Spania

In 409 the Vandals, Suevi and Alans, who had broken through the Roman border defences on the
Rhine two years before, crossed the Pyrenees into the Iberian peninsula. Nevertheless, effective
Roman rule was maintained over most areas till after the death of Emperor Majorian in 461.[2] The
Visigoths, vassals of the Roman Empire who had settled in Aquitaine by imperial invitation (416),
increasingly filled the vacuum left as the Vandals moved into North Africa. In 468 they attacked and
defeated the Suevi, who had occupied Roman Gallaecia and were threatening to expand. The
Visigoths ended the Roman administration in Spain in 473, and their overlordship of most of the
eastern and central peninsula was established by 476. A large-scale migration of the Visigoths into
Iberia began in 494 under Alaric II, and it became the seat of their power after they lost most of their
territory in Gaul to the Franks after the Battle of Vouillé in 507.

Conquest and foundation

In 534, Roman general Belisarius re-established the Byzantine province of Mauretania with the
conquest of the Vandal Kingdom in northern Africa. Despite his efforts, the Vandal king Gelimer had
been unable to effect an alliance with the Gothic king Theudis, who probably took the opportunity of
the collapse of Vandal authority to conquer Ceuta (Septem) across the Straits of Gibraltar in 533,
possibly to keep it out of Byzantine hands. This citadel was nevertheless seized the following year by
an expedition dispatched by Belisarius. Ceuta (which was briefly recaptured by the Visigoths in
540[3]) became a part of Mauretania. It was an important base for reconnaissance of Spain in the
years leading up to the peninsula's invasion by Justinian's forces in 552.

In 550, during the reign of Agila I, Spain was troubled by a series of revolts, two of which were
serious. The citizens of Córdoba rebelled against Gothic or Arian rule and Agila was roundly defeated,
his son killed, and the royal treasure lost. He himself retreated to Mérida.[4] The date of the other
major revolt cannot be arrived at precisely. Either at the commencement of his reign (549) or as late
as 551, a nobleman named Athanagild took Seville, capital of Baetica, and presumed to rule as king in
opposition to Agila. Exactly who approached the Byzantines for assistance and when is also disputed;
the primary sources are divided.[5] Even the name of the general of the Byzantine army is disputed.
Although Jordanes wrote that the Patrician Liberius was its commander:

He [Theudis] was succeeded by Agila, who holds the kingdom to the present day. Athanagild has
rebelled against him and is even now provoking the might of the Roman Empire. So Liberius the
Patrician is on the way with an army to oppose him.[6]

James J. O'Donnell, in his biography of Liberius, casts doubt on this statement, since the patrician was
an octogenarian at the time, and Procopius reports he had returned to Constantinople when the
Byzantines invaded Hispania and could not have led the invasion. O'Donnell states that "Jordanes
may have heard that Liberius' name was being mentioned for commander of the Spanish expedition,
but, in the end, the fact of his relief from command of the forces in Sicily makes the story of his
voyage to Spain incredible."[7]

However, according to Isidore of Seville in his History of the Goths, it was Athanagild, in autumn of
551 or winter of 552, who begged Justinian for help. The army was probably sent in 552 and made
landfall in June or July. Roman forces landed probably at the mouth of the Guadalete or perhaps
Málaga and joined with Athanagild to defeat Agila as he marched south from Mérida towards Seville
in August or September 552.[8] The war dragged on for two more years. Liberius returned to
Constantinople by May 553 and it is probable that a Byzantine force from Italy, which had only
recently been pacified after the Gothic War, landed at Cartagena in early March 555 and marched
inland to Baza (Basti) in order to join up with their compatriots near Seville. Their landing at
Cartagena was violent. The native population, which included the family of Leander of Seville, was
well disposed to the Visigoths and the Byzantine government of the city was forced to suppress their
freedoms, an oppression which lasted decades into their occupation. Leander and most of his family
fled and his writings preserve the strong anti-Byzantine sentiment.

In late March 555, the supporters of Agila, in fear of the recent Byzantine successes, turned and
assassinated him, making Athanagild the king of the Goths. Quickly the new king tried to rid Spain of
the Byzantines, but failed. The Byzantines occupied many coastal cities in Baetica and this region was
to remain a Byzantine province until its reconquest by the Visigoths barely seventy years later.