By the opening of the fifth century, a new community, a new culture would come to dominate Iberia, and those were the Visigoths. The Visigoths entered into Iberia perhaps as early as 415 CE, and by 418, they had established a kingship over the Iberian Peninsula. The first king of the Visigoths was Theodoric I, who ruled from 418 to 451 CE. Other Germanic tribes also resided in Iberia at this time. The Alands , the Vandals, and the Swedes. Political and military supremacy over the peninsula was not achieved until 466, under Visigothic King Euric. Now, the Romanized Iberians and other populations, like the Jewish Committee, were not overly receptive to the arrival of the Visigoths who brought their own Germanic culture, ethnic affiliations, and type of Christianity. In many respects, the Visigoth elite were truly outsiders who represented a small governing elite. For the next two and a half centuries, the Visigothic Kingdom traded its own hybrid division of Iberia. For instance, their written legal codes including the Code of Euric, the Breviary of Alaric, and the Lex Visigothorum, drew upon Roman Gothic traditions. The Visigoths exercise rights to taxation of their lands belonging to the royal fisc including former Roman imperial territories and newly confiscated lands, but their taxing authority over former Roman subjects was a bit unclear. Likewise, their religious identities evolved when King Reccared who ruled during the end of the sixth century changed his form of Christianity from Arianism to Catholicism, and thus aligned to Visigothic state, and religious authorities with the indigenous Romanized population. However, the Visigoths approached life differently than the Romanized Iberians, and we have their preserved legal codes to give us a sense of how they approach family in a different manner as well as crime and punishment. Family groups were at the center of Germanic law, and although the state minister the law, it was your place within a family that ensured your right and privilege to pursue remedies. For example, consider family inheritance, in the Code of Euric we read, "Let sisters succeed equally with brothers to the inheritance of the parents. If a father or mother died intestate, let the sisters with the brothers succeed to the inheritance of each parent in equal division without any obligation." Further, the code continues regarding children. "The children are first in the succession of an inheritance. In the inheritance of him who dies intestate, the children are first. If there are no children, the inheritance goes to the grandchildren. If there are no grandchildren, the great-grandchildren are called to the inheritance. But if he who dies leaving neither children, grandchildren, father nor mother, then the grandfather or grandmother will establish the inheritance for themselves." Thus we can see family is truly at the center of this Germanic law that governed Visigothic's vein. In the area of crime and even the use of torture, we can read from the Lex Visigothorum. There it reads, "If moderation is displayed in the treatment of crimes, wickedness of criminals can never be restrained. Therefore, if anyone should in behalf of the king or the people bring an accusation of homicide or adultery against the person of equal rank, he who thus seeks the blood of another shall first have an opportunity to prove what he alleges. And if he cannot prove it in the presence of the king or those appointed by the royal authority, an accusation shall be drawn up in writing, and signed by three witnesses, and then, the accused person may then be put to the question or tortured." The code continues and it states, what if the person is proven innocent? What shall happen? The code states, "If the latter, after undergoing the torture, should prove to be innocent, the accuser shall at once be delivered up to him as a slave, to be dispossessed of at his will, except that he should not be deprived of his life." Lastly, let's take a look at the Visigoths through their coinage, through the numismatic record. Presently, we are looking at a coin from the era of King Livvigilgvs who ruled from 568 to 586 CE. In this coin from the era of King Liuvigild, notice a couple of things. On the left hand side, you will see the obverse side of the coin. Here, we'll see the central burst where a side profile of the king, and the crucifix on his clothing. This is the essence of European kingship that married secular, the King, and sacred, the church authority, together. Additionally, we see his name is spelled, L-I-V-V-I-G-I-L-D-V-S. You can certainly stop the video and take a closer look. On the reverse side of the coin, we noticed that the crucifix is the focus of our attention, and it's been raised on the platform. Further, the Visigoths claim the city of Toledo with the phrase TOLETOREX or King of Toledo. I believe coins such as this one are particularly important to the study of history because they communicate central themes about the period, about the importance of kingship, about the importance of religious authority, and about claiming places for one's own. The Visigoths would not last much longer. Only about 100 years further into the future and in 711, a big change happened, the Muslims invaded Iberia.
