Sisebut

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Sisebut statue in Toledo .

Sisebut ( Flavius ​​Sisebutus Rex ; † February 621 ) was King of the Visigoths from February / March 612 to February 621.

Domination

Sisebut was the successor to King Gundemar . Nothing is known about the circumstances of his assumption of government after Gundemar's death; probably he was elected. Like other Visigoth kings, he apparently tried to found a dynasty; He probably raised his underage son Rekkared II to co-regent late 619 / early 620. This enabled him to secure the succession to the throne, but the founding of the dynasty failed because Rekkared died shortly after Sisebut's death. There is no evidence to support the claim that the successor of Rekkared II, Suinthila , was a son-in-law of Sisebut.

Sisebut was militarily successful; in the north his troops subjugated the rebelling Asturians, in the south he was able to drive back the eastern Romans , who still ruled part of Andalusia (province of Spain ), and take away the city of Malaga from them, among other things . The Visigoths benefited from the fact that the Eastern Romans were involved in heavy defensive battles with the New Persian Sassanid Empire under Emperor Herakleios . Before 617, Herakleios made peace with Sisebut. Sisebut created the Visigoth fleet; the Visigoths had had no naval force before his reign. He took the right to determine the appointment of bishops as a matter of course.

Rekkared I (586–601) had already issued regulations against the Jews in agreement with the Council Fathers of the 3rd Council of Toledo (589); he forbade them to keep Christian slaves, also forbade them to have Christian wives and concubines, and ordered that children from such relationships had to be baptized. Sisebut confirmed these regulations and went far beyond them; he ordered that Jews be baptized. This rigorous approach aroused the displeasure of the bishops. After Sisebut's death, the 4th Council of Toledo (633) condemned compulsory baptisms, but declared them to be valid under canon law; Jews forcibly baptized at Sisebut's instigation were forbidden to return to their traditional beliefs.

Cultural activity

Sisebut commissioned Isidore of Seville , the "last father of the church", to write the natural history encyclopedic treatise De natura rerum ( On the nature of things ). He was also a writer himself, which was very unusual for a king at the time, since literary activity was usually the domain of the clergy. His works show that he had a considerable education and a relatively good knowledge of Latin for the time, and even wrote Latin. Nevertheless, stylistic flaws cannot be overlooked; From a philological point of view, Sisebut's expression is judged to be graceful and pompous and his command of the language as inadequate for the sometimes demanding topic. Letters, a poem addressed to Isidore about the lunar eclipse (61 hexameters ) and a hagiographic work, the biography of the holy martyr Desiderius of Vienne, have been preserved .

Sisebut built a basilica of St. Leocadia in the district of the royal palace of Toledo, based on the model of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople; councils were later held there.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ A b Dietrich Claude: Adel, Church and Kingship in the Visigothic Empire , Sigmaringen 1971, p. 92.
  2. ^ Edward A. Thompson : The Goths in Spain , Oxford 1969, pp. 332f.
  3. ↑ Sisebut's correspondence informs about the peace negotiations, in: Epistolae (in Quart) 3: Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini aevi (I). Edited by Wilhelm Gundlach, Ernst Dümmler a . a. Berlin 1892, pp. 663–668 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version ) See also Walter Emil Kaegi: Heraclius , Cambridge 2003, p. 89.
  4. ↑ Thompson pp. 161f.
  5. ^ Thompson p. 163.
  6. ↑ Lex Visigothorum XII.2.13-14, ed. Karl Zeumer, MGH Leges I.1, Hannover 1902, pp. 418-423.
  7. ^ Concilium Toletanum IV , c. 57, ed. José Vives, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos , Barcelona 1963, p. 211: oportet ut fidem etiam quam vi vel necessitate susceperunt tenere cogantur (they must be forced to adhere to the (Christian) faith, even if they do accepted under duress).
  8. ↑ Bronisch p. 505; Brunhölzl p. 94f.
  9. ↑ Epistolae Wisigoticae , ed. Wilhelm Gundlach, in: MGH Epistolae Vol. 3, Berlin 1957, pp. 662–666, 668–675.
  10. ↑ Edited by Jacques Fontaine, Isidore de Seville: Traité de la nature , Bordeaux 1960, pp. 328–335.
  11. ↑ Vita vel passio sancti Desiderii episcopi Viennensis , in: Bruno Krusch (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 3: Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici et antiquiorum aliquot (I). Hanover 1896, pp. 630–637 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
predecessor Office successor
Gundemar King of the Visigoths
612–621 		Rekkared II
personal data
SURNAME Sisebut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Visigoths
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century
DATE OF DEATH February 621