Toledo stands on a mount now crowned by its Alcazar and surrounded on three sides by a loop of the Tagus, here confined by a deep ravine. It was the forum of the Oretani or Carpetani, who used the flatter land where the river was crossed. To the Romans, its feature was its equidistance from more notable cities at a cross-roads important for the movement of troops. They had endowed it with an aqueduct far less grand than that at Segovia due north of it. On the north side it had a circus nearly a quarter of a mile long. There were also temples and a theatre or amphitheatre, now barely distinguishable. It is supposed that iron was founded, for later it became famous for swords. The Christian church used its central position for the Councils of 400 and 507. Its patron saint was Leocadia, whose passion tells little except that she suffered under Dacian: she was perhaps the tutelary of a popular basilica 'in suburbio Toletano. Reccared built or rebuilt the churches of St Mary and of the Apostles St Peter and St Paul: the latter, supposedly for relics sent from Rome, is first named in 597. It is referred to as pretorian, the royal chapel or that for the royal guard. The city has been so much rebuilt by later generations that it is hard to discern its Visigothic vestiges. There was plenty of Roman stone available. The metropolitan Eugenius II refers to its splendour and its decorations in full Byzantine fashion, but that was fifty years later. An inscription says that its walls were rebuilt or built by Wamba:the words are preserved in a text with no indication of where it was placed.
Toledo had its monastery, Agalia, outside the city, founded by Helladius, comes and minister for public affairs under Reccared until he took the habit and performed the menial tasks of a monk, becoming abbot and bishop: he died in 633. His name is not Germanic but Hellenistic. The Goths were not by tradition urbanists, and there were estates in the vicinity, forerunners of the famous Cigarrales. Names were important to the Goths, who were willing to absorb aliens, provided that they themselves governed. The church preferred Roman names, so long as they did not recall pagan times: the first bishop of Rome to change his name on his accession was John II (532-535) who had been a parish priest as Mercurius: since then the custom became usual. Biblical names afforded some common ground, but true Goths clung to their own baptismal names.
The first metropolitan to bear a Germanic name was Ildefonsus (657-667) who composed a De viris illustribus as a sequel to those of St Isidore. But the unusual name of Braulio, metropolitan of Saragossa (631-653), appears Germanic.96
Toledo, medieval fortifications rebuilt on Visigothic foundations.
When in 633 Toledo IV approved the law that the ruler must be of pure Gothic descent and of legitimate birth, it was ratifying what was already the general practice. Those who had Roman names might command and enter the palatine class, but they could not expect to rule. The king must also be of 'perfect age, an undefined quantity, which meant ability to command, and even more to enforce his decisions. Marriage, with a male heir, was desirable. This suited kings, who might look forward to a dynastic succession: a powerful king might enforce the succession of a son by 'associating'him, but in an age when the expectation of life was short, no ruler was followed by a son and a grandson. If the parentage of a king became important, so was his choice of a legal wife. To speak of a ruling class would be to beg too many questions. The Gothic concept that deeds make nobles and nobles make kings was modified but not abandoned. There was a palatine order, who included comites and duces, though proceres might be neither. In imperial times, the comes had been the ruler's man of confidence, entrusted with some special mission and authority. Reccared's intimates were much the same. Dux meant a leader or commander who might not yet be so eminent.
Claudius, whose victory ensured Reccared's succession, was a dux, but not apparently comes, neither was Argimund, a cubicularius or chamberlain but a rebel. Claudius was dux of the city of Merida or of its province, Lusitania. Later, the ranks were transposed: there was a comes toletanus for the capital, and other cities had the same. Each province came to have its dux, and some were comes et dux.97 Such tables as exist (for the second half of the century) show that the dux was then the superior. There were more duces than provinces, some perhaps attached to the court. After Helladius, the minister for public affairs was Sisiclus, who attended St Isidore's synod at Seville in 619 accompanied by Swanila, minister of the fisc. Both were illustres and comites, but St Isidore, being himself an expert in Roman law, prefers the classical style of rector. Although most of the palatine order were Goths, and probably not literate, a few of the offices required the ability to read and write, such as the notary or royal secretary and the treasurer, who often bore non-Germanic names. The Sueves, more Romanized by several generations, annexed but not absorbed, were administered per duces, but the church of St Martin remained relatively intact.
Roman society had three conditions: free, freedmen and servile. Goths regarded themselves as free, and degradation and subjection to corporal punishment as the greatest disgrace. They distinguished senioresfrom mediocres (pronounced and written mediogres),who were at least twice as numerous. Thiudis had had his private force of two thousand men: perhaps his successor who bore the diminutive Thiudisclus as his name was his vicarius, who might be equated to the thiufad, originally commander of a thousand, a word found in medieval Leon, if only because perpetuated by the laws of the Visigoths. Bodyguards were gardingi, who only later found their way into the palatine order. Bishops nominated numerarii, or collectors of tribute. At a later date, the metropolitan of Merida obliged one Theodemund, a swordsman or spatarius, to become a collector, an act held to be an offence to his rank and descent. The servile class is recorded only in a passive and proletarian capacity.98
Reccared owed his crown to his powerful and rapacious father and his catholic mother. His conversion was as much an act of policy as of piety. He had proved himself against the Franks, and both pope and emperor had saluted him, but he had the Greeks in Cartagena and was himself in possession of Gothic Gaul with Franks and Burgundians as uncomfortable neighbours. His reign was less than half the length of his father's and he was not a famous warrior. He was wealthy: his father had minted gold trientes in his own name with a schematic effigy at nineteen mints: under Reccared the total was 36, with an increase of seven in Lusitania and nine in Gallaecia. Many of these last were very small places represented by very few specimens: they disappear after 630 and were from remoter or still unconquered communities not now clearly identifiable. All kings minted coin at Toledo with the epithet pius or iustus or, less frequently, victor. The last indicates a military success and falls into disuse from about 650 to 690: it is rare among these transitory mints and its absence might imply annexation rather than royal conquest. In the Suevic kingdom, the so-called Suevic trientes, not minted at Braga but at catholic towns or tribesteads which had thrown in their lot with St Martin and King Miro, disappear.99
Reccared died in December 601 at Toledo, and was succeeded by his young son Liuva II. It may have seemed a success for dynasticism, but Liuva had not reached the 'perfect age'.100 Coins were issued in his name from ten mints, including the metropolitan cities except
Narbonne, always the sole mint for Gothic Gaul. He had reigned for little more than a year, when Witteric, the comes of Leovigild at Merida, rebelled against him. He was disqualified by having a hand cut off and perhaps executed. If the church had hoped to establish primogeniture, Gothic generals would not obey an unseasoned ruler who could not enforce his decisions: the problem remained unsolved and became a sufficient cause for the fall of the Gothic monarchy to the Muslims. Although Witteric was denounced for Arianism, his object was rather to return to the dualism practised by Leovigild. His coins were legal and marked pius or iustus. His reign is dated from 603.He was assassinated at a feast, and replaced by Gundemar, an elderly dux from Septimania.
No synod of the church is recorded between that of Barcelona in 599 and Egara in 614,if only because a national council required the royal assent. It had taken the penitent Arians into its bosom, but was not yet in marching order. There were churches and communities left without clergy, and dioceses (Barcelona, Lugo) with bishops who were former Arians, and some (Valencia) with two bishops in one diocese. Seville was the great seat of classical learning and of legal and theological studies. Its metropolitan and head of the church in 589, was St Leander, whose family were refugees from Cartagena and strongly opposed to the Greeks. Seniority among bishops was important in the provinces. Mausona of Merida had perhaps suffered most, but was not senior. Toledo was not officially the capital, but the remotest part of Cartaginensis, whose city was in Greek hands. At the council of 589 Abbot Donatus of Servitania was prominent after Leander. His monastery had been founded on the coast of Valencia by refugees from North Africa. Abbots were not yet normally summoned to national councils, though the church of St Martin at Braga was monastic and preserved the traditions of the Desert Fathers. Toledo had influential abbots, and owed its eminence to the presence of the Gothic kings, who yielded nothing of their practice of appointing their own bishops. If Leander had thought that a catholic and Gothic king in Toledo would forgo this right, he was mistaken, and if he thought that male primogeniture would guarantee good relations between church and state he was doubly mistaken.
In October 610 King Gundemar convened fifteen bishops of Cartaginensis, excluding Cartagena, and asserted the metropolitan status of Toledo. The meeting was not national but its purpose was not merely provincial.101 Subjoined to it are three 'suggestions'; one Sisuldus proposed that Emila be made bishop, and a Sunila asked that the king appoint him, being of illustrious family, to Mentesa: Hermenegild asked the king to name Emila instead of John, or if prevented by 'occasio seculi', someone else at his pleasure. All this was perhaps not very pleasing to Seville, where St Isidore, the successor to Leander, says of Gundemar's short reign only that he ravaged the Vascones in one campaign and fought another against the Greeks. The only other source is the letters in barbarous Latin of a comes Bulgarus. He expresses profound commiseration on the death of the glorious Queen Hildoare. He shows that he had been out of favour and in letters to the bishops of Braga and Narbonne was grateful for their support: he had been liberated by the death of Witteric. Gundemar himself died a natural death at Toledo probably in February-March 612.The names given might suggest that Bulgar was a Sueve from Braga serving in Gothic Gaul.
Two more letters to unnamed bishops throw some light on relations with the Franks. After the death of Gregory of Tours in 594, there is no narrative until Fredegar, a composite work put together in Burgundy in about 660.Whereas Gregory preserves the ecclesiastical gossip of his day, Fredegar gives rather less racily the lay gossip of his court. Childebert had left Burgundy to his son Theuderic (595-613) and Austrasia to Theudibert (595-612), King Gundemar had sent subsidies by the writer Bulgar to Theudibert for his war on the pagan Avars, but Bulgar had received the disquieting report that Brunhild conspired with the Burgundian ruler and so favoured the barbarians. He wrote to ask if the subsidies had been received. They had not, for Theuderic had arrested the envoys at Irupinae (?). Bulgar retorted by seizing the towns of Juvignac and Corneilhan (Herault) which Reccared had ceded to Brunhild, and would hold them until Gundemar's envoys were released and compensated.102
Guntram of Orleans had the hope of reuniting the four Merovingian kingdoms, and on dying with no surviving son in 593, bequeathed his possessions to his nephew Childebert, son of Brunhild: he died in 595. Guntram had protected and cheated Brunhild, who alone maintained the illusion of an alliance between Visigoths and Franks. Her bitter enemy was Fredegund, the mistress of Chilperic and later his queen, who died in 597, leaving her ambitions and hatred to her son Lothar II, who finally brought about the reunion, subjecting Brunhild to a hideous death in 613. Lothar's son Dagobert had the credit for uniting the Merovingian kingdoms, which soon fell into the hands of rulers who reigned without governing: the Carolingians had long exercised authority when the last Merovingian was deposed with the consent of the pope in 751.
Nothing is known of any family Gundemar may have had.103 Gundemar's ability to provide subsidies may be suggested by the fact that in his brief reign he issued coin of regular purity from as many mints as Witteric, though none are known from Narbonne. He was succeeded by Sisebut (612-February 621). Sisebut was educated in the bosom of the church, to which he gave an illegitimate son Thiudila as a monk. He is the only Visigothic king to be a writer, with works in both prose and verse. St Isidore, who succeeded Leander in about 600 and governed the church of Seville for nearly forty years, thought him almost an ideal monarch. He dedicated his De Natura rerum and a version of the Etymologies to the king, and probably meant his history of the Goths for him, though it was finished only after Sisebut's death. The king was clear in speech, wise in his opinions and capable in letters. His fault was that he interpreted the laws against Judaism too severely, since the church required that they be persuaded not coerced. In military matters, he was successful in putting down the rebel Asturians through his dux Ricchila and the Roccones also per duces. He was twice successful against the Roman Greeks, and showed himself merciful in paying the ransom of captives.
Sisebut was not himself a commander in the field, but sent his duces Ricchila and Swinthila against the Vascones and Asturians.104 Whether his fame as a man of letters is also vicarious seems possible. If his hexameters on the eclipses of the sun and moon are correct, this may be because the monks of Toledo studied Latin prosody as a necessary preparation for singing in Latin, the precentor being next in rank to the bishop.105 If his prose seems pompous it was probably what was to be expected for courtly style. It is surprising that he should have chosen, or have been chosen, to write a vita of St Desiderius or Didier, a recent French martyr, who was bishop of Vienne in 601 and stoned to death by a mob in 603.Why the king should have picked this subject remains hidden. Gaul was rather lacking in martyrs, while most Peninsular cities could lay claim to at least one, and Saragossa to a whole band.106 Desiderius
Was made bishop because of his exemplary life. He was accused of rape by a lady called Justa, and found guilty by Theuderic of Burgundy and Brunhild, who is demonized as a wicked woman. Sisebut does not go so far, but is in line with Fredegar's assertion in his ch.42 that she caused the death of ten Frankish kings. The legend that blames her for the continued separation of the Merovingian kingdoms has much more to do with Frankish feuding than with history. Gregory, who had died in 594, is not unkind to Brunhild, and Fredegar's lack of objectivity well-known.107 But this does not solve the question of why Sisebut participated in the campaign of denigration in such a blatant way. It may demonstrate a wish to bury the hatchet between Goths and Franks, or even beyond this a hope in the church that the ancient western prefecture might be resuscitated.108
St Isidore is with little doubt the great man of his age, c. 560-636. He is said to have been the brother of his predecessor at Seville, Leander, who was fully fifteen years his senior and the son of Severianus, governor of Cartaginensis, who fled from the Greeks with his family.109 He was even more distrustful of the Greeks, and had some Gothic blood, looking forward to a new society in which Roman culture would combine with Gothic strength. His many works embrace both classical and Christian learning, and in his Etymologies he attempts to distil the essence of everything Roman. He gained in both wisdom and esteem from the very length of his ministry. Seville was the seat of both classical and religious studies, and it is his training in Roman law that permeates his first synod or council at Seville in 619, attended by nine of the ten bishops of the diocese and two illustres of Sisebut's court. He plunged into Roman law to settle the case of Theodulf of Malaga, who complained that his diocese had been despoiled in the wars (of Leovigild) in favour of Ecija, Elvira and Cabra. All things must be settled by the law of postliminy without regard for negative prescription. Fulgentius of Ecija and Honorius of Cordova disputed a basilica which might have been in Celticensis or in Reginensis. If the church fell in either ancient territory, it belonged always to that territory and could not be usurped: if this proved unascertainable, it belonged to the present owner. If the legal frontier did not include the site of the church, the plaintiff failed, but if it had been held unjustly, even for thirty years, the church went to the plaintiff. Next, the bishop of Italica claimed that a colonus, a cleric, had gone over to Cordova. If the individual was a colonus he must be returned, since civil law ruled that a colonus was bound to his birthplace.110
King Sisebut did not recover Cartagena from the Greeks, but waged two campaigns which took captives whom he released. The Emperor Heraclian (610-641) had to contend with the Persians and others. Four letters exchanged between the Greek patrician Cesarius and Sisebut show that both sides were prepared to negotiate. Cesarius had asked for peace, the emperor was informed and Sisebut was in agreement, but nothing was concluded in writing.
Sisebut died in February 621 and was succeeded by his son Reccared II, whose reign lasted only two weeks. Isidore says that Sisebut died a natural death, though some said he was given poison. Fredegar and others re-echo Isidore's praise of the late king. Nothing is added about the brief reign of Reccared II.111 The successor was Swinthila, dux and husband of Reccared II's sister: it seems therefore that the young king did not meet the requirements of Gothic custom. The solution was at least dynastic. Isidore says that Swinthila was elected by divine grace. His immediate task was to recover Cartagena by forcing the issue. The precise date of the surrender is not recorded. It enabled Isidore to say in his history of the Goths that
Swinthila was the first king to rule all Spain under a single sceptre. In fact, the Byzantines still held a small and distant post, probably at or near Mertola. In his often quoted eulogy of Spain Isidore made her the queen of all provinces from the western Ocean to the Indus, enumerating her qualities and wealth of all kinds and indulging in a venture into mythology with the wish that the fecundity of the Goths might long prevail. His retrospective passion for the past was tempered by a commitment to Rome rather than the Greek East, where the primacy of the papacy was challenged by assertions of equality for the patriarch of Constantinople. Gregory I had opposed any such claim, but the Eastern bishops had temporized on the question of the divine nature and Heraclian had accepted the revision of the Monothelites, which Pope Honorius had ignored.
Swinthila's conquest was followed by the devastation of the port and adjacent district and a barbaric slaughter of the defeated. There could no longer be any question of a revival or of a rival to Toledo as metropolitan of Cartaginensis. In his history, Isidore accords lavish praise on Swinthila for his campaign against the Ruccones, an invasion by the Vascones, his foundation of Olite, and his qualities of faith, prudence, persistence and munificence. His son Riccimer was his worthy associate.112 But by 631, the prospect of a hereditary succession had faded and was dashed by the rebellion of the dux of Septimania or Gothic Gaul. He obtained military support from the Frankish king Dagobert, who provided two companies which entered Saragossa. When Swinthila and his brother Geila approached, their army went over to the dux Sisnand, who was duly acclaimed at Toledo on March 26 631. The deposed ruler's life was spared. According to Fredegar, Sisnand promised Dagobert a gold bowl weighing 500 pounds for his help, but the Goths refused to part with it and redeemed it in coin. Isidore then offered his history of the Goths to Sisnand.
For Isidore and for Swinthila, the succession required that the ruler be fortified by the resources of the church and of Roman law. The church must then commit itself to intervention in secular politics. This was the context for the summoning of a general council of the church, Toledo IV, which assembled in December 633.Half a century had passed since the last, though there had been provincial gatherings of which there is no written record. Isidore, probably over seventy, was the senior metropolitan. Helladius, comes, monk, bishop and metropolitan of Toledo, had been consecrated in about 615, but died in 633, being succeeded by his pupil Justus, also monk and abbot of Agalia, whose reign lasted only until 636. It was Isidore who presided over the 62 bishops and seven delegates, who established the order for such assemblies. The bishops sat in a circle with the priests behind them and deacons and selected layfolk or courtiers standing behind. The necessary notaries were admitted. The king appeared in person with his magnates and displayed his humility, reading or having read his tomus or recommendations, after which he withdrew and the doors were closed. Nobody would leave until the session was over. At the end of the meeting, all would sign in an atmosphere of calm. After devotions, they dealt first with contentious matters, and then with ecclesiastical matters, including the fixing of the date of Easter. They expressed a preference for baptism by single rather than triple immersion in order to avoid confusion with the practice of heretics. They finally signed 75 canons.
The rules adopted for promulgation as law by the king move towards the secular. Bishops are to be elected by clergy and people, they are not to communicate abroad without informing the king, and not to serve as royal judges unless the king undertakes not to apply the death sentence. Several canons restate the attitude of the church towards Judaism and the disabilities imposed on Jews. The church then hedged the monarch with its guarantees. He should always be a Goth appointed by the magnates and the bishops. Usurpation, attempts at rebellion and conspiracies against his life were prohibited under pain of solemn anathema. Swinthila, his brother Geila and his wife and children had been unfaithful and were deprived of their rank and possessions except such as the king chose to grant them. The number of bishops and delegates, 69, was almost the most complete recorded. All the metropolitans were present, and there was nobody from Cartagena. The church was thus committed to participate in affairs of state. Since the election of a king took place immediately on the death of his predecessor, those magnates and bishops not within call did not share in the process. There was no formal adoption of primogeniture or of its limitations. Instead of resolving the problem of the succession, it was followed by a decade of dissensions. When Sisnand himself died in March 636, having reigned for five years, he was regarded as patient and pious, but was not followed by a son.
St Isidore died within weeks of Sisnand, and the metropolitan of Toledo Justus was removed in 636. He and most of his followers, rather than writing insufficient history, chose to write none at all. There is no narrative history of the Goths until after the kingdom of Toledo was overthrown. Its place is filled by the acts of the councils of Toledo, V to XVII, which met more often than could have been anticipated, though not at regular intervals. It became the custom to summon a council early in each reign to confirm the succession in the presence of the whole church, ad regem confirmandum.
Nothing is known of the antecedents of King Khintila, or of the method by which he was appointed, but he lost little time in summoning a national council, Toledo V, probably late in June 636. It was attended by only 22 bishops and two delegates, who came from the nearer provinces. They included Braulio of Saragossa, on whom the mantle of Isidore had descended. The king was attended by the optimates of the palace and the gathering appears to have had no purpose except to legalize the succession and to guarantee Khintila and his descendants. His fideles and the beneficiaries of his generosity were also protected. None were to contest the rights to property of one elected by all and approved by his Gothic nobility, nor to seek power in his lifetime, nor speak ill of him. Eighteen months later, in January 638, Khintila convened another council, Toledo V, attended by 48 bishops and two delegates. It concerned itself with a more usual agenda. It required each king to apply the laws against Judaism and asked for close examination of verdicts of death except in cases of treason. It repeated the guarantees of the royal children, but extended the classes of those disqualified to the tonsured, the servile, those Goths of bad customs and foreigners: the successor of an assassinated king must avenge him and so must all his people.
It has been supposed that the aim was to prevent the return of the clan of Swinthila. This may be. Later pardons postulate the existence of unrecorded disorders. Two coins, one from Merida and the other from Iliberri, marked Iudila rex, are placed on stylistic grounds close to those of Swinthila or Sisnand.113 The number of known mints fell to eleven under Gundemar, but returned to 31 under Sisebut and 36 under Swinthila, a level not reached again. Sisnand had 21 known mints and Khintila 18,a decline due mainly to the disappearance of small mints in Gallaecia.
Khintila died in Toledo in December 639, and was succeeded by a young son Tulga, whose reign lasted only until April 642.He issued coin from Toledo and eleven other places, including the capitals of all the provinces except Braga, Gallaecia being represented by Lugo and Laetera. It is recorded only that he was of mild disposition. He convened no council of the church: probably the duces were less willing to respect him than was the church. He was finally removed by their senior member Khindaswinth, probably dux of Gaul or Saragossa, who in the spring of 642 marched to Pampliega, a monastery on the upper Ebro on the edge of what is now Castile.114 Having assured himself of the support of the Gothic mass or traditionalists, he descended on Toledo, removed Tulga and had him tonsured. There followed a ruthless suppression of all possible rivals. Fredegar heard that 200 optimates and 500 de mediogribus were slaughtered. There is no reason to accept these figures literally. Eugenius II refers to the confusion that reigned in those times in explaining why he could not find a book. Khindaswinth had plenty of confiscated property with which to reward himself and his fideles. In 683, Toledo XIII issued a pardon to those who had rebelled since Khintila, which may be interpreted in more than one way. The king's first order was a draconian law against treason, which required him to punish all opposition, actual or merely intentional, with death, and in the event of a pardon to blind the victim.
The Goths had now little to fear from the Franks. Dagobert died in 638 and was succeeded by his sons Clovis II and Clotar, who were unable to govern or command and paved the way for the rois faineants, who did neither but served as figureheads to continue the dynasty of the Merovingians long after it had relinquished the exercise of authority. The Goths had never accepted any but a unitary state, and did not allow a child or youth to govern them. They accepted the religious authority of Rome, though their coins followed the gold standard set by Constantinople and they often dated their reigns by the Greek emperors. The Monothelite heresy, which might be considered a variant of Arianism, was condemned in Rome by Martin I in 649, but in Constantinople not until 680.The arch-heresy remained Judaism. The Roman jurists of Alaric II attempted to enforce segregation and Reccared I was deemed to have accepted Roman rules which permitted Jewish communities to keep their own laws. Neither Goths nor Franks felt strongly on the subject. At Narbonne heavy penalties were set on all for failure to observe Sunday. At Toledo the Spains depended on merchants for the luxury-trade, adorning their palaces in Greek fashion. Kings and warriors cherished semi-precious stones. Foreign merchants frequented the Mediterranean ports and the royal city. The rise of Islam posed new, if still distant, problems.
Muhammad, a contemporary of St Isidore, died in 636. When he began to teach, Arabia was divided between Christian and Jewish townships. The commerce on which they depended was at the mercy of nomads, the 'tent-Arabs'or Saracens, whose faith was animistic or none. Muhammad's object was to unite both revealed religions against 'polytheists'. His message was in poetic Arabic for oral recitation and only later set down in the Qu'ran,'the reading. His adherents could not afford to reject the use of weapons and some of his converts were the armed predators he most opposed. The sudden explosion of Islam took place just after his death, with the conquest of Jerusalem in 638 and of Egypt in 640. both were won by small forces, but they deprived the Eastern empire of half of its area when the emperors were mainly concerned with the Persians. If the expansion of Islam was astonishing, the existence of Muhammad should not have been. The disruption of trade affected Syrians and Jews, who were numerous in the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, the focus of commerce with the ports of Mediterranean Spain. Since Islam lacked documents and a written history, theologians did not know what to make of it. Muhammad disclaimed divinity for himself, though he accepted Jesus as a prophet. He drew heavily on the Hebrew testament and was therefore classified as a Jew. As people were regularly regarded as professing the beliefs of their rulers, the merchants of Antioch and Alexandria were suspect, whatever their religion.
Among the Goths King Witteric had not enforced the rulings of Rome, but Sisebut had gone beyond the teachings by approving forcible conversion. This St Isidore considered to be contra scientiam. Bishop Aurasius of Toledo (d c.615) had excommunicated the comes of the city Froga for having allowed converts coming out of church to be beaten by men with clubs. Froga had heeded the protests of the elders of the synagogue, who held that the catechumens had been deceived by the bishop.115
Apart from Toledo, the problem was most real in Baetica and especially Seville, the centre of Roman tradition, and of legal and religious studies. It contributed towards the adoption of a new code applicable to all subjects of the kings of Toledo. It was drawn up by jurists of the royal palace and, when promulgated by Khindaswinth's son in about 654, became the 'Laws of the Visigoths'. It drew on the earlier codes of Euric and Alaric, often using the term 'antiqua' to denote a law already in existence. It made the assumption that all those who used it knew Latin, or were at least sufficiently conversant to apply it. The ancient imperial law forbidding intermarriage had long since lapsed by desuetude, but when it was formally abrogated remains uncertain. The extent to which the Roman rhetorician had been replaced by ecclesiastical scribes or royal notaries is likewise difficult to establish. It seems idle to speculate to what extent the popular Latin of the Roman army, which can be glimpsed in the letters of Bulgar, had given way to more literary forms such as St Isidore knew, but it would be bold to suppose that the duces of the court or of the provinces were literate. It is certainly the case that in medieval Castile oral and customary law still prevailed, while in the empire of Leon this was much less so. The tradition of the oral epic which preserved tales of Gothic and heroic history continued or was revived in Castile, while in Portugal and Galicia, the Suevic areas, the tradition of poetry was, and is, lyrical and satirical.
To reverse the question and ask to what extent this implies a survival of the Gothic language is a different matter. There exists no evidence that the Bible of Ulfila was used in Aquitania or the Spains. The present splendid copy made for Theoderic the Ostrogoth was copied in Italy and acquired by a German, who presented it to the University of Uppsala, where it now has an honourable place. No document has emerged in the Gothic language or referring to it during their stay in Aquitania. The decline and disappearance of oral languages is by its very nature a subject fraught with difficulty. It may survive in a compact society such as the Visigoths in Aquitania or in isolated pockets for long periods. Germanic customs have survived longest in Castile and have been implanted in the Americas and elsewhere in a manner redolent of Gothic imperialism. The Germanic characteristics of Spanish (often called simply Castilian) are less strong in Aragonese, and much less in Catalan, which lies closer to Provencal. If French is an oral adaptation of Latin, Spanish is closer to classical, written and legal Latin. For the Goths, names were important. The Namenbuch of Piel and Kremer examines them in detail, but shows very clearly that their Latinized forms are often so remote
Visigothic window.
From the Germanic original as to defy explanation. Headstones which might commemorate names are either Latinized or absent. In the Suevic area there are headstones of conventional shape but no inscription whatever. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa, in a letter alludes to the difficulty of teaching boys to sing (in Latin): they may have been Basque speakers or indeed any boys. Khindaswinth may well have used spoken Gothic. A single reference speaks of his son Recceswinth (649-672) as 'learned in the barbarous language'.This comes in a medieval source some four centuries later, and if true, may refer to a knowledge of ancestral ballads rather than contemporary discourse. He was regarded as a faithful son of the church but left the command to his dux Wamba, whose name appears to be a nickname.
There are traces of Greek in the Latin of the times. The problem of representing Germanic sounds in Latin was not limited to the Goths. Gregory of Tours records that Chilperic (d 584) attempted to legislate w, oe, th and wi into writing, using omega, psi, zeta and delta.116 For the Goths the difficulties included aspirated initial, d, thorn, and initial w. Hermenegild's coins drop the H, Ermenegild. Leovigild's use vv and at times a delta. Wamba's name is with VV. Khintila always uses CH, but Khindaswinth C, CH, and often theta. Recceswinth is usually Recceswinfius. Wittiza is with VV and Roderic, Rudericus:Akhila II is Achila.117
Greek was the language of commerce throughout the Mediterranean area, used by Syrians, Alexandrines and others. The Greeks themselves distinguished between Romanized Goths and the traditionalists, whom they continued to regard as unredeemed barbarians. The emperors of Constantinople no longer possessed military resources to intervene, but they watched the evolution of the Gothic state not without anxiety. In earlier times Greek influence was felt in the west, where the basilica of Montelios was built to commemorate St Fructuosus of Braga, who died in 665: there are other basilicas in brick. St Martin's devotion to the Desert Fathers left indelible traces. The Greek inscriptions from Mertola are rare in the Iberian Peninsula. Eugenius' account of the fittings of the palace at Toledo evokes mercantile activities of which there are few remains. St Isidore was opposed to the Byzantines and rejoiced when Cartagena was recovered from them. In matters of finance and administration they were more expert than the Gothic duces. As the Greek hold over Mauritania, never strong, weakened and the court of Constantinople was racked with dissension, there were some who sought the Spains. In the time of Khindaswinth there arrived one Ardabast, who was warmly received, made comes and married to the king's niece, Cixilo. Their Gothicized son would become king in Toledo. When Ardabast arrived is not stated, but the marriage was presumably before the death of Khindaswinth in 653. Ardabast is not remembered to have been a military man and if he was welcomed, it was for some experience in administration or finance. Nor is it recorded whether he came as an exile from Constantinople or an administrator from Greek Africa. Ardabast does not appear to be a Greek name, it is rather Armenian or Persian. In the ninth century, when Islam had taken over Persia, some Christian Armenians sought refuge at the Byzantine court, where several Artavasdos were prominent officials.118
World History
