Fritigern and Alavivus

The drift to relative harmony brought all the Latin provinces quietly into the ark of orthodoxy. The last to hold out for the old religion of the frontier was the regime in Spain that remembered a Visigothic past. By the late sixth century, of course, anything one might call barbarism there had been part of the Roman empire for 200 years, since the day when Fritigern and Alavivus brought their small refugee band across the Danube. The gradual retreat from Gaul into Spain in the late fifth century and early sixth century, as the Franks made themselves masters of Gaul and in 507 finally drove the Visigoths into Spain, had accidentally put the losing side in a position to build a lasting regime. The gradual establishment of the kingdom that would form the heart of Andalusia produced governance that was Roman, military, and at least modestly prosperous. By the late sixth century, the moment of Justinianic invasion had faded and a few pockets of imperial presence remained on the southeastern coast of the peninsula, but King Leovigild (r. 569-586) succeeded his brother Athanagild and married Athanagild’s widow to solidify his reign. In short order, he seized Cordoba back from the Byzantine garrison that had lingered there.

Roman and Byzantine traditions

Leovigild’s administration was marked by expansion of control and authority, entirely in the Roman and Byzantine traditions. In the way of such kingdoms, he brought his sons Hermenegild and Reccared to the throne with him, and married the former to a Frankish princess, to ensure peaceful relations northward. Catholic historians of later generations want to make it out that for a year or so in 584, Leovigild dug in his heels and insisted on appointing Arian bishops and opposing the spread of Catholicism. Something snapped then in the royal household, and Hermenegild revolted, ostensibly in the name of authentic religion, and was jailed and then killed. Leovigild prevailed for another five years, extending his control over the whole peninsula. As soon as he was gone, Reccared took the throne in 589 and declared himself for Catholicism—and suddenly the struggle was over. The Catholic bishops who had been in resistance emerged immediately as dominant figures in the realm, especially Lean- der of Seville, a friend and correspondent of Pope Gregory, who was in the process of taking the Roman see in 590. Whatever the true story, the divisions in the kingdom had been just that, divisions, not controversies in any way rooted in distinctive beliefs and practices of different religious communities.