the rebels. He took Ammaia (Amaya), the capital of the Cantabri; he obtained possession of Saldania (Saldaña), the stronghold of the Asturians; he quelled the insurgents in Toledo and Evora (Aebura Carpetana) and in every case he sealed his victories with terrible punishments (574).

When he had suppressed these preliminary internal rebellions Leovigild proceeded to conquer various independent territories in the provinces of Galicia and Andalusia. The former consisted of that mountainous district known as Aregenses, situated in what is now the province of Orense, and of which a certain Aspidius was king. The Andalusians possessed the whole of the tract of country round the Orospeda mountains, from the hill of Molaton in the east of the present province of Albacete, to the Sierra Nevada, passing through the provinces of Murcia, Almeria, and Granada, that is to say, the lands of the Deiittani, Bastetani, and Oretani. In both parts of the country Leovigild was successful, but his victories, and especially those in the Orospeda mountains, which bordered on the Byzantine dominion, naturally excited the jealousy of the imperial governors. In order to check the progress of Leovigild, now threatening them at such close quarters, they stirred up fresh strife in the interior of the kingdom, instigating rebellions in the province of Narbonne, on the coasts of Catalonia and Valencia, and in the central region of the Ebro. Leovigild, assisted by his son Recared, also succeeded in suppressing these insurrections; he made triumphant entries into Narbonne, Saragossa, Loja, Rosas, Tarragona, and Valencia, and punished the rebels with the utmost severity. These campaigns, and the preceding ones in Galicia and Andalusia, lasted from 575 to 578. A notable incident in them which, although it had no connexion with the action of Leovigild, yet to some extent favoured his design-was the attack made by the Byzantine general Romanus, son

168

Religious Disunion

[578-580

of the patrician Anagartus, on part of Lusitania, in the direction of Coimbra and the valley of the Munda (i.e. the Mondego), which at that time was governed by a Suevic duke, who bore the title of king. Romanus seized this individual, his family and his treasure, and annexed the district to the Empire. Leovigild took advantage of this reverse to attack the Suevic frontier in the direction of Galicia, and the Suevic king Mir or Miron was obliged to sue for peace. The Visigothic monarch granted him a truce for a short time and meanwhile, in the district afterwards called Alcarria, he built a fortified city to which he gave the name of Recopolis in honour of Recared. There are still a few traces of it to be seen.

From 578 to 580, there was a period of external peace, but on the other hand, these years marked the beginning of a civil war of graver import than any former one; for, in the first place, this war was concerned with religion; and in the second, with the rash ambition of one of Leovigild's own sons. This was Prince Hermenegild; the struggle originated in the same way as the former contests between the Visigoths and the Franks. Once more, the cause of it was a Frankish princess, Ingundis, daughter of Sigebert, king of Austrasia, and of Brunhild, and therefore niece of Leovigild. In 579 Hermenegild married her, he being an Arian and she a Catholic. Immediately there was quarrelling at Court, not between husband and wife, but between Ingundis and her grandmother, Goisvintha, the widow of Athanagild, who had married Leovigild. Goisvintha was a zealous Arian and tried to convert her grand-daughter, first by flattery and afterwards by threats, ending, according to the chroniclers of the period, in violence. Nothing could shake the faith of Ingundis, but she made bitter complaints to the Spanish Catholics and the Franks. To prevent matters from going further, Leovigild sent his son to govern Seville, one of the frontier provinces. There Hermenegild found himself in an atmosphere essentially Catholic, and, at the instigation of his wife Ingundis and Archbishop Leander, he finally abjured Arianism. The news of his conversion gave fresh courage to the malcontent SpanishRomans in Baetica, and the consequence was that Seville and other cities rebelled against Leovigild and proclaimed Hermenegild as king. The latter was rash enough to make the venture and fortified himself in Seville, with the help of the greater part of the Spanish, and of a few Visigothic nobles. It had been said that, on this occasion, Hermenegild did not receive the support of the Catholic clergy. This statement is possibly exaggerated. It is true that Gregory of Tours, John of Biclar, and Isidore condemn the revolt and call Hermenegild a usurper; but this does not mean that, at the time of the rebellion, none of the clergy took his side. It is only reasonable to infer that he did receive some support from them. Though uniformity of religion on the Arian basis may have played an important part in Leovigild's scheme of

579-582]

Revolt of the Vascons

169

government; nevertheless, on this occasion, he did not allow himself to be led away by zeal, or by the irritation which the behaviour of his son must have aroused in him. Hitherto, he had been inconsistent in his treatment of the Catholics. He had frequently persecuted them - for instance, we learn from Isidore of Seville that John of Biclar was in 576 banished to Barcelona for refusing to abjure his religion, and that, for ten years, he was subjected to constant oppression. Again, Leovigild had sometimes flattered the Catholics and complied with their desires. In 579 he adopted a policy of moderation. He sent ambassadors to his son to reduce him to submission, gave orders to his generals to act only on the defensive, and took active measures to prevent the clergy from supporting Hermenegild. The latter did not yield; on the contrary, afraid that his father would take revenge, he sought the assistance of the Byzantines and the Sueves.

Then Leovigild thought of establishing some form of agreement between Catholics and Arians, and convoked a synod, or general meeting of the Arian bishops, at Toledo, in 580. At this synod, it was agreed to modify the form to be used in the adoption of Arianism, substituting reception by the laying on of hands for the second baptism. As John of Biclar says, many Catholics, among whom was Vincent, bishop of Saragossa, accepted the formula and became Arians. Nevertheless, the majority remained faithful to Catholicism. Leovigild attempted to reduce this majority by conversions to Arianism, but when these were not forthcoming, he resorted to persecution. Isidore of Seville in his Historia says that the king banished a number of bishops and nobles, that he slew others, confiscated the property of the churches and of private individuals, deprived the Catholic clergy of their privileges, and only succeeded in converting a few priests and laymen.

Meanwhile Hermenegild had strengthened his party by winning over to his cause important cities such as Mérida and Càceres. He twice defeated Duke Aion, who had been sent against him, and in commemoration of these victories, he coined medals after the manner of his father. But this serious struggle did not cause the king to neglect his other military duties. In 580, the Vascons rebelled once more, possibly under the influence of the Catholic insurrection in Baetica. In 581 Leovigild went against them in person, and after much trouble succeeded in occupying a great part of Vasconia, and in taking possession of the city of Egessa (Egea-de-los-Caballeros). To clinch his success, he founded the city of Victoriácus (Vitorià) in a good strategical position. Having thus finished this campaign, Leovigild decided to take energetic action against his rebellious son. To this end, he spent several months of 582 in organising a powerful army, and, as soon as it was assembled, marched against and captured Cáceres and Mérida. Whereupon the troops of Hermenegild retreated as far as the Guadalquivir, taking Seville as their centre of defence.