Hillgarth 1966

Coins and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth-Century Spain and the Byzantine Background
Author(s): J. N. Hillgarth
Source: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte , Nov., 1966, Bd. 15, H. 4 (Nov., 1966),
pp. 483-508
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434955
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COINS AND CHRONICLES: PROPAGANDA IN SIXTH-CENTURY
SPAIN AND THE BYZANTINE BACKGROUND
I. The Literary Sources for Leovigild and Hermenegild
The reigns of Leovigild (569-586) and his son, Recared (586-60I), constitute
the main turning point in the history of Spain under the Visigoths. Instead of
succumbing, as the Vandals in Africa and the Ostrogoths in Italy had done,
to the Byzantine advance, the Visigoths, under Leovigild and Recared, suc-
ceeded in achieving the political and, later, the religious unity of Spain. The
shiarp division between an Arian barbarian ruling class and the Catholic
Hispano-Roman mass of the population was brought to an end. This was not
achieved without a major crisis, which began with the conversion ca. 580 of
Leovigild's elder son, Hermenegild, to Catholicism. This event precipitated a
civil war in Spain between Hermenegild and Leovigild, which ended in Her-
menegild's defeat and eventually in his murder in 585. It is very remarkable
that this crisis did not prevent the official entrance of the Visigoths, led by Her-
menegild's brother, Recared, into the Catholic Church in 589.
The questions associated with the conversion, revolt and death of Hermene-
gild have been repeatedly discussed since the sixteenth century and have
been raised again in recent years but we do not seem much nearer an agreement.
In this paper I shall look again at the evidence supplied both by the literary
and the numismatic sources.' But before entering on questions of detail it may
1 This article is, in part, based on "La Conversion de los Visigodos: notas criticas,"
Analecta sacra Tarraconensia, xxxiv (I96I), 21-46. The first part of "La Conversion"
consisted of some (unnecessarily polemical) comments on an important article by Professor
E. A. Thompson, "The Conversion of the Visigoths to Catholicism," Nottingham Mediaeval
Studies, iv (I960), 4-35; most of these comments are not reproduced here. In this paper
I have tried to place the Hermenegild episode in its historical context. I have born in
mind a remark of Marc Bloch's, Journal des Savants (1926), 419f., when he was speaking
of this period, "that the sources of one region are ordinarily so poor that they need to be
constantly compared in the light of documents from neighbouring countries." My owIn
estimate of the situation, and in particular of Hermenegild, has altered. I should not now
conclude, "sans phrase," that "the conflict betwveen Hermenegild and his father was
essentially a religious war."
In this article I use the following abbreviations: MGH, AA = Monumenta (Germaniae
historica, Auctores antiquissimi; SRM = ibid., Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum; PL =
Patrologia latina, ed. J-P. Migne; Campos = Julio Campos, Juan de Biclaro, obispo de
Gerona. Su Vida y su obra (Madrid, I960). I cite the Chronicon of John of Biclar by the
editions of Mommsen (MGH, AA, xi) and of Campos; Isidore, Chronicon and Historia
3I Historia XV/4

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484 J. N. HILLGARTH
be well to recall briefly the political situation and what one may call the
intellectual climate of the late sixth-century Mediterranean world. To under-
stand either of these things we have to begin with Byzantium. If we begin, as
many historians still do, with the a Posteriori view that the restoration of the
empire in the West by Justinian was "an anachronistic enterprise, necessarily
ephemeral,"2 we deprive ourselves (even if this estimate - as is highly
debatable - should be correct) of the possibility of understanding the minds
of Justinian's contemporaries. In the sixth century it was the barbarian king-
doms that seemed ephemeral and different in nature from the ageless imperial
rule.3
The first half of the sixth century had seen the collapse of the Vandal and
Ostrogothic kingdoms before the Byzantine troops. It is true that the reign of
Justinian's successor, Justin II (565-578), was marked by new wars on every
front but the situation cannot have seemed, and was not, in fact, hopeless.
The empire remained economically and financially powerful.4 Justinian's reign,
too, had seen the apparent failure of his plans for the West but the failure had
been redeemed. The Emperor Maurice (582-602) was to succeed in stabilizing
the situation in Italy and Africa, on the Danube and in the East. Maurice had
plans to send one of his sons to rule in Rome and another in Carthage.5 It is
clear that Justinian's successors had no intention of abandoning his revindi-
cation of the empire's rights in the West. The imperial navy continued to
dominate the Mediterranean and it was to Constantinople that all cultivated
Gothorum by Mommsen (ibid.); Isidore, De viris illustribus, by the new edition by Carmen
Codofier Merino (Salamanca, I964), and by PL, lxxxiii; Gregory of Tours, Historia
Francorumt, according to MGH, SRM, i2, ed. B. Krusch and W. Levison (Hannover, 1951);
Gregory the Great, Dialogi, according to the edition of U. Moricca = Fonti per la storia
d'Italia, lvii (Rome, 1924), and his Registrum according to MGH, Epistulae, ed. P. Ewald
and L. M. Iartmann (Berlin, I89I-99). Since I96I an article by Professor Karl Friedriclh
Stroheker, "Das spanische Westgotenreich und Byzanz", Bonner jahrbiicher, clxiii (I963),
252-274, has appeared, to which I am much indebted. I should also like to thank Professor
R. L. Wolff for his kindness in reading this article and for his valuable suggestions and
criticisms.
2 Ram6n Menendez Pidal, Historia de Espaina, iii (Madrid, 1940), XXiii, "empresa
anacr6nica, efimera por fuerza." One could quote many other similar judgements.
3 See, for example, the famous letter of Gregory the Great to Phocas (of 603),
Registrum, xiii, 34, also ibid., xi, 4.
4 See the classic work of Ernst Stein, Studien zur Geschichte des by,zantinischen Reiches
vornehmlich unter den Kaisern Justinus II i. Tiberius Constantinus (Stuttgart, i919),
also P. Goubert, Byzance avant l'Islani, i (Paris, 1951), 51-3, 55-9; A. H. M. Jones, The
Later Roman Empire, 284-602, i (Oxford-Norman, Oklahoma, I964), 298-302, 315;
A. R. Lewis, Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean A.D. 500o-i00 (Princeton,
1951), 38-49.
5 See Goubert, i, I83, 271 f.; G. Ostrogorsky, Geschichte der byzantinischen Staates2
(MIunich, 1952), 67 and n. 2. John of Biclar, s. a. 587, 3 (Mommsen, 2I8; Campos, 95)
records Byzantine successes in Italy.

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Coins and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth-Century Spain 485
men in Italy, Africa and Spain still turned as the principal Christian power in
the world, as the natural defender of the Faith "against barbarian foes."6
While Rome after the Gothic War, in the words of Pope Gregory the Great,
"lay buried in its own ruins," Constantinople, the "new Rome" of the African
poet Corippus, remained "the royal city" by definition, even to a Visigothic
writer such as John of Biclar. It doubtless struck him very much in the same
way that it had impressed Jordanes, who, writing in 55I, describes its effect on
an earlier Gothic visitor, writing of "the coming and going of the ships, the
splendid walls and the people of diverse nations gathered like a flood of waters
streaming from different regions into one basin." To the world of the sixth
century the ruler of Constantinople was "truly a god on earth (Deus sinle dubio
terrenus)."7 It was to Constantinople that Gregory the Great was sent as
ambassador by Pope Pelagius II (579-590), mainly to obtain imperial aid
against the Lombards, and it was thither that Bishop Leander of Seville
travelled, probably in 580, to seek for help for the Catholic Hermenegild against
his father Leovigild.8
When one studies the literary sources for the civil war between Hermenegild
and Leovigild one would do well to begin by establishing the position of the
authors concerned with regard to Byzantium. Our main authors are four in
number, two writing in Spain, John of Biclar and Isidore of Seville, one in Gaul,
Gregory of Tours, and, lastly, Pope Gregory the Great.
The position of Gregory the Great with regard to Byzantium was complex.
Rome and with it the papacy had been reincorporated into the Empire in the
time of Justinian. Gregory always saw the laws of this world in the light of the
Last Judgment, which seemed to him imminent. At times imperial edicts ap-
peared to infringe the individual's right to find salvation (most especially in mon-
asticism); at other times the emperor acted uncanonically in other ways. Then
Gregory would (privately) make his views known to the emperor. But he saw
the empire much as Augustine had done. For him the Church and the Christian
State were inseparable joint organs of the City of God. The empire was still,
as Fischer says, "the ideal expression of Christian universalism" and in fact
the frontiers of the empire and of the Christian world still largely coincided -
in the West the only Christians definitely outside the imperial borders were the
Frankish kingdoms, most of Spain and the far distant Irish; in the East only
the heretical Christians of Persia. For Gregory it was in the empire that "we
see God is worshipped." May it expand, he prayed, "so that the name of Christ
6 See Lewis, Op. Cit., 26-32 and the inscription cited below, n. 8i.
7 Gregory, Dialogi, ii, I5; Corippus, In laudemn Iustini, i, 344, ed. J. Partsch, MGH,
AA, iii, 2, 126, et alibi; John of Biclar, e.g. s. a. 573, 4 (Mommsen, 2I3; Campos, 83);
Jordanes, De origine actibusque Getarum, xxviii, I43, ed. Mommsen, MGH, AA, v, 95
(trans. C. C. Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes, Princeton, 19I5).
8 See, e.g., T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, v (Oxford, I895), 240f., and, for Leander,
below, n. 67.
3I'

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486 J. N. HILLGARTH
may be known on all sides, by preaching the Faith to subject peoples."

Gregory's wish to further the harmony of Church and empire led him to
remark, "what the emperor does, if it is canonical, we follow it, if it is not
canonical we bear with it, as far as can be done without sin."9
Gregory's predecessor, Pelagius II, tried to bring the Franks into Italy, as
the emperor's allies against the Lombards. The popes were principally anxious
to secure the safety of Rome but at times they can only have appeared as
imperial agents. This was how the emperor saw them.'0 It seems very possible
that the long delay of Recared in communicating to Pope Gregory the official
notice of his conversion and that of the Visigoths was due to the king's suspicion
of the close relations between the papacy and the empire." Later on Recared
had recourse to the pope as the natural intermediary when he wished to secure
a text of the peace treaty between his predecessor Athanagild and the Emperor
Justinian.'2 In the Dialogi Gregory was not interested in recording the political
actions of Hermenegild. He had other reasons, as I shall show, for introducing
this Visigothic prince into his work. But Gregory's whole view of Hermenegild
shows that he considered that his rebellion against Leovigild was legitimate,
since it was directed against an unjust and heretical father, and also, very
possibly, since it was supported by the authority of Byzantium.'3
9 The texts cited are Registrurm, i, 73 and xi, 29. For the liturgical form of prayer for
the emperor, that he may triumph over all barbarian nations, see also Reg. vii, 5 and 7,
etc. Erich Caspar, Geschichte des Papsttums, ii (Tiubingen, I933), 467f., notes how different
were the tone and the actions of Gregory from those of St Ambrose or of Pope Gelasius I.
When protesting against the edict prohibiting soldiers or those holding civil office from
becoming monks Gregory took care to stress that he was writing, "neque ut episcopus
neque ut servus iure rei publicae, sed iure privato" (Reg. iii, 6I). The letter concludes with
the statement that Gregory has published the edict. Thus, by at once publishing the law
and privately protesting against it, he has shown his obedience to the emperor and his
duty to God. See also Reg. iii, 64 and E. F. Fischer, "Gregor der Grobe und Byzanz,"
Zeitschrift der Savigny-Sti/tung Iiur Rechtsgeschichte, Kanon. Abt., xxxvi (1950), 15-144,
especially I8-20, 57-68, 129-144.
10 Cf. the inscription placed by Pelagius II in the altar of St Peter's (J. B. de Rossi,
Inscriptiones christianae urbis Romac septimo saeculo antiquiores, ii [Rome, I888], 145f.);
Hodgkin, loc. cit. For the position of the papacy under Justinian and his successors cf.
Caspar, op. cit., chaps. VI and VII and L. Duchesne, L'Tglise au VIe siecle (Paris, 1925),
262-69. See 1i. I2 below.
11 Cf., in the same sense, J. Ma. de Lacarra, "La Iglesia visigoda en el s. VII y sus
relaciones con Roma," Le Chiese nei regnii dell'Europa occidentale e i loro rapporti coi
Ronia sino all'8oo = Settimnane di studio, vii. I (Spoleto, I960), 367f. and the "Discussione,"
4o6 f.
12 See Gregory, Registrum, ix, 229. Gregory excused himself from intervening, on the
grounds that the imperial archives had been destroyed. He did act as mediator between
the Franks and Byzantium (see Reg. viii, 4 and esp. xiii, 7 and 9) and between the empire
and the Lombards. He even notified the emperor of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons
of Kent (xi, 35).
13 See n. 44 below and, above, n. 3.

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The main contemporary Spanish source for Hermenegild is the Chronicle of

John of Biclar, of those active in Spain in the crucial years alone in having left
a record that survives. Isidore of Seville largely depends on John, though he
was himself a contemporary of the civil war of the 58os (he was probably born
ca. 560), and his elder brother, Leander, was deeply involved, being active in
the conversion both of Hermenegild and of Recared to Catholicism.
John's attitude to Byzantium is of interest. He was born in Lusitania in
South-West Spain, where classical culture was more strongly rooted than in
the North. He spent seventeen years as a young man (559-576) at Constanti-
nople. He was a Visigoth by birth, although brought up as a Catholic. It is
difficult to assess his attitude to the empire before the official conversion of
the Visigoths in 589 since his Chronicle was written after this event. His sym-
pathies would naturally have been divided. Constantinople, as has been said,
was for him "the royal city," Spain was "the province of the Goths."114 (It had
been granted to them by the empire in the fifth century and had been held by
them, at least nominally, for over a century, though part of it was in imperial
hands since 552.) It is only gradually that events in Spain begin to assume in
John's Chronicle an importance comparable to happenings in the empire.
The Chronicle begins in 567, very significantly, with one of the first import-
ant acts of Justinian's successor, Justin II, one that concerned religion.
Justinian had roused strong opposition in the Latin West by his attempts to
pacify the Monophysite opponents of the Council of Chalcedon in Egypt and
Syria. Justinian's (Fifth Ecumenical) Council of Constantinople (553) had
condemned several authors approved by Chalcedon and this condemnation had
created a schism in North Italy; another schism has only been prevented in
North Africa by the exile of leading ecclesiastics.15 These events were well
known in Spain, where the Church, in Visigothic times, never accepted the
Fifth Council as Ecumenical.1 But Justin II, John of Biclar tells us, "destroyed
all that had been done against the synod of Chalcedon."17 Justin II's action
14 John. s. a. 569, 4 (Mommsen, 212; Campos, 8o). Similarly, he speaks (s. a. 587, 3)
of "provincia Italiae."
15 See Duchesne, op. cit., i88-255; E. Amann, "Trois-Chapitres," Dictionnaire de
th6ologie catholique, xv (Paris, I950), I868-I924.
16 J. Madoz, Revista espaiiola de teologia, xii (1952), I89-204; Lacarra, art. cit., 382f.
For the restricted sense of "ecumenical" in the sixth century see R. Devreesse, "Le cin-
quibme concile et l'oecume'nicit6 byzantine," Miscellanea G. Mercati, iii (Citt'a del Vaticano,
1946), 1-15.
17 John, s. a. 567, 2 (Mommsen, 2II; Campos, 78): "ea, quae contra synodum Chalce-
donensem fuerant commentata, destruxit." Justin II, by his first Henoticon, also annulled
Justinian's last theological aberration. At the same time he repeated the condemnation
of the Three Chapters of 553. Cf. Duchesne, 270-3; Campos, 103-5. John's statement was
repeated by Isidore, Chronicon, 401; cf. his De viris, xviii-xix, xxv (ed. Codonier, 144, 147;
PL lxxxiii, IO99, iioI). I am unable to agree with Srta. Codoner (pp. 71f.) that Isidore's
attitude is neutral,

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488 J. N. HILLGARTH
was important because it at once reestablished Byzantium, in the eyes of the

Catholic West, as the champion of the orthodox Faith. John proceeds to show
us this champion intervening, even at the price of war with Persia, to protect
the Armenian and Iberian Christians against persecution for their religion.18
Two years later, in 569, the emperor appears as the apostle of barbarian nations,
for John records that the "Garamantes [a tribe of the Fezzan] sent envoys to
ask for peace with the Roman State and for the Christian Faith... They
received both [things] at once."'9 The conversion of pagans, for John as for
Gregory the Great, was part of the duty of the emperor, while it was also a
means of expanding his political influence.20
In the early years of John of Biclar's Chronicle his attention is concentrated
on the empire. It is only after 577 that it shifts to Spain. This change in
emphasis is certainly due in part to John's return to Spain ca. 576,21 but it is
also due to the reorganisation of the Visigothic kingdom by Leovigild and his
victories over all his enemies, including the local Byzantine forces. Under
Leovigild there appeared to be emerging a new centre of power in the Mediter-
ranean, which could stand against Byzantium. It was natural that John of
Biclar should welcome the rise of a great king of his own race.22 While chronicling
Leovigild's victories John does not appear, however, as definitely hostile to
the empire. In contrast, John's younger contemporary, Isidore of Seville,
delights in recording the defeats of the "Roman troops" and their final ejection
from Spain.23
The attitude of Gregory of Tours to Byzantium is less definite than that of
Gregory the Great or John of Biclar. There was no question of direct opposition
between the empire and the Frankish kingdoms. Contact between Constan-
tinople and Gaul was sporadic and was mainly due to the empire's attempts
to induce the Franks to intervene in Italy against the Lombards. On the other
hand Gregory of Tours was well informed of events in Spain. The Merov-
ingian and Visigothic royal houses were allied by several (generally unfortunate)
marriages and embassies frequently travelled between the two countries.24
18 John, s. a. 567, 3 (Mommsen, 2ii; Campos, 78).

19 Idem, ibid., 569, i (Mommsen, 212; Campos, 79).
20 Cf. Duchesne, op. cit., 650-2, and the text of Gregory the Great quoted above
(Reg. i. 4, 73).
21 For John's seventeen years in Constantinople cf. Isidore, De viris, xxxi (Codonier,
15I; PL, lxxxiii, II05). E. Florez, Espaiia Sagrada, Vi3 (Madrid, I859), 362f., dates his
return in 575; Mommsen, 207f., in 576.
22 John only reckons years in Gothic kings, as well as emperors, from Leovigild (from
569 or 570). See n. 76 below.
23 Throughout his Chronicon John devotes considerable attention to the East, on
which he is generally well informed. Byzantium, to him, is always a great Christian power.
Cp. Isidore, e.g. Historia Gothorum, xlvii, liv, lxii.
24 Cf. N. H. Baynes, Byzantine Studies and other Essays (London, 1955), 3I2-5, also
the valuable article by W. Goffart, "Byzantine Policy in the West under Tiberius II and

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We thus have four points of view with regard to Byzantium in the existing
literary sources for Hermenegild's life - that of Gregory the Great, who naturally
saw events from within the empire, though he was principally interested in the
struggle between Arians and Catholics; that of John of Biclar, familiar with
Constantinople but whose admiration was aroused by Leovigild's victories;
the nationalist (better, perhaps, isolationist) view of Isidore of Seville, deeply
hostile to Byzantium; and, lastly, the neutral Gregory of Tours, whose neu-
trality was, however, relative, since his detestation of Arianism was no less
pronounced than that of the other three writers in question.
If the would-be universal empire dominated the Mediterranean it was
largely because of its intimate connection with the would-be universal Catholic
Church. All men of the sixth century were bound to be concerned with the
question of religious unity, without which no state could seem secure. Procopius
writes of Justinian in the Secret History, "Anxious to unite all men in the same
opinion about Christ, he destroyed dissidents indiscriminately, and that under
the pretext of piety; for he did not think that the slaying of men was murder
unless they happened to share his own religious opinions." Procopius was
indeed willing, in the Secret History, to use any smear against Justinian but it
is interesting that it should have occurred to him to use this charge.25 The
conduct satirised would have seemed normal and praiseworthy to most men,
provided it was exercised on behalf of their own beliefs. In his work on Justin-
ian's Buildings, written some years after the unpublished Secret History,
Procopius numbers among Justinian's major achievements, on a level with his
conquests, his legal codifications, his fortifications, etc., his imposition of
theological unity on the empire's inhabitants.26 The Arian rulers of the barbar-
ian kingdoms were, in general, more tolerant than the rulers of Byzantium,
but their tolerance, one may suspect, was mainly due to the weakness of their
position. There were persecuting Arian kings, as certain as any Catholic ruler
that they had the truth on their side. The Vandal King Hunneric (477-484)
saw the Arians as the "true worshippers of the Divine Majesty," and the
Visigothic King Leovigild held that his was the Catholic Faith. Both sought
to impose their views on their subjects.27
Maurice: the Pretenders Hermenegild and Gundovald (579-585)," Traditio, xiii (I957),
73-1I8. Gregory's account of Justin II (Hist. Franc., iv, 40) is inaccurate.
25 Anecdota, 13. 7, trans. J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, ii (New Yor
I958), 428. I owe the characterisation of the Secret History as a smear to Professor R. L.
Wolff.
26 A edificia, i. 9, trans. H. B. Dewing (Loeb Classical Library), 4 f. Cf. Ch. Diehl, Justinien
et la civilisation byzantine du VIe siecle, ii (New York, I960), 'L'oeuvre religieuse," 315-366.
27 Hunneric's edict is cited by Victor of Vita, Hist., iii, 3-I4, ed. M. Petschenig (Vienna,
i88I), 72-8. On Hunneric and the Catholic Church cf. C. Courtois, Les Vandales et l'Afrique
(Paris, 1955), 293-9. For Leovigild cf. below, n. 12I. For other Visigothic Kings see
Thompson, art. cit. (n. i), gf.

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490 J. N. HILLGARTH
Both Gregory the Great and John of Biclar were always conscious of the
Catholic-Arian issue and it played a great part in the minds of Isidore of
Seville and Gregory of Tours.28 The introduction of Hermenegild into the
Dialogi, a work officially concerned with the miracles of Italian saints, was
due, as Gregory the Great himself says, to a desire "to display the [divine]
condemnation of the Arian heresy."29 In this section of the Dialogi we have a
series of miracles revealing the power of the True Faith against Arian Lombards
in Italy, Arian Visigoths in Spain and Arian Vandals in Africa.30 The fact that
Gregory's account of Hermenegild's death for the Catholic Faith appears in
this apologetic context does not mean that it is worthless. Gregory must have
possessed, through his close friendship with Leander of Seville, an accurate
knowledge of Hermenegild's conversion and rebaptism by that bishop and of
the events that followed, at least up to Leander's mission to Constantinople.31
Before writing the Dialogi (ca. 594) Gregory had ample time to receive further
information from Leander after the latter's return to Spain; at least one letter
of Leander to Gregory is mentioned in the latter's reply of 59I but is unfortu-
nately lost.32 It is curious, however, that Gregory does not refer to Hermenegild
in any of his letters to Spain; this silence is especially notable in Registrum,
V, 53a, where the pope refers to Leander's mission to Constantinople; it is in
striking contrast to the enthusiasm for Hermenegild in the Dialogi. Gregory
knew, of course, that his letters to Leander would circulate widely in Spain,
as in fact they did. And in Spain, as we shall see, Hermenegild was not a name
of happy remembrance.33
28 For Isidore cf. Hist. Vand., 78-79, 8i; Hist. Suev., go; Hist. Goth., 50 (et alibi); also
De viris, i (defection of Osius), xxii (conversion of the Sueves), xxviii (conversion of the
Goths), xxx-xxxi (anti-Arian champions), ed. Codofier, 133 f., 145, I49, I5I f .; PL, lxxxiii,
io87, IIOO, 1103, II05. Common phrases are "arriana impietas," "arriana insania,"
"arriana pravitas." For Gregory of Tours cf. his long debates with Visigothic envoys,
Hist. Franc., V, 43; VI, 40.
29 Gregory, Dial., III, 30 (Moricca, 204): "Quamvis sola quae in Italia gesta sunt
narrare decreveram, visne tamen ut, pro ostendenda eiusdem arrianae hereseos dam-
natione, transeamus verbo ad Hispanias, atque inde per Africam ad Italiam redeamus ?".
30 Ibid., 29-32. The miracle Gregory recounts of Africa (III, 32, prisoners without
tongues continue to speak) is a garbled version of a often repeated story. Cf. C. Courtois,
Victor de Vita et son oeuvre (Algiers, I954), 82 n. io8. For Gregory's view of Theodoric's
fate as a persecuting Arian king cf. Dial., IV, 31.
31 See John Chapman, St. Benedict and the Sixth Century (London, 1929), 5 n. i.
Fr. Gorres, always a severe critic, admits the authenticity of Gregory's information as to
Hermenegild's conversion, though not as to his martyrdom; cf. Zeitschrift fur die historische
Theologie, xliii (I873), 11-13. See n. 67 below.
32 Cf. Registrum, i, 41. In the Dialogi (iii, 3I) Gregory states his sources for Hermene-
gild's martyrdom, "sicut multorum, qui ab Hispaniarum partibus veniunt, relatione
cognovimus" (Moricca, 204).
33 Sisebut's use of Reg. i, 41 was pointed out by Gorres, Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche
Theologie, xlii (I899), 3I1. The Dialogi appear only to have reached Spain after Isidore's

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Coins and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth-Century Spain 49I
John of Biclar felt as strongly as Pope Gregory the importance of the

Arian problem. The longest section of John's Chronicle and its triumphant
conclusion consists of the account of the Third Council of Toledo in 589, which
celebrated the conversion of the Visigoths from Arianism to Catholicism. At
this Council King Recared, in John's words, "renewed in our times the example
of Constantine the Great at Nicaea and of the Most Christian Emperor Marcian
at Chalcedon."34 The Arian heresy first condemned at Nicaea was at last, after
280 (really 264) years "cut off at the roots."35 John here forgot the Arian
Lombards, as Gregory the Great, despite the congratulations he addressed to
Recared, was unlikely to do.36 But it was certainly a great day and a great
triumph for Catholicism in the West, balanced, as John (inaccurately) believed,
in the East by the contemporary conversion of the "Emperor of the Persians."37
The power and prestige of Byzantium and its brilliant exploitation of the
anti-Arian issue dominate the sixth-century Mediterranean world and some
of the more obscure points of the Leovigild-Hermenegild conflict may become
clearer if we bear this fact in mind.37a
There exists, as is well known, a flat contradiction between the early
Spanish and non-Spanish literary sources for the 58os, as regards the rebellion
of Hermenegild. The Spanish sources, John of Biclar and Isidore, completely
ignore the existence of any religious motives for the civil war. They ignore the
conversion of Hermenegild to Catholicism, which is attested by Gregory of
Tours and Gregory the Great. John of Biclar, after recounting Hermenegild's
marriage in 579 to Ingundis, the daughter of the Frankish King Sigebert,
states that Leovigild gave his son "a part of the province [apparently Baetica]
ro rule." (Hermenegild and his brother Recared had been made "consortes
time. Apart from the Vitas SS. PP. Emeritensium (below, n. 78), generally dated in the
630s, the Dial. are only used by later Visigothic authors, of whom the earliest is Taio,
Sententiae (ca. 652). Cf. I. M. Gomez, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geographie eccl6siasti-
ques, xv (Paris, I96I) 4iof., for possible use by Braulio.
34 John, s. a. 590, I (Mommsen, 2I9; Campos, 98): "renovans temporibus nostris
antiquum principem Constantinum Magnum sanctam synodum Nicaenam sua illustrasse
praesentia, nec non et Marcianum Christianissimum imperatorem ..." Cf. Concilium
Toletanum iii, PL, lxxxiv, 345C, the acclamations of the assembled bishops, "Ipse (the
king) novarum plebium in Ecclesia catholica conquisitor: Ipse mereatur veraciter apos-
tolicum meritum qui apostolicum implevit officium." For John's view of Arianism cf.
Campos, I 69.
35 "Radicitus amputata" (ibid.). 36 Reg., ix, 228.
37 John, ibid. 2. Cf. Campos, 149. There was some foundation for John's optimism
about the Persian emperor, who (while in exile) was actually receiving instruction from
the Bishop of Melitene in Armenia. Cf. Gegory, Registrum, iii, 62, written in 593, when it
was clear that the effort would fail. (I owe this reference to Professor Wolff.)
37a Otto G. von Simson, Sacred Fortress, Byzantine Art and Statecraft in Ravenna
(Chicago, 1948) has shown how Justinian used the mosaics of Ravenna to advance his
plans for the reintegration of Italy into the Orthodox empire. One can justly speak of a
successful blend of "political realism and religious fantasy" (p. 9).

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492 J. N. HILLGARTH
regni" in 573; that is, they had been associated in the royal power.38) "Then,"
continues John, "while Leovigild was reigning peacefully, a domestic quarrel
disturbed the land. For the same year [579] his son Hermenegild, by the impulse
(, actione) of Queen Goiswintha assumed a tyrannical power in Seville ... and
made other cities and fortresses rebel against his father. This was a cause of
greater destruction for the province of Spain, both for Goths and Romans,
than the invasion of foreign enemies."39
Under 58o John records an Arian synod in Toledo, which attempted to
bring about conversions from Catholicism. He does not connect this event with
Hermenegild.40 Under 582-584 John describes the civil war, Leovigild's suc-
cessful siege of Seville, his capture of Hermenegild at Cordoba and his exile to
Valencia. His murder in Tarragona is recorded under 585. There is still no
word of religion.4' Isidore of Seville, writing ca. 624, has two brief references
to Hermenegild. In his Chronicle he states, "The Goths, divided into two
factions by Hermenegild, the son of King Leovigild, were destroyed in mutual
slaughter."42 In the Historia Gothorum Hermenegild appears as just one more
tyrant, one more opponent of the attempts of Leovigild to achieve the unity
of the country. Isidore writes, "Leovigild determined to enlarge the kingdom
by war and to increase its power." (He gained many victories, conquering
various rebels and defeating the Byzantines.) "Then he besieged and overcame
his son Hermenegild, who had set up as a tyrant."43
In contrast to this attitude, Gregory the Great, while ignoring Hermenegild's
political actions, tells us that Hermenegild died because he refused to receive
communion from an Arian bishop. He had previously been "deprived of his
kingdom" and thrown into prison by his father because he refused to return to
38 John. s. a. 573, 5 (Mommsen, 213; Campos, 83).

39 Ibid., 579 (Mommsen, 215; Campos, 89): "Liuuigildus rex ... provinciae partem
ad regnandum tribuit . . . Liuuigildo ergo quieta pace regnante adversariorum securitatem
domestica rixa conturbat. Nam eodem anno filius eius Hermenegildus factione Gosuinthae
reginae tyrannidem assumens in Hispali civitate rebellione facta recluditur et alias civi-
tates atque castella secum contra patrem rebellare facit. Quae causa provincia Hispaniae
tam Gothis quam Romanis maioris exitii quam adversariorum infestatio fuit." For
Goiswintha see "La Conversi6n" (n. I above), 26 n. 12.
40 See below, n. 121.
41 John (Mommsen, 216f.; Campos, 91-3). See n. 44 below.
42 Isid., ChTon., 405: "Gothi, per Ermenegildum Leuvigildi filium bifarie divisi mutua
caede vastantur."
43 Idem, Hist. Goth., xlix: "Leuvigildus adepto Hispaniae et Galliae principatum,
ampliare regnum bello et augere opes statuit ... (A resume of John's information)
Hermenegildum deinde filium imperiis suis tyrannizantem obsessum exsuperavit." A
third Spanish source, the Acts of the Third Council of Toledo (589) contains no clear
reference to the events of the preceding decade; though Recared's address and Leander
of Seville's homily both contain (PL, lxxxiv, 343B, 36iA) veiled references to the persecu-
tion of the Catholic Church by Leovigild, he is not mentioned by name.

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Arianism. His murder was ordered by his father." Gregory of Tours is the
only contemporary authority who explicitly states that the cause of the war
between Hermenegild and Leovigild was Hermenegild's conversion to Catho-
licism, an event which closely followed his taking up the government of
Baetica.45 "When Leovigild," Gregory remarks, "heard of [Hermenegild's
rebaptism as a Catholic] he began to seek occasion to bring his son to ruin. But
Hermenegild learnt his intent and went over to the emperor's side, entering
into friendly relations with his prefect," i.e. the governor of the Byzantine
province in Southern Spain. Then Leovigild invited his son to a conference.
"But his son answered: 'I go not, since thou art mine enemy because I am a
Catholic'." In other words Hermenegild would have claimed that he was in
danger because of his religious beliefs and was obliged to defend himself.46
It is, of course, questionable how far this plea can be received. Religious
and political motives were inextricably intertwined in the civil war between
Leovigild and Hermenegild and one may agree with Don Manuel Torres that
"history will never be able to establish up to what point political motives may
have influenced the conversion of the future martyr."47 The point is, however,
that the Spanish sources deliberately ignore a part of the truth, the religious
side of the quarrel.48 Why do they do this?
The key to this problem surely lies in the radical change that must have
taken place with the conversion of King Recared. It is essential not to forget
44 Dial., iii, 31 (Moricca, 205): "iratus pater eum privavit regno, ... in arcta illum
custodia concludens." Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc., Viii, 28, ix, I6) also states that
Leovigild was responsible for his son's death. For a possible corroboration of Gregory the
Great's account by a MS. of Isid., Hist. Goth., cf. "La Conversi6n" (n. i above), 29 n. 17.
45 I have shown in "La Conversi6n," 29 n. i8, that the Historia Ps.-Isidoriana (MGH,
A A, XI, 385) is totally unreliable. It cannot usefully be adduced as evidence for Leovigild's
or Hermenegild's motives or indeed for this period at all.
46 Hist. Franc., v, 38: "Tandem commotus [Hermenegildus] ad eius (his wife's) praedi-
cationem, conversus est ad legem catholicam, ac dum crismaretur, Iohannis est vocitatus.
Quod cum Leuvichildus audisset, coepit causas quaerere, qualiter eum perderet. Ille vero
haec intellegens, ad partem se imperatoris iungit, legans cum praefectum eius amicitias...
Et ille [Hermenegildus]: 'Non ibo, quia infensus es mihi, pro eo quod sim catholicus'."
One might attribute Gregory of Tours' harsh censure of Hermenegild on another occasion
to inconsistency (Hist. Franc., vi, 43), but it seems that it was not Hermenegild's resistance
to his father that Gregory blamed (cf. v, 38), but plans he is supposed to have formed
against his father's life. Gregory is blaming Hermenegild's plan to ambush Leovigild at
Osset, near Seville. For further evidence that Hermenegild claimed to be acting in self-
defence see n. io8 below.
47 M. Torres, in Historia de Espania, iii (n. 2 above), 103: "la Historia no lograra nunca
aclarir hasta que punto los motivos politicos pudieron influir en la conversi6n del luego
m artir."
48 Gregory of Tours' account is reinforced, to some extent, by the coin-legends I discuss
below. These coins show, at least, that both sides found religious slogans useful as propa-
ganda.

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494 J. N. HILLGARTH
that almost all our sources for the attitude of the Spanish clergy during the
revolt of Hermenegild are later than this event of 587. Before 587 the Catholics
of Spain were in the same position as the Gallo-Romans before Vouill6, the
African provincials under the Vandals and the Italians under Odoacer and, to
a lesser extent, under the Ostrogoths. All these Roman provincials were ruled
over for varying periods by barbarians who were also Arian heretics. Their
natural friends were, in the first place, the emperor in Constantinople, and,
later, the barbarian princes who had become Catholics, the Franks under
Clovis and, in Spain, the Sueves in Galicia.49
The Byzantines knew perfectly how to make use of the latent antipathy
between the Roman provincials and their Arian rulers. In particular, the
Byzantines made use of the leaders of the Catholic population, the landed
proprietors and the Church. In Africa under the Vandals the Church, in close
alliance with the landed proprietors dispossessed by Geiseric, was in a per-
manent state of opposition: it can be said virtually to have solicited perse-
cution by the Arians, a persecution which was far more serious and conti-
nuous than elsewhere.50 This persecution of Catholics provided a powerful
justification for the Byzantine "Reconquest" of Africa in 533, an intervention
which the African Catholics had long demanded. The Reconquest began with
the revolt of a wealthy Roman landowner in Tripolitana, who called in Byzan-
tine troops. Justinian, hesitating as to whether or not to intervene, was
promised divine aid by a bishop who recounted a well-timed vision.51 Later,
Justinian tried to invoke the motive of orthodoxy to persuade the Catholic
Franks to join him against the Ostrogoths.52 But the surest allies of the
Byzantines in Italy were the Church and the senatorial nobility; the latter
controlled and could arm hordes of peasants during the greatest crisis of the
Ostrogothic war.53
Seen against the background of contemporary events in Africa and Italy
the conflict between Hermenegild and his father and the respective attitudes
of Spanish and non-Spanish authors become more intelligible. One should also
recall the recent and incomplete character of the Visigothic occupation of
49 For Hermenegild and the Franks and Sueves cf. below, n. 64.
50 Cf. Courtois, Les Vandales (n. 27 above), 286-310; idem, Victor de Vita (n. 30),
passim. For an author like Victor of Vita the cause of African Catholicism was inseparable
from that of Roman civilisation. Arians = barbarians. Cf. Victor, Hist, iii, 62 f. (Petschenig,
102 f.).
51 Procopius, Bellum Vand., I, x, 19, 22. See now W. E. Kaegi, "Arianism and the
Byzantine Army in Africa", Traditio, xxi (I965), 32-53, esp. 32-45.
52 Idem, Bellum Goth., I, v, 9: "It is proper that you should join with us in waging
this war, which is rendered yours as well as ours not only by the Orthodox Faith, which
rejects the opinions of the Arians," but also by a common enmity against the Goths
(H. B. Dewing, Loeb).
53 Cf. S. Mazzarino, in II Passaggio dall'antichitd al medioevo in Occidente = Settimane
di Studio, ix (Spoleto, i962), 4x5f.

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Spain. By the time of the Byzantine intervention in Spain in 552 the Visigoths
lhad been settled for some generations in the Meseta of Castille and had suc-
ceeded in conquering South-Eastern Spain but the province of Baetica
(Andalusia) and probably part of Lusitania remained independent. There is,
at least, no evidence in our scanty sources of Gothic occupation and it is
significant that the papacy, in 52I, should have appointed a separate Vicar of
the Apostolic See, the Metropolitan of Seville, "for Baetica and the province
of Lusitania," whereas Caesarius of Arles has been Vicar "in the provinces
of Gaul and Spain" from 5I4. The South of Spain was apparently controlled
by the local aristocracy, in collaboration with the episcopate.54 It was the
attempt of the Visigoths, first possibly under Theudisclus (548-49) and later
under Agila (549-54), to conquer the South which provoked an appeal to
Byzantium, then triumphant over the Vandals and engaged in a long-drawn
out struggle with the Ostrogoths in Italy.
This appeal was made by a Gothic noble, Athanagild, who was probably in
alliance with the Hispano-Roman provincials, provoked by King Agila's anti-
Catholic and expansionist policy.55 The Byzantines were always delighted to
make use of rebellious barbarians. Their official reasons for intervening in
Africa and Italy had not only been religious: they had also claimed to intervene
on one side of a dynastic dispute. Later one finds the same attempt to use
native Lombard pretenders to divide and weaken resistance.56
The choice of a general to lead the expeditionary force to Spain in 552 is
significant. The Patrian Liberius was a man of great age and experience, a
member of the Italian Senatorial nobility who had served under Theodoric as
Prefect of the Gauls and had some previous knowledge of Spain. Justinian's
choice of Liberius implies that the emperor understood that the expedition to
Spain must rely largely on the help of "collaborators."57 In fact the Byzantines
succeeded in defeating King Agila. Athanagild succeeded to the Visigothic
throne but he was unable to expel the Byzantines, who secured their hold on the
54 PL, lxxxiv, 827f. Cf. Duchesne, op. cit., 553-55; R. d'Abadal y de Vinyals, Del
Reino de Tolosa al Reino de Toledo (Madrid, I960), 57f. The commission of 521 may be
compared to an earlier commission (not limited to specific provinces) given to Bishop
Zeno of Merida (fl. 468-483). Zeno was associated, however, with the Visigothic King
Euric; cf. J. Vives, in Romische Quartalschrift, xlvi (1938), 57-6I; PL, lviii, 35.
.55 Theudisclus was murdered at Seville, but probably in the main for non-political
reasons, though he had prepared "necem multorum." Agila "adversus Cordubensem urbem
praelium movens," profaned the tomb of St Acisclus. He was heavily defeated by the
local population. Isid., Hist. Goth., xlivf. Cf. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., iv, 5; Abadal,
64f.
56 Courtois, Les Vandales, 268f.; Bury, op. cit., ii, i6of.; Goffart, art. cit., 97f. One
reason why Byzantium decided to send an expeditionary force to Spain may have been
to prevent further attacks on Byzantine North Africa, such as that made by King Theudis
in the 540s (Isid., Hist. Goth., xlii).
57 For Liberius cf. Stroheker, art. cit. (n. I), 254.

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496 J. N. HILLGARTH
Mediterranean coast from Cartagena to Gibraltar and inland to Cordoba and

Seville.58 Athanagild (554-567) and his greater successor, Leovigild (569-586),
were able to take some cities from the Byzantines but they still preserved their
Mediterranean ports at the time of Hermenegild's conversion in 579. Seville,
the capital of the province Leovigild gave Hermenegild to rule, had only
recently come under Visigothic control and the Visigothic conquest of the
South from the Byzantines had been bitterly resisted by the Hispano-Roman
population.59 When Hermenegild became a Catholic it was natural for him to
look for support to the Church and the provincial aristocracy, which, until
recently, had been independent. His appeal to Byzantium for aid followed a
pattern set by Athanagild and, outside, Spain, by other barbarian princes.60
The Byzantines were delighted to respond to the appeal. Burdened with wars
elsewhere - in North Africa, Italy, on the Danube and against the Persians -
they had been unable to prevent Leovigild's advance. Their only chance in
Spain was to use another pretender, and wlhat better pretender than the king's
son, a Catholic, himself associated in the throne and already in control of the
traditionally independent South ?61 At the same time Hermenegild appealed
to the Sueves in Galicia (converted to Catholicism ca. 56o and traditional
enemies of the Visigoths) and probably also to the Frankish relations of his
wife, Ingundis.62
But the Emperor Tiberius (578-582) was not able to send effective aid and
hiis successor, Maurice, withdrew from this new commitment. It has been sug-
gested that his withdrawal was wise.63 It meant, however, the loss of the best
chance open to the empire in Spain. Leovigild was able to buy off the Byz-
antines and the Frankish and Suevic attempts to intervene were late and
ineffective.'4 That Hermenegild, with little outside aid, contrived to resist
58 Isid., Hist. Goth., xlvif. The most elaborate study of Byzantine Spain is by P. Goubert,
Etudes ByZantines, ii (1944), 5-78; iii (I945), 127-143; iV (1946), 7-133- Cf. Stroheker,
255-57, 272-4 (he shows that the empire probably never possessed Algarve). The map in
Menendez Pidal, Historia de Espaiia, iii (after p. 96) needs some correction.
59 This can, I think, be deduced from the following passages of John of Biclar. For
572 he records (Mommsen, 213; Campos, 82): "Liuuigildus rex Cordubam civitatem diu
Gothis rebellern nocte occupat et caesis hostibus propriam facit multasque urbes et castella
interlecta rusticorum multituidine in Gothorum dominium revocat," and, for 577 (Mommseii,
2I5; Campos, 87): "... non multo post rustici rebellanates a Gothis opprimuntur et post
haec integra a Gothis possidetur Orospeda." See also s.a. 573, 5, 575, 2. Resistancee is
naturally described as rebellion. Cp. the resistance of the Spanish provincials to the Goths
in the late fifth and early sixth centuries (cf. Abadal, op. cit., 43-7) and to Agila (n. 55
above). f60 See above and n. 56.
61 See n. 38 above. Isid., Chron., 402f., evidently saw the relation between the attacks
on the empire in Italy and its weakness in Spain.
62 See Torres, in Menendez Pidal, op. cit., io5f. For an embassy from the Sueves to
Burgundy in 58o cf. Gregory, v. 4I. 63 So Goffart, 74.
64 Torres, ibid.; Thompson, art. cit. (n. I), 14f.

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until 584 shows that he possessed considerable support in the local population,
as well as from a party of the Visigothic nobility, always ready to turn against
a strong king such as Leovigild.65 During these years Leovigild was attempting
to convert Catholics to Arianism, although apparently more by means of
bribes than by force.86 One of the leading Spanish bishops, Leander of Seville,
who had received Hermenegild into the Church, was in Constantinople,
hoping to gain further support from the emperor for his convert.67 Up to this
time the situtation was reasonably clear. Hermenegild, converted to Catho-
licism and the heir to the throne, was engaged in a struggle with his father, the
Arian ruler of Spain. In this struggle he could not fail to enjoy the support of
the Church and the Hispano-Roman aristocracy, at least in the South. There
the Church, like the papacy in Italy, moved within the orbit of Byzantium,
for Catholics living under Arian kings the only legitimate source of political
authority.68
The conversion in 587 of Hermenegild's brother, Recared, completely
changed the situation. While Gregory the Great, who became pope in 590,
continued to remember Hermenegild as a deserving Catholic prince and was
to describe his death as a martyrdom for the Faith, in Spain the aspect of
truth had altered. The Spanish historians who deliberately suppressed any
mention of Hermenegild's Catholicism, John, Abbot of Biclar and later
Bishop of Gerona, and Isidore, Metropolitan of Seville, were statesmen,
preoccupied, inevitable, with the unity of Spain, so recently achieved by the
efforts of Leovigild and Recared. This unity was too precious and too incom-
plete to be endangered by inconvenient memories. That it had been achieved
at all was astonishing. The unstable Visigothic kingdom of the first half of the
sixth century, menaced by religious dissension, attacked from outside by
Franks, Byzantines and Sueves, whose internal history consisted principally
in the assassinations of its kings,69 with no permanent institutions strong
G5 According to Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc., vi, 43) Hermenegild was followed by
many thousands." John of Biclar, s. a. 579 and 583, confirms the seriousness of the
struggle, as does Isidore (n. 42 above). 66 See nn. 73, I2I below.
67 Isidore, De viris, xxviii (Codonier, 149f.; PL, lxxxiii, I I03B) records his elder brother
Leander's "exile," without saying why or where he was exiled. That he was in Constan-
tinople is stated by Gregory the Great, Reg., v, 53a, where his "legatio pro causis fi
Wisigotharum" is mentioned. Cf. also a letter of Licinian of Cartagena (whose see was in
Byzantine Spain) to Gregory, ca. 595, recording Leander's return from his mission
("remeans de urbe regia"), some years before (ed. J. Madoz, Liciniano de Cartagena y sus
cartas [Madrid, 1946], 92; MGH, Epist., i, 6o). On the interpretation of Leander's mission
cf. Goffart, art. cit. (n. 24), 89f. and n. 71.
68 See n. IO above. For the importance of Byzantine recognition of Clovis cf. recently
J. M. WVallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired Kings and other studies in Frankish History
(London, I962), I75-77, i84f. There were, of course, a number of Hispano-Romans in
the service of Leovigild (cf. Thompson, I2).
69 Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., iii, 30, remarks on the "custom" of the Goths of

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498 J. N. HILLGARTH
enough to weld the different races t

German state, principally because Leovigild and Recared knew how to learn
from their enemies and how to make use of Byzantine institutions and ideas.
Leovigild, in his association of his sons in the throne (to preserve continuity
and diminish the danger of assassination), in his founding and fortifying of
new cities, his creation of a palatine office, modelled on the imperial consistory,
his deliberate adoption of Byzantine pomp and ceremonial and his adaptation
of Byzantine Court art and forms of coinage, created another, an alternative
Byzantium in the West.70 Internal reorganisation was accompanied by tlle
crushing of external opposition and the removal of the old prohibition of
marriage between Romans and Goths.71
Leovigild saw that religious unity was necessary. He alone, among Arian
barbarian rulers, attempted a compromise solution by whiclh conversion from
Catholicism would be facilitated. This solution was a response to Hermenegild's
aggressive Catholicism.72 Leovigild's religious policy was at first very successful
but its eventual failure led to the choice by his younger son, Recared, of the
opposite answer to the problem, the adoption by the Arian king of the religion
of the majority of the country.73
By his conversion to Catholicism Recared removed all reason or excuse for
Byzantine intervention. He and his successors achieved in Spain a close harmo-
ny of Church and State, resembling that existing in Constantinople. But the
situation, though satisfactory, might not last. The Third Council of Toledo in
589 celebrated a union of interests rather than of races, interests which might
again divide. The Visigoths preserved their hegemony, the Hispano-Roman
aristocracy its wealth and power, the Church was able to recover and apparently
increase the privileged position it had enjoyed under the Christian Empire.
The fear of rebellion and the desire to avoid for the Church any appearance
of complicity in a recent revolt, much more since this had been supported by
the Byzantines, must have weighed heavily with John and Isidore. John of
Biclar wrote during the reign of Recared.74 He was bound to remember Re-
assassinating their kings. In fact four successive kings, from Amalaric to Agila, were
assassinated (Isid., Hist. Goth., xl, xliiif., xlvi).
70 See Stroheker, art. cit. (n. I), 265-67, and the references tlhere given.
71 Cf. Thompson, 33, for the gradual fusion of Romans and Goths.
72 See below and n. I2I.
73 Gregory of Tours, vi, I8, believed that there were only "a few" Catholics left in
Spain. Cf. Thompson, 20 and n. 8i. For Leovigild's anti-Catholic measures cf. Thompsoii,
15-22, and my comments, "La Conversi6n," 31-33. For Recared's conversion cf. Gregory,
ix, 15.
74 The Chronicon contains references to events of 602 but these apparently derive
from a revision of the work, probably due to a monk of Biclar (= Bejar in Lusitania).
Cf. M. C. Diaz y Diaz, Analecta sacra Tarraconensia, xxxv (I962), 63-5. The work was
probably finished in 590 because of John's elevation to the see of Gerona, which he already
occupied in 592 (PL, lxxxiv, 3PKC).

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cared's support of his father against Hermenegild and that Recared's succession
and reign were possible because of Hermenegild's murder the year before
Leovigild's death.75 These considerations, together with his evident admiration
for a great king of his own Gothic race, perhaps explain why John avoids, as
far as possible, speaking any ill of Leovigild - or any good at all of Hermenegild.76
John of Biclar, followed by Isidore, sees in Hermenegild only the rebel.77
The deliberate omission of Hermenegild's name in the anonymous Lives of the
Holy Fathers of Merida is mainly interesting as representing the official version
- perhaps one should say the official suppression - of history, as accepted by an
uncritical provincial author several decades after the events had taken place.78
It is interesting that, despite the successful imposition of the "official" view
of Hermenegild as a mere rebel on most of our Spanish sources, he was seen
as a martyr by one late seventh-century Spaniard, the strange hermit and
poet, Valerius of Bierzo.71 The same tradition was found in the (now lost) Ms.
Aemilianensis of the Epitome Ovetensis of 88i.80
By the conversion the Visigothic Crown gained the support of the Churclh
and of the educated classes in general. Recognised by the papacy, the change
was not immediately recognised by Byzantium. In 589 or 590 a Byzantine
governor of Cartagena could still refer in an inscription to the Visigoths as
"barbarian foes", but within a few decades his successor was appealing to King
Sisebut as to a fellow Christian.81 Whether the Spanish Church and Hispano-
Roman culture were, in the end, to gain as much from the change as the Crown
is another question and one that cannot be answered here. One can point,
75 I do not wish to imply that Recared was responsible for Hermenegild's death - the
responsibility was Leovigild's (cf. n. 44 above), but it must have been obvious that it was
Recared who principally benefited from it. See "La Conversion," 26 n. i i.
76 Cf. "La Conversion," 26 n. 12. For John's admiration of Leovigild cf. s. a. 569, 4
(Mommsen, 212; Campos, 8o); cf. Isidore, Hist. Goth., xlix.
77 On Isidore's attitude cf. now H. Messmer, Hispania-Idee und Gotenmiytihos (Zuirich,
ig6o), 132-7. M. C. Diaz y Diaz, "La leyenda 'A deo vita' de una moneda de Ermenegildo,"
Analecta sacra Tarraconensia, xxxi (I958), 267 n. 27, has recently pointed to an important
variant in a Spanish MS. of Isidore, Hist. Goth. (MS. 'H' of Mommsen), which alludes
clearly to the conversion of Hermenegild. For the dates of the Chronicon and the Hist.
Goth. (624) cf. J. A. de Aldama, in Miscellanea Isidoriana (Rome, 1936), 63.
78 Vitas SS. Patrum Em;eritensiurn, v, 9, 4, ed. J. N. Garvin (Washington, 1946), 230,
in describing Recared's conversion, quotes from Gregory, Dialogi, iii, 31 (see n. 44 above)
but substitutes "Christum dominum" for Gregory's "fratrem martyrem," as Recared's
model.
79 Valerius, De vana saeculi sapientia, viii (PL, lxxxvii, 426D). Valerius does not appear
to depend on Gregory the Great but he is not a very reliable source (cf. Duchesne, L'E~glise
au VIe siecle, 573 f.).
80 MGH, AA, XI, 288, apparatus.
81 J. Vives, Inscripciones cristianas de la Espaiia romana y visigoda (Barcelolna, 1942),
I26 (no. 362); cp. the letter of the Patrician Caesarius to Sisebut (MGH, Epist., iii, ed.
Gundlach, 663f.); cf. Stroheker, art. cit. (n. I), 26i.
32 Historia XV/4

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500 J. N. HILLGARTH
certainly, to the Isidorian "renaissance," to the real accomplishments of

Spanish art and letters in the seventh century.82 On the other hand it is
undeniable that, as, from 589 onwards, the Spanish Church became closely
integrated with the State, it grew into a narrow isolationism, marked by in-
creasing suspicion of the papacy. Toledo had become the Spanish Byzantium,
almost the Spanish Rome.Y3 It is difficult to say whether the State outdid the
Church in the ugly zeal with which both Church and State pushed forward the
anti-Jewish legislation that mars the Visigothic legal code and the Acts of the
later Councils of Toledo.14 The Church by this time had virtually become a
department of the State. With a convenient servility it endorsed as the decree
of heaven each successful "putsch" of the Visigothic nobility.85 For this
compliance, as for the legislation against the Jews, there were doubtless, as
for most other things in Spain, Byzantine precedents.86
The 'artificial and ephemeral' Byzantinism of Leovigild and Recared was
not deeply enough rooted, however, to endure. It is not enough, as M. Marrou
has recently remarked, to wish to be Byzantine. The Visigoths lacked the
solid armature of the empire. Their state, despite its Roman conception of
"utilitas publica" and its recognition (unusual in barbarian kingdoms) of a
division between the private possessions of the king and those of the Crown,
82 See J. Fontaine, Isidore de Seville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique,

2 vols. (Paris, 1959); H. Schlunk, "Arte Visigodo," Ars Hispaniae, ii (Madrid, I947),
227-323.
83 On the Spanish attitude towards Byzantium saec. VII cf.

Spanish relations with Rome see Lacarra, art. cit. (n. X I), 353-84,
407-412. He concludes (p. 384): "If the Visigothic Church did not separate itself in its
dogmatic principles from the Universal Church and did not formally challenge the au-
thority of the pope, in fact it lived enclosed in itself. It was not the object of special
solicitude from Rome, nor did it receive with pleasure the observations it was occasionally
sent." For a somewhat more favourable view cf. F. X. Murphy, Mdlanges J. de Ghellinch,
i (Gembloux, 1951), 361-73.
84 See S. Katz, The Jews in the Visigothic and Frankish Kingdoms of Spain and Gaul
(Cambridge, Mass., I937), and the reflections of two Catholic historians, A. K. Ziegler,
Church and State in Visigothic Spain (Washington, 1930), 197-99, and, more recently,
A. Echanove, "Precisiones acerca de la legislaci6n conciliar toledana sobre los judios,"
Hispania Sacra, xiv (i96i), 259-79. Cf. also B. Blumenkranz, juits et chritiens dans le
snonde occidental, 430o-096 (Paris, I960), 105-34; E. A. Thompson, in Nottingham Mediacval
Studies, vii (I963), 29-32.
85 Cf. Ziegler, 89-I33, who considers, however, that the bishops had no other choice,
anld the remarks of C. Sainchez-Albornoz, Cuadernos de historia de Espana, v (I946),
86 n. 26o.
86 For a comparison between the role of the Archbishop of Toledo, as Primate of Spain,
and that of the Patriarch of Constantinople cf. Lacarra, 375-78. The anti-Jewish measures
of the Emperor Heraclius are sometimes supposed to have inspired those of Sisebut in
6I3 but Heraclius' measures appear to have come later, in 632 (Blumenkranz, I00 n. 143).
However, Justinian had already legislated against the Jews and esp. the Samaritans
(Ch. Diehl, op. cit. [n. 26 above], 328f.).

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Coins and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth-Century Spain 50I
lacked a civil service which could resist the advance of feudalism.87 Their
strength sapped by the endless strife between great noble families, the Visigotlis
succombed to the first external threat of any importance.
The beginnings of the nationalism I have referred to are, I would suggest,
visible in the Spanish chroniclers I have discussed. The defeat of Hermenegild
made possible, for a time, a strengthening of the Visigothic kingdom. This led
to the rise of a strong national self-consciousness, of which the most obvious
propaganda manifesto is the Laus Spaniae of Isidore of Seville.18 One would
not wish to romanticize the figure of Hermenegild. He was one of a type of bar-
barian pretenders at the service of a would-be universal empire and an
international, anti-Arian Church. It is impossible to separate in Hermenegild
the religious and the political, the power grab and the pious conviction.
It is ironical, however, that the knowledge of his undoubted Catholicism
should have been suppressed in Spain by the Church for which he had
claimed to be fighting and that that Church's greatest representative, Isidore
of Seville, should have shared in the suppression of the truth, in the
interest of the unity of the Kingdom.
II. Religious Formulas in the Coins of Leovigild

and Hermenegild89
It may seem curious that no historian (as far as I know) has yet drawn
adequate attention to the religious formulas in Leovigild'scoins ("Cum Deo. . . ")
and connected them with Hermenegild's revolt and in particular with Herme-
87 H-I. Marrou, in II Passaggio (n. 53 above), 6io; Stroheker, 270; C. Sanchez-

Albornoz, e.g. in I Problemi della civilta carolingia Settimane di Studio, i (Spoleto, 1954),
109-I26.
0 Text in MGH, AA, XI, 267. The word "imperium" is here first applied to Spain. For
the revival in Asturias and Leon of the "imperial" pretensions of the Visigoths - shown
also by their use of the title "Flavius," etc. - cf. J. Lopez Ortiz, in Escorial, vi, 15 (1942),
43-70, and R. Menendez Pidal, El imperio hispinico y los cinco reinos (Madrid, I950). The
word "nationalist" can, of course, only be used in a qualified sense. Cf. the works cited in
Isidoriana (Le6n, I96I), 59 and n. 123. For continued interest in Byzantium, shown in
8th century Spanish chronicles, see C. E. Dubler, in Al-Andalus, xi (1946), 283-349,
esp. 326-333.
89 The interpretation and especially the dating of these coins involves particular
technical problems that can obviously only be dealt with by a numismatist. In the dis-
cussion that follows I have been much helped by Mr. Philip Grierson, who worked independ-
ently over the material some years ago and who has very kindly allowed me to read and
quote from the draft of a relevant chapter in a forthcoming book he is preparing on the
pre-regal Visigothic coinage and the circumstances of the monetary reforms of Leovigild.
It need hardly be said that I am alone responsible for any errors that may be found in this
article. I shall refer throughout to the fundamental work on later Visigothic coinage,
G. C. Miles, The Coinage of the Visigoths of Spain Leovigild to Achila II = Hispanic
Numismatic Se#ies, ii (New York, I952), cited henceforth as Miles.
32e

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502 J. N. HILLGARTH
negild's celebrated coin, with th

is true that some scholars in the p
to make every Visigothic coin into a commemorative medal.90 But though one
must obviously proceed with caution, there can be no doubt that there are
some Visigothic coins that were intended to be commemorative medals recording
historical events. These Visigothic coins preserve some characteristics of the
coinage of antiquity and particularly of the late Roman Empire. The ancient
coin constituted, it has been said, "in a far higher degree than the modern, an
expression of the State in its religious and symbolical aspect."9' an instrument,
in other words, of propaganda. The same thing is true of some coins of Leovigild
and Hermenegild. One can cite the examples of Leovigild's coins recording
the taking of Seville, Italica, Rosas and Cordoba.
The coins of Leovigild which I propose to study here, in relation to Hermene-
gild's coin "regi a Deo vita," are the four that bear religious formulas. Two of
them were issued at Seville, one at nearby Italica and one at Rosas (Roda), in
Catalonia. These coins of Leovigild and Hermenegild bear religious formulas
which are not found in the rest of the Visigothic coinage. Leovigild issued two
further commemorative coins in connection with his war against Hermenegild,
"Cordoba bis optinuit" (584) and "Emerita Victoria" (582 ?), neither with
legends religious in character.92 As is well known many forgeries of Visigothic
coins exist. There are few genuine coins of Hermenegild. Dr Miles recognised
three with the religious legend as authentic but one of them he regarded as
suspicious and Mr Philip Grierson, who has since been able to examine it, has
no hesitation in regarding it as false.93 There appears to be little doubt that
three of the four religious legends of Leovigild are genuine, although two of
these three - those of Italica and Roda - are each of them only represented by
one coin known to survive.94 Dr Miles believes that the other unique coin,
"Cum Deo Spali adquisita," is genuine, but says "one must admit the possibility
of its being a forgery."95
90 See especially A. Fernandez Guerra et al., Historia de Espaita desde la invasidn de

los pueblos germdnicos hasta la ruina de la miionarquia visigoda (Madrid, i89I).
91 H. Mattingly, Camnbridge Ancient History, xii (Cambridge, 1939), 7I4.
92 Miles, 190, I94 f., and below, n. 123.
93 Miles, lggf. P. Grierson, Numismatic Chronicle, 6th Series, xiii (1953), 8o, rejects the
John Hopkins coin (Miles, 200), while retaining as authentic the coins in the British
Museum (Miles, Plate III, no. I4) and that listed by F. Mateu y Llopis, Catdlogo de las
mnonedas previsigodas y visigodas del Gabinete Numismntico del Museo A rqueoldgico Nacional
(Madrid, 1936), Plate VII, no. 73 and p. 228.
94 See Miles, I92 and i85, Plates III, i and II, 6. The coin of Italica is in the collection
of the Hispanic Society of America; that of Roda was formerly in the collection of Don
Manuel Vidal Quadras y Ramon and is now in Paris (Miles, i8f.).
95 Miles, I9I and Plate II, I 7. The coin is apparently in the Museu Municipal at Lisbon.
F. Mateu y Llopis, Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, lxi (I955), 314 n. 34, following
Don Pio Beltran, believes it to be a forgery.

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The question of the dates of these coins is clearly of crucial importance.

From the external evidence of contemporary history it seems clear that the
coin of Italica, "Cum De(o) o(btinuit) Etalica," should be dated to 583, for the
fortification of Italica preceded the taking of Seville and this, in its turn,
preceded the capture of Hermenegild at Cordoba, an event Professor Thompson
has shown should be dated February 584.96 The first coin celebrating the fall
of Seville, "Cum D(e)o optinuit Spali", is presumably of 583 or 584; it was
succeeded by another type with the same legend but with a facing bust replacing
the cross-on-steps. The coin "Cum Deo Spali adquisita" still has the cross-on-
steps, so that, if genuine, it would also be of 584, the date of the fall of Cordoba,
commemorated by what is generally taken to be the first issue of the new type
with two facing busts.97
There remains the coin of Rosas. This coin, with the legend "Cum D(e)o
i(ntravit) Roda," cannot be so easily dated. On the internal evidence of type
evolution, which we shall tum to in a moment, Miles dates it to "between 578
and ca. 583, possibly 58I, the year of Leovigild's campaign against the
Basques."98 We have no ground, however, for supposing the Basques inhabited
Northern Catalonia, where Rosas is situated. John of Biclar, writing of 58I,
records, "Leovigild occupies a part of Vasconia and founded a city, called
Victoria."99 Leovigild's campaign in 58i was clearly confined to the Western
end of the Pyrenees. Fernandez Guerra supposes the Rosas coin commemorated
the suppression of a rebellion in the Narbonense in 578. But no such rebellion
as Fernandez Guerra postulates is known to us from the contemporary sources.l?0
Early in 585 on the other hand, there is contemporary evidence for a war with
the Franks - the only such evidence in Leovigild's reign. The Narbonense was
invaded by Franks and had to be "liberated" by Recared, acting for his
father.'0' Rosas is on the Mediterranean coast, very near to the border of the
Narbonense. Is it not probable that the coin refers to this campaign ?102 We
shall see presently the importance of this point.
From the external evidence, then, the three or four religious coin-legends of
Leovigild can most probably be dated to 583-85. It is more difficult to date
from external evidence the coin "regi a Deo vita" of Hermenegild. On this
96 Thompson, art. cit. (n. I), 14, based on indications in Gregory of Tours. For a note
on John of Biclar's dating cf. "La Conversidn," 38 n. 38.
97 So Miles, 45; cf. below, p. 505. 98 Miles, 85. See below, n. I14.
9 John, s. a. 58I, 3 (Mommsen, 2I6; Campos, go): "Liuuigildus rex partem Vasconiae
occupat et civitatem, quae Victoriacum nuncupatur, condidit."
100 FernAndez Guerra, op. cit. (n. 90), i, 335f. Cf. M. Torres, in Menendez Pidal, op. cit.
(n. 2), IOI f.
101 John of Biclar, s. a. 585, 4 (Mommsen, 2T7; Campos, 93). See also Gregory of
Tours, Hist. Franc., viii, 30.
102 The same view was already briefly indicated by F. Mateu y Llopis, Analecta sacra
Tarraconensia, xix (I946), I3. The view of FernAndez Guerra is still maintained by L. G,
de Valdeavellano, Historia de Espana, i2 (Madrid, 1955), 289.

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504 J. N. HILLGARTH
coin we have recently had the important article of Professor M. C. Diaz y Diaz.
Dr. Mateu y Llopis, in various publications, had seen in this coin an "allusion
to the precarious state of the monarch [scil. Hermenegild] in Seville or in
Cordoba, besieged by his father, i.e., about 583."13 Diaz y Diaz, on the other
hand, holds the coin "reproduces the religious acclamation, which, perhaps in
the moment of his anointing and consecration as King, he received from the
clergy." Diaz produces an interesting parallel between the acclamation on this
coin, "a Deo vita," and those found in the Acts of the Third Council of Toledo
in 589, directed to Hermenegild's younger brother, Recared.104. In order to
maintain the parallel he returns to the traditional view that the "regi" of the
coin is in the dative and that the formula should accordingly be translated
"life to the King from God." In a reply to this article, Dr Jose Vives, on the
other hand, maintains the view put forward before by him and adopted by
Mateu y Llopis, that "regi" is a continuation of the "Ermenegildi" of the
obverse and is, therefore, in the genitive and stands for "regis."105 Dr Vives
holds that his criticism of Diaz y Diaz's article does not affect the historical
interpretation of the coin the latter has put forward.
Mr Grierson, independently of Di'az y Di'az, in his chapter on the coinage
reforms of Leovigild, written in 1954, also saw the Hermenegild coin-legend as
deriving from one of the acclamations of the coronation ritual. "The phrase
N . . . regi vita," to quote his own words, "is a regular feature of all medieval
rituals, which go back to the formal acclamations of late Roman times. The
idea of using such a phrase on the coinage came perhaps from North Africa,
where 'vita' had appeared on the bronze of Carthage in the reign of Justin II,
but the practice later spread to Constantinople itself, where "multos an(nos),"
another of the ritual acclamations, was used on the gold of the late seventh and
early eighth centuries."106 "Vita" does not occur on coins earlier than the
reign of Justin II (565-78), and a North African parallel so close in time to
Hermenegild greatly reinforces Diaz y Diaz's case for the connection between
Hermenegild's coin and his coronation, a connection which certainly seems to
provide the best explanation as yet put forward for the coin-legend, unique
in Visigothic Spain.107 Diaz dates the coronation tentatively to 582 but this
103 Mateu y Llopis, Anatecta sacra Tarraconensia, xiv (1941), 83, also in Catdlogo (n. 93
above), 228. 104 Diaz y Diaz, art. cit. (n. 77 above), 264, 267f.
105 Analecta sacra Tarraconensia, xxxii (I959), 31-4.
106 Cf. W. Wroth, Catalogue of the Imperial Byzantine Coins in the British A
i (London, I908), 99-101; ii, 332, 335, 358 f. For the "vita" acclamation see also E. Petersen,
Heis Theos, epigraphische, formgeschichtliche und religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen
(Gottingen, 1926), esp. 144 n. 2.
107 The bronze coin of Byzantine Carthage, with the legend (Wroth, i, 99): "Dni Iustino
et Sofi[e] Au[gustis]" (obverse), and, in the exergue, "Vita," also provides an example of a
coin with the names of the rulers in the dative. However, it is difficult to see "Ermen-
egildi" as a barbarous dative. Cf. "La Conversi6n," 4o n. 49.

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seems to me too late. It is clear that Hermenegild's conversion had taken place
at least as early as 580. His coronation should probably be dated to the same
year and with it the famous coin.108
After examining the external evidence we have, then, the following position
with regard to the four or five types of coin with religious formulas. Hermene-
gild's is the earliest, most probably issued in 580, at latest in 58i.1'9 Leovigild's
are later - they range between 583 and 585. Let us look now at the internal
evidence for the dates of the coins deducible from a study of the evolution of
types. It will be simplest to begin with Miles' discussion of this subject,110
taking into account Mr Grierson's interpretation of the sequence of types.
Four series of coins succeeded each other. We may tabulate them as follows:
I. The first type struck in Leovigild's reign, as by earlier kings, is that of the
'pseudo-imperial coins with blundered imperial legends, profile bust and
stylized Victory reverse."'11
2. These were succeeded by Leovigild's second series, 'mintless' coins, with the
same types as the pseudo-imperial coins but "with the king's name substituted
for part or all of the imperial legend." Miles argues we should date these
'mintless' issues to the period 568-78.
3. The third type, with a reverse bearing a cross on four (or three) steps (and
with mint names) cannot be earlier than 578 when this use of the cross was
adopted by the Byzantine Emperor Tiberius II. Miles supposes that Leovigild
was striking coins with this reverse at a number of mints in Northern and
Southern Spain from 579-584 "at the latest."
4. The fourth type, with the facing busts, was "introduced at Cordoba in 584
... and [almost] all mints issued coins with facing busts after abandoning the
cross-on-steps type. Two years (584-586) is the minimum we can allow for the
types with facing busts." Miles believes this type may have been introduced
after the suppression of Hermenegild's rebellion in 584, in recognition of
Recared's "now exclusive position as heir to the throne."'12
108 Diaz y Diaz, art. cit., 269 n. 37. One cannot avoid the "eodem anno" of John of
Biclar, referring to Hermenegild's marriage and rebellion (n. 39 above). Hermenegild's
conversion certainly preceded his revolt (cf. n. 46 above). Cf. the inscription with the
reference to the second year of Hermenegild (Vives, op. cit., n. 8I, 127, no. 364): "anno
feliciter secundo regni domini nostri Erminigildi regis, quem persequitur genetor su(u)s
dom(inus) Liuuigildus rex in cibitate Ispa(li) indi(c)tione" (following the correction of
J. Mallon, Memorias de los Museos Arqueoldgicos Provinciales, ix-x [1948-49], 320-28).
Mallon has shown that the inscription lacks the last two words after "indi(c)tione," and
that these words would most probably have been "tercia decima," "quarta decima" or
"quinta decima," i. e. 580, 58I or 582. This indicates that Hermenegild's reign was con-
sidered to begin at latest in 58I. Mallon notes that the inscription is dated in the Byzantine
manner, yet another sign of Byzantine influence in the Baetica of Hermenegild.
109 See the preceding note. I10 Miles, 43-50.
" Here, and in the next sentence, I quote the unpublished work of Mr. Grierson.
112 Miles, 45 f-

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506 J. N. HILLGARTH
If we look at the five coin-legends that concern us here we can see that
Hermenegild's religious legend, "regi a Deo vita" together( with his, probably
later, "regi incliti") appears on the second type of coin listed, that with a
profile bust on the obverse and a Victory on the reverse. Leovigild's first
three - or four - "Cum Deo" issues, from Italica, Seville and Rosas, represent
part of the third series. Leovigild's last (fourth) series includes a reissue of
"Cum Deo optinuit Spali," with facing bust on obverse and reverse. Since the
relative order of succession of these series is assured it is at once evident that
our arguments from external evidence are confirmed and that Hermenegild's
coin is prior to Leovigild's religious legends. Some of the limiting dates pro-
posed by Miles for these series seem, however, less certain than their relative
order and certain criticisms of these dates have been advanced. The beginnings
of the last series seems easiest to date. Don Pio Beltrain, in a recent article,
agrees that the type with two facing busts implies the association of Recared
as king and was created in 584. But he also observes that one cannot tell whether
all mints followed the rhythm or began at one and the same time to mint the
same type.1'3 This being so, the change, e.g., at Rosas, from Leovigild's third to
his fourth series might well take place later than at Seville, far nearer to Cordoba,
the first place where we know facing busts were introduced. This would corro-
borate our suggested dating of the Rosas "Cum Deo" coin as late as 585.114
WVe have no means of dating exactly the beginning of either the second or
the third series, with, respectively, a Victory and a cross-on-steps on the
reverse. The latter cannot, as has been noted, be earlier than 578. We have
argued above that Hermenegild's coin with its religious legend is associated
with his coronation and should probably be dated 580. Beltran believes
Hermenegild was imitating Leovigild's second series of 'mintless' coins, already
in circulation."15 If this was so, he thinks it probable that Leovigild may have
reacted, first with the coin bearing a bust on the obverse and a Victory on the
reverse, as on the 'mintless' series, but this time with "Tole-to rex" on the
reverse;116 and secondly with the Byzantine cross-on-steps type which accom-
panies the religious formula "Cum Deo" at Italica, Seville and Rosas. The
third of Leovigild's series, with the cross-on-steps, would begin, then, in 58o
or 58I and continue until 584.117 The fact is, however, that there is no proof
that even Leovigild's second 'mintless' series, with his name and the Victory
reverse is earlier than Hermenegild's revolt, and Mr. Grierson, in his unpub-
I's P. Beltran Villagrasa, Nutmario hispdnico, ii (I953), 31, 36.
114 Miles (p. 45) agreed it could be as late as 584. Mr. Grierson is also of the opinion
that the coin is a little later in date than the rest of the group dated by Miles to 579-84.
115 Beltran, 33. Like Mateu y Llopis, art. cit. (n. 103), 83, and Miles, 24, Beltran seems
to think that Hermenegild's coin, "regi incliti," is earlier than his "regi a Deo vita." As
I believe Diaz y Diaz is right in connecting the latter legend with Hermenegild's coro-
nation, I assume it appeared on his first issue.
116 Beltran, loc. cit. This coin appears to be lost. Miles (p. 44 n. 4) is somewhat doubtful
of its authenticity but BeltrAn and Grierson think it genuine. 117 BeltrAn, loc. cit.

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lished work cited above, argues strongly in favour of the thesis that it was
Hermenegild, not Leovigild, who was responsible for initiating the regal
coinage of the Visigoths. To summarize his arguments here would be to deform
them. I can only say they seem to me convincing. It would appear that we
have here a close parallel to Leovigild's religious policy. Mr. Grierson, speaking
of "the earliest coinage of Leovigild" observes that it "bears every mark of
diffidence, hesitation and lack of decision." These remarks would apply equally
to Leovigild's policy towards the Catholic Church before 580, when, as far as
we can tell from the scanty evidence available, his evident tolerance, extending
at times to financial support for Catholic emigres from North Africa, was
interrupted by spasmodic bursts of persecution.118 Hermenegild's conversion
and revolt precipitated matters. Hermenegild's alliance with Byzantium,
attested by Spanish and non-Spanish literary sources alike, is equally clearly
reflected in his coinage.'19 His first coin-legend, "regi a Deo vita", seems
inspired, as we have seen, by a contemporary coin of Byzantine Africa, but
with the very significant addition of the words "a Deo," absent from the
Byzantine bronze, stressing the orthodox character of the reign, a point, of
course, unnecessary to stress in Byzantium. The danger to Leovigild of
Hermenegild's revolt lay in the support Hermenegild might receive from
Catholic Hispano-Romans (and Goths), as well as from foreign Catholic
allies, especially the Byzantines.'20
Leovigild was forced to reply to his son's challenge and he did so by his
summons in 580 of an Arian Synod at Toledo, which opened a definite anti-
Catholic campaign. He also, as would now appear, began to issue successive
series of coins. The use of the cross-on-steps type, in particular, which both
Beltran and Grierson date to after 580, is, very probably, an affirmation of
Leovigild's own orthodoxy. We can find an exact parallel to this in the text of
Leovigild's address to the Arian Synod of 58o, quoted by John of Biclar. This
ran as follows: "Those coming from the Roman religion to our Catholic Faith
need not be baptised, but only cleansed by the imposition of hands' the reception
118 For a grant of land to the African Abbot Nanctus and his monks cf. Vitas SS. PP.
Emeritensium (n. 78 above), iii, 2 f. (esp. 8-I0), pp. 154-8. Leovigild's banishment of
John of Biclar seems to have taken place ca. 576 (Mommsen, 208; Campos, 18f.). This may
be an isolated case of persecution, perhaps due to suspicion of a Gothic cleric who had
spent no less than seventeen years in Byzantium (n. 2I above).
119 P. Grierson, loc. cit. (n. 93), 84 n. 17, points out that Hermenegild - as contrasted
with Leovigild - "apparently reverted to the full imperial standard" (of fineness of gold).
Perhaps one should now say that Hermenegild maintained the imperial standard, from
which Leovigild later diverged. F. Mateu y Llopis, A rchivo espafiol de Arqueologia, xvi
(I943), 172-93, and xviii (I945), 34-58, argues that almost all Visigothic coin types are
copied from Byzantine originals. This view is criticized by W. Reinhard, ibid., 220, and
especially xx (I947), 125-9 (on p. 126 he points out that neither the profile bust on the
obverse nor the Victory of the reverse of Hermenegild's coins derive from Byzantine
models but from earlier Visigothic coins). 120 See above, esp. n. 59.

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5o8 J. N. HILLGARTH, Coins and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth-Century Spain
of communion and the utterance of the formula 'Glory to the Father by the
Son in the Holy Spirit'."112' In this text Leovigild, in reply to the Catholic
threat, affirms his own orthodoxy. His is the Catholic Faith.122
I have pointed out Leovigild's use of Byzantine models for his internal
reorganisation of the Visigothic kingdom. In his coinage we have a clear
example of his policy. In reply to Hermenegild's coins, with their religious
acclamation borrowed in part from Byzantium, Leovigild will place the
Byzantine cross-on-steps on his own coinage and will commemorate his
victories over the Catholic usurper as God-given. Leovigild could indeed learn
from his enemies and not least from his most formidable enemy, his son.
Leovigild's earliest "Cum Deo" legends commemorate the crucial episodes
of the civil war, the fortification of Italica (583), the fall of Seville (583-584).
The formula does not appear on the coin commemorating Leovigild's second
capture of Cordoba ("Cordoba bis optinuit"), acquired from the Byzantines
twice, first by war in 572, secondly by gold in 584, perhaps because this
success was not strictly part of his war against his son.123 That it does appear
on the Rosas coin is intelligible if we are right in dating this coin in 585 and in
connecting it with the war against the Franks, for Leovigild was fighting here
against Guntram of Burgundy, who claimed to be intervening precisely because
of the death of Hermenegild (and the exile of Hermenegild's Frankish wife,
Ingundis, Guntram's niece).124 In any case, two of the three instances - these
that appear the earliest - when the "Cum Deo" formula is found on undoubtedly
genuine issues of Leovigild (Italica and Seville) are indisputably connected
with the king's war against his son. We may conclude, therefore, that we are
justified in interpreting the formula, together with the earlier assumption of the
cross-on-steps reverse, as a clear riposte to Hermenegild, propaganda to counter
propaganda, scarcely less obvious than a written manifesto, and probably
more effective in an age when books were only accessible to a limited few.
Harvard University J. N. HILLGARTH

Cambridge, Mass.
121 John. s. a. 580, 2 (Mommsen, 2I6; Campos, go): "De Romana religione ad nostramn
catholicamn fidem venientes non debere baptizari, sed tantummodo per manus impositionem
et communionis preceptionem ablui et gloriam patri per filium in spiritu sancto dari."
Mommsen corrected "a nostra catholica fide," but the MSS. have "ad nostram catholicam
fidem," which must be correct since Leovigild is speaking ("Liuuigildus rex ... dicens,"
as John says). I adopt the reading "preceptionem," which is that of J. B. Perez's best MS.,
Segorbe, Bibl. Cap. I. Readings of this (now lost) MS. are listed by M. C. Diaz y Diaz,
art. cit. (n. 74 above), 74-76. A marginal note in another of Perez's MSS., Escorial, &.
IV. 23, has "ablui" (the other MSS. have "pollui" or "polui"). F16rez, Espana Sagrada,
Vi3, 425, and Campos adopt "ablui."
122 For the parallel case of the Vandal King Hunneric see above and n. 27.
123 Nor does the "Cum Deo" formula appear on the Merida coin, sometimes dated
(e.g. by Miles, 45) 582, to accord with Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., vi, i8, which has
the cross-on-steps reverse (Miles, I94f.). But is it certain that this is a commemorative
coin? Cf. BeltrAn, art. cit. (n. II3 above), 34. 124 Gregory of Tours, ibid., viii, 28.

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Coins and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth-Century Spain and the Byzantine Background

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434955

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I. The Literary Sources for Leovigild and Hermenegild

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may be known on all sides, by preaching the Faith to subject peoples."

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The main contemporary Spanish source for Hermenegild is the Chronicle of

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was important because it at once reestablished Byzantium, in the eyes of the

18 John, s. a. 567, 3 (Mommsen, 2ii; Campos, 78).

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John of Biclar felt as strongly as Pope Gregory the importance of the

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38 John. s. a. 573, 5 (Mommsen, 213; Campos, 83).

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Mediterranean coast from Cartagena to Gibraltar and inland to Cordoba and

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enough to weld the different races t

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certainly, to the Isidorian "renaissance," to the real accomplishments of

82 See J. Fontaine, Isidore de Seville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique,

83 On the Spanish attitude towards Byzantium saec. VII cf.

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II. Religious Formulas in the Coins of Leovigild

87 H-I. Marrou, in II Passaggio (n. 53 above), 6io; Stroheker, 270; C. Sanchez-

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negild's celebrated coin, with th

90 See especially A. Fernandez Guerra et al., Historia de Espaita desde la invasidn de

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The question of the dates of these coins is clearly of crucial importance.

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Harvard University J. N. HILLGARTH

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