20 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINwas clearly great, and the increase in their numbers raised them to
dominance in the peninsula. After an abortive attack on the Sueves,
perhaps to force them into their confederacy, the Hasdings moved
south, and in 421 established themselves in Baetica. It was against
them here that an expedition was sent in 422 under the Master of the
Soldiers Castinus, one of the generals struggling for power after the
death of Constantius. However, the Roman army was defeated by
the Vandals and forced to withdraw, apparently as a result of treach-
ery on the part of their Visigothic auxiliaries.^15 As the Empress Galla
Placidia, formerly their queen, is known still to have had a consider-
able following amongst the Goths and to have supported Castinus's
rival Boniface, the Count of Africa, this act of treachery on the field
of battle may have had its origins in Ravenna. In practice, the defeat
of 422 meant that the Romans made no further attempts to curb
Vandal power in southern Spain. However, they themselves appear to
have felt insecure there, and after the experiences of 416 and 422,
with some justification. Thus in 429, under a new king Geiseric (428-
477), they crossed the Straits of Hercules to begin to conquer a new
home for themselves in North Africa.
With the removal of the Vandals, only the Sueves remained of the
original invaders of 409, and they were quick to take advantage of
their former comrades' departure. Unfortunately for themselves, they
were rather too quick, as the Vandals clearly intended to retain pos-
session of southern Spain, at least until they were secure in Africa.
In 430 the ravages of a Suevic leader called Hermigar in southern
Lusitania led to the unexpected return of Geiseric and a Vandal
army. Hermigar was defeated at Merida, and drowned in the Guadiana,
whilst the Vandals went back to Africa, never to return.^16 But after
this initial setback the next quarter of a century saw an uninterrupted
rise of Suevic dominance over the southern and western regions of
the peninsula under their kings Hermeric (abdicated 438), Rechila
(438-448) and Rechiarius (448-456). In 439 Rechila captured Merida,
the principal city of Lusitania, which he made his own capital, and in
441 he obtained control of Seville. All three of the southern prov-
inces, Lusitania, Baetica and Carthaginiensis were added to Galicia
under his rule. His son Rechiarius attempted to add Tarraconensis,
but with results that were to be fatal to himself and to the Suevic
monarchy.17
Little is known about this short-lived Suevic domination of the
peninsula but clearly it did not go unresisted, even at a local level.