Visigoths

Examples of Visigoths in the following topics:

• Theoderic the Great

  • Theoderic the Great (454–526) was king of the Ostrogoths (475–526), ruler of Italy (493–526), regent of the Visigoths (511–526), and a patricius of the Roman Empire.
  • For much of his reign, Theoderic was the de facto king of the Visigoths as well, becoming regent for the infant Visigothic king, his grandson Amalaric, following the defeat of Alaric II by the Franks under Clovis in 507.
  • The Franks were able to wrest control of Aquitaine from the Visigoths, but otherwise Theoderic was able to defeat their incursions.
  • The term "Visigoth" was actually an invention of this period.
  • He had married off his daughter Amalasuntha to the Visigoth Eutharic, but Eutharic died in August 522 or 523, so no lasting dynastic connection of Ostrogoths and Visigoths was established.

• The Reconquista

  • In 711 an Islamic Berber raiding party, led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, was sent to Iberia to intervene in a civil war in the Visigothic Kingdom.
  • Tariq's army crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and won a decisive victory in the summer of 711 when the Visigothic King Roderic was defeated and killed 19 at the Battle of Guadalete.
  • Although the period of rule by the Visigothic Kingdom (ca. 5th-8th century) saw the brief spread of Arianism, Catholic religion coalesced in Spain at the time.
  • In 587, the Visigothic king at Toledo, Reccared, converted to Catholicism and launched a movement in Spain to unify the various religious doctrines that existed in the land.

• The Germanic Tribes

  • Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Lombards made their way into Italy; Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, and Visigoths conquered much of Gaul; Vandals and Visigoths also pushed into Spain, with the Vandals additionally making it into North Africa; and the Alamanni established a strong presence in the middle Rhine and Alps.

• The Eastern Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, and Byzantium

  • He also reconquered southern parts of Dacia, after defeating the Visigoths in 332, and he was planning a campaign against Sassanid Persia as well.
  • While the Western Empire was overrun by Germanic barbarians—its lands in Italy were conquered by the Ostrogoths, Spain was conquered by the Visigoths, North Africa was conquered by the Vandals, and Gaul was conquered by the Franks—the Eastern Empire thrived.

• Charles Martel and Pepin the Short

  • Arab and Berber Islamic forces had conquered Spain (711), crossed the Pyrenees (720), seized a major dependency of the Visigoths (721–725), and after intermittent challenges, under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus, advanced toward Gaul and on Tours, "the holy town of Gaul."
  • Charles further took the offensive after Tours, destroying fortresses at Agde, Béziers, and Maguelonne, and engaging Islamic forces at Nimes, though ultimately failing to recover Narbonne (737) or to fully reclaim the Visigoth's Narbonensis.

• The Catholic Church

  • During this period the Visigoths and Lombards moved away from Arianism toward Catholicism.

• Islamic Conquest of the Maghreb

  • It began with the renewed invasion of Ifriqiya but the Byzantine Empire responded with troops from Constantinople, joined by soldiers and ships from Sicily and a powerful contingent of Visigoths from Hispania.

• Crises of the Roman Empire

  • Aurelian reigned (270–275) through the worst of the crisis, defeating the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Palmyrenes, the Persians, and then the remainder of the Gallic Empire.

• Emperor Heracluis

  • However, after Justinian's death, much of newly recovered Italy fell to the Lombards, and the Visigoths soon reduced the imperial holdings in Spain.

• Odoacer and the Fall of Rome

  • The following summer, the Visigothic king Alaric II demonstrated what Wolfram calls "one of the rare displays of Gothic solidarity" and sent military aid to help his kinsman, forcing Odoacer to raise his siege.