22 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINinterfere in the affairs of the Spanish provinces other than
Tarraconensis, except by some slight diplomatic activity. But the rise
of the Sueves to unchecked supremacy over Baetica, Lusitania and
Carthaginiensis was clearly watched with some apprehension. Only in
the 440s, when the position in Gaul was more stable and also the
Vandals in Mrica had temporarily been neutralised by the treaty of
442, was resort to military action again possible. In 446 a newly ap-
pointed Master of the Soldiers called Vitus invaded Carthaginiensis
and Baetica. However, faced by the approach of the Suevic king and
his army, and with his contingent of Gothic allies defeated by them,
Vitus retreated in ignominious haste.^21 He is the last Master of the
Soldiers reported as having campaigned in Spain. A formal peace was
concluded between the Romans and the Sueves in 452. Conceivably
the restitution of Carthaginiensis was one of the conditions of this, as
when Hydatius reports the Sueves' ravaging of that province in 455,
he also records that they had previously returned it to the Romans.^22
The cause of this cession to the imperial government of territory
which it had failed to take by force in 446, may have something to do
with the increasing Visigothic interest in the peninsula, which rapidly
accelerated under a new king, Theoderic II (453-66).
The Visigoths' influence over the Roman court was radically in-
creased in 455 when, as a result of negotiations between the Roman
senate, the Gothic king, and members of the southern Gallic aristo-
cracy, the Arvernian noble Avitus (455-7) succeeded the defunct
Theodosian dynasty to the western imperial throne. It can hardly be
coincidental that the following year was to see a massive Visigothic
intervention in Spain, and it is quite conceivable that a free hand in
this direction may well have been the price exacted for their support
of Avitus. The emperor was apparently a personal friend of Theoderic
II, and the new alliance between the Visigoths and the Gallic aristo-
cracy necessitated the maintenance of a status quo in Aquitaine. Thus
the obvious direction for the Visigothic king to channel his ambitions
was southwards into Spain, where the breaking of the peace by the
Sueves in 455 meant that any intervention there would be with the
support of Rome. Even the deposition and mysterious death of Avitus
in 457 was not to strain these new ties between the Empire and the
Visigoths, for the effective ruler of Italy for the next fifteen years was
to be the German Master of the Soldiers, Ricimer, who was related to
the Gothic royal dynasty.
Although it was not immediate, the long-term consequence of their