The Visigoths were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the command of Alaric I. Their exact origins are believed to have been diverse but they probably included many descendants of the Thervingi who had moved into the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had played a major role in defeating the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and Alaric's Visigoths varied, with the two groups making treaties when convenient, and warring with one another when not. Under Alaric, the Visigoths invaded Italy and sacked Rome in August 410.
The Battle of Guadalete was the first major battle of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, fought in 711 at an unidentified location in what is now southern Spain between the Visigoths under their king, Roderic, and the invading forces of the Umayyad Caliphate, composed mainly of Berbers and some Arabs under the commander Tariq ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Berber attacks and the beginning of al-Andalus. Roderic was killed in the battle, along with many members of the Visigothic nobility, opening the way for the capture of the Visigothic capital of Toledo.
Theodemir or Theudimer was a Visigothic comes (count) prominent in the southeast of Carthaginensis during the last decades of the Visigothic kingdom and for several years after the Arab conquest. He ruled seven cities in southeastern Spain, mentioned in the Treaty of Orihuela that was preserved by the Andalusian historian Ibn Adarí in the thirteenth century: Orihuela, Valentila, Alicante, Mula, Bigastro, Eyya, and Lorca.
Roderic was the Visigothic king in Hispania between 710 and 711. He is well-known as "the last king of the Goths". He is actually an extremely obscure figure about whom little can be said with certainty. He was the last Goth to rule from Toledo, but not the last Gothic king, a distinction which belongs to Ardo.
Chintila was a Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 636. He succeeded Sisenand and reigned until he died of natural causes, ruling over the fifth and sixth provisional Councils of Toledo. He wrote poetry as well. He was succeeded by his son from an unknown wife, Tulga.
Erwig was a king of the Visigoths in Hispania (680–687).
Achila II was the Visigothic king of Hispania from 710 or 711 until his death. The kingdom he ruled was restricted to the northeast of the old Hispanic kingdom on account of the Arabo-Berber invasions.
Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or Leovigildo, was a Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania from 568 to 586. Known for his Codex Revisus or Code of Leovigild, a law allowing equal rights between the Visigothic and Hispano-Roman population, his kingdom covered modern Portugal and most of modern Spain down to Toledo. Liuvigild ranks among the greatest Visigothic kings of the Arian period.
Wittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Egica, until 702 or 703.
Egica, Ergica, or Egicca (c. 640 – 701/703), was the Visigoth King of Hispania and Septimania from 687 until his death. He was the son of Ariberga and the nephew of Wamba.
Oppas, also spelled Oppa, was a member of the Visigothic elite in the city of Toledo on the eve of the Muslim conquest of Hispania. He was a son of Egica and therefore a brother or half-brother of Wittiza.
Reccared II, was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia briefly in 621, though the length of the reign exactly is debated to last from several days to just over a year.
The Eighteenth Council of Toledo was the last of the councils of Toledo held in Visigothic Spain before the Moorish conquest of 711. It was held after the Seventeenth Council in 694, probably in 703 during the reign of King Wittiza (701–710) or his co-reign with his father, Ergica, from 693. It was presided over by Gunderic, Archbishop of Toledo.
The Fifteenth Council of Toledo first met in Toledo, Spain on 11 May 688 under Visigothic King Egica. It was the first of his three councils.
The Sixteenth Council of Toledo first met in Toledo, Spain on 25 April 693. It was the second of three councils convened by Visigothic king Egica.
Spania was a province of the Eastern Roman Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was established by the Emperor Justinian I in an effort to restore the western provinces of the Empire.
The Visigothic Kingdom, Visigothic Spain or Kingdom of the Goths occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of Gallia Aquitania in southwest Gaul by the Roman government and then extended by conquest over all of Hispania. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, whose attempts to re-establish Roman authority in Hispania were only partially successful and short-lived.
Masona or Mausona was the Bishop of Mérida and metropolitan of the province of Lusitania from about 570 until his death. He is famous for exercising de facto rule of the city of Mérida during his tenure as bishop and for founding the first confirmed hospital in Spain.
Toledo is the repository of more than 2000 years of history. Successively a Roman municipium, the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom, a major city in Al-Andalus and the Kingdom of Castile. Its many works of art and architecture are the product of three major religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Liuvigoto or Liubigotona was a Visigoth queen consort by marriage to king Erwig (680–687).
