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The Visigoths were never called Visigoths, only Goths, until Cassiodorus used the term, when referring to their loss against Clovis I in 507. Cassiodorus apparently invented the term based on the model of the "Ostrogoths", but using the older name of the Vesi, one of the tribal names which the fifth-century poet Sidonius Apollinaris, had already used when referring to the Visigoths.
The Visigoths founded the only new cities in Western Europe between the fifth and eighth centuries. It is certain (through contemporary Spanish accounts) that they founded four, and a possible fifth city is ascribed to them by a later Arabic source. All of these cities were founded for military purposes and three of them in celebration of victory.
There is evidence of martyrs in the third century. By the fourth century, church councils were held throughout Spain. The Romans would then fall to the Visigoths in 409. The Visigoths were not Christian initially, but by the sixth century, King Recared held councils regarding Christianity in Toledo. [3]
That was partially because the Visigoths were only 1 to 2% of the population, [5] which made it difficult to maintain control over a rebellious population. The ruler at the time was King Roderic [2] but the manner of his ascent to the throne is unclear. There are accounts of a dispute with Achila II, son of his predecessor Wittiza.
Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or Leovigildo (Spanish and Portuguese), (c. 519 – 586) was a Visigothic king of Hispania and Septimania from 567 to 586. Known for his Codex Revisus or Code of Leovigild, a law allowing equal rights between the Visigothic and Hispano-Roman population, his kingdom covered modern Portugal and most of modern Spain down to Toledo.
King Euric of the Visigoths conquers southern Gallaecia and Lusitania to the Suevi. 475 – King Euric (who unified the various quarreling factions of the Visigoths) forces the Roman government to grant the Visigothic kingdom full independence. At his death, the Visigoths were the most powerful of the successor states to the Western Roman Empire.
In medieval and modern Spain, the Visigoths were believed to be the progenitors of the Spanish nobility (compare Gobineau for a similar French idea). By the early 7th century, the ethnic distinction between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans had all but disappeared, but recognition of a Gothic origin, e.g. on gravestones, still survived among the ...
The Visigoths, numbering perhaps 50,000 (out of which 10,000 were warriors), [13] were refugees, fleeing from the Ostrogoths, who in turn were fleeing from the Huns. [12] The Eastern emperor, Valens (r. 364–378), was pleased at the arrival of the Visigoths as it meant that he could recruit their warriors at low cost, bolstering his armies ...