Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/177

 in doing so, Theudias, King of the Visigoths, despatched a counter expedition against the Byzantines, but this force was soon destroyed through being attacked unexpectedly on a Sunday. Nearly a score of years afterwards (554) a religious war broke out in Spain through the Arian King, Agila, wishing to coerce his Catholic subjects, whom he besieged in their principal stronghold of Cordova. The leader of the rebels was a noble named Athanagild, and, as the Roman prestige was now supreme in the West, as well as because of the religious affinity, he applied to the Emperor for aid against the Arian persecutors. Justinian responded, and sent Liberius, a general who was then engaged in the reduction of Sicily, with the result that Agila suffered a crushing defeat at Seville. He fled to Merida, hoping to find a refuge among faithful subjects, but the fallen king had become an object of contempt and fell a victim to a plot which was speedily hatched for his assassination. The Visigoths then surrendered to the prestige of his rival and elected Athanagild as king, whereupon a compact of tolerance was