The proud city of patrician Cordova supplied the
occasion for interference. The Arian king Agila had
earned the hatred of the citizens by profaning the
shrine of their revered martyr Acisclus,^ and a popular
revolt forced him to retire to Merida. A Gothic
noble, Athanagild, who secretly aspired to the crown,
put himself at the head of the rising of Catholics,
and made overtures to the Romans, which were readily
accepted. He offered to cede Andalusia and much of
Murcia in return for military assistance. An army
under the patrician Liberius crossed the Straits, and
co-operating with the rebels defeated at Seville the
royal troops sent against them. Agila was murdered
by some of his own followers, who feared that the civil
discords would enable the Romans to recover all
Spain (554) ; and Athanagild, who succeeded, dismissed
his own troops, and sought to restore harmony, leaving
the Romans in possession of the towns already ceded.
Presuming on their friendship they tried to occupy
other places. Seville they were soon obliged to aban-
don, but Cordova held out successfully,'^ and they were
able, in the confusion which followed Athanagild's death,
to extend their territory, which eventually reached from

1 Isid. Hist. Goth. {M. H. G. XI. 285).
^ Chron. Cccsaraug. (ibid., 223). Cf. Isid., loc. cit. : ' Milites
submovere a finibus regni molitus non potuit.'



Organization of the Province 55

Cape St. Vincent on the west, to beyond Cartagena on
the east. It also included the Balearic islands, formerly
an appanage of the Vandal kingdom, which reverted to
the empire about 533. The island sees had, during
Vandal rule, been subject to the metropolitan of Carales
in Sardinia, and this arrangement subsisted during the
Roman occupation, only ending when Christianity in
the islands disappeared before the Moors.
