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This article is about a 6th century Visigoth king. Athanagild or Atanagildo was also the name of the son or successor of the Visigoth duke Teodomiro in the 8th century.

Athanagild († 567 in Toledo ) was king of the Visigoths from 551 or 555 to 567.

Athanagild undertook a successful uprising against his predecessor, King Agila I. From Seville , he asked for and received help from Eastern Roman troops; Emperor Justinian sent a fleet in 551/552 to keep watch over the coast. Agila was murdered by his own people in 555. Thus Athanagild in 555 (officially 551, since the beginning of his revolt) became king of the Visigoths. But the ports and coastal fortifications that had been captured on behalf of Athanagild were reluctantly surrendered by the Byzantine allies. Athanagild was able to take back some cities. However, he was forced to cede a large part of the province of Baetica ( Andalusia ) to a Byzantine governor, the respected Senator Liberius , who was around eighty years old . He had already tried to take advantage of the internal problems of the Visigoths in order to enlarge the Byzantine rule.

Athanagild tried to drive out his Eastern Roman allies, but was unsuccessful. He had invited to the establishment of a Byzantine enclave called Spania in southern Spain, which would last for the next seventy years. The persistence of Byzantine rule was probably also made possible by the support of the Romanesque population. Little is known about this western expansion of Byzantine rule, as Eastern Roman historiography paid little attention to it. The area covered large parts of the former Roman province of Baetica and the extreme south of the former province of Tarraconensis . These included the cities of Carthago Nova ( Cartagena ), Corduba ( Córdoba ) and Assionia.

Although he had to fight the Byzantines, Franks and Suebi throughout his reign and was besieged by the Basques in the Pyrenees , Athanagild strengthened his kingdom internally by appeasing the Catholics who had been oppressed by his Arian predecessors. When the King of the Suebi opted for Catholicism in 560, this isolated the Visigoths, whose royal family and nobility continued to adhere to Arianism.

The seat of power in Toledo , founded by Athanagild in 531 , became royal court after Athanagild's coronation in 555 or 551 and was famous for its splendor.

Athanagild was married to Goswintha . With her he became the father of the Frankish queens Brunichild and the tragically murdered Gailswintha .

Athanagild died peacefully. After his death a period without a king began for months. Finally, Liuva I was raised, who made his brother Leovigild co-regent.

literature

• Luis A. García Moreno: The Creation of Byzantium's Spanish Province. Causes and Propaganda . In: Byzantion 66 (1996), pp. 101-119.
• Celine Martin: La geographie du pouvoir dans l'Espagne visigothique . Lille (et al.) 2003 ( Histoire et Civilizations 861).
• John R. Martindale (Ed.): The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire . Vol. 3a, 2nd ed., Cambridge (et al.) 2000, pp. 140-141 (Athanagildus 1); Vol. 2, 3rd ed., Cambridge (et al.) 2000, pp. 677-681 (Liberius 3).

predecessor	Office	successor
Agila I.	King of the Visigoths 555-567	Liuva I.