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533-554] as the Pyrenees. They were seriously defeated by the army of Theudis; but Theudegesil, whom they succeeded in bribing, permitted them to escape, and to bear with them the treasures which they had acquired during the campaign. Among these was the body of St Vincent, the martyr, for which they built near Paris a church, that afterwards known as St Germain-des-Près. After having thus ejected the Franks, Theudis undertook an expedition to the coast of Africa, which was being conquered by the army of the Byzantines. By this expedition, made in 543, Theudis only acquired temporary possession of Ceuta, which was shortly afterwards retaken by the Emperor, for in 544 Justinian alludes to it as his own. Four years later, in 548, Theudis was assassinated in Seville by a man who pretended to be mad. His successor, Theudegesil, only reigned for sixteen months. We know nothing more of him than that he was a man of immoral conduct, and that in 549 he too was assassinated in Seville.

The fact that the Visigoths possessed Seville does not mean that they ruled over the whole of Baetica. On the contrary, the greater part of it was independent, controlled by the Spanish-Roman nobles, who since the time of Majorian, and even before, had obtained possession of the country. Agila, the successor of Theudegesil, set himself to conquer these independent territories; he was defeated before Cordova by the Andalusians, who slew his son, and possessed themselves of the royal treasure. This defeat (which the chroniclers regard as a divine punishment for Agila's profanation of the tomb of St Acisclus), his tyrannical behaviour and his hostility to the Catholics, who constituted the bulk of the Spanish population, were turned to account by Athanagild, a Visigothic noble who had designs on the crown. In order to make sure of success, he solicited the support of the Emperor Justinian, who sent him a powerful army under the command of his general Liberius (544). The Byzantines were probably assisted by the inhabitants of the country who, on account of their Catholic Faith, were bound to welcome the imperial forces and the person of Athanagild, concerning whom Isidore himself states that he was secretly a Catholic. They had, therefore, no difficulty in possessing themselves of the most important towns on the coasts of the Mediterranean, more particularly those in the east and south, i.e. the district round Valencia, Murcia, and Andalusia. Agila was defeated near Seville by the combined forces of Athanagild and Liberius, and withdrew to Mérida, where he was assassinated by his own followers, who forthwith acknowledged the usurper.

Thus when Athanagild became king in 554, the power of Justinian in the Peninsula was extensive, for he was not content with playing the part of helper, but claimed a substantial acknowledgment of his services. It is probable that Athanagild rewarded him by an offer of territory, but we have no exact information on the subject, because the text of the treaty which ensued has not been preserved. But it is certain that Liberius