THE IMPOSITION OF UNITY 35consular dated sixth-century annals.' The passages relating to the
Visigothic settlement can have been compiled no later than the mid-
dle of the century. The greater precision now possible in respect of
this source means that greater reliability may be accorded to its in-
formation. Thus, when it tells us in relation to the year 494 'In this
consulship the Goths entered Spain' and for 497 'In this consulship
the Goths received dwellings in Spain', there is little cause for doubt.s
This movement of Goths from Aquitaine into the Iberian peninsula
a decade before the battle ofVouille may well have caused an impor-
tant alteration in the balance between the two halves of the kingdom,
and have left the Gallic territories vulnerable to the subsequent Frank-
ish attack. What prompted this movement of population, whether
insecurity in Gaul or better prospects in Spain, is never hinted at in
any source, and so remains a mystery, but that it had some part to
play in the Visigothic loss of Aquitaine seems likely.
The losses of 507-31 included not only lands but also a dynasty.
The long and relatively little-interrupted rule of the descendants of
Alaric I has created something of a false perspective on Visigothic
kingship in the fifth century. Dynastic succession was not as secure as
is sometimes assumed. Although the evidence is difficult to evaluate,
there appears to have been no system of hereditary succession before
the entry of the Visigoths into the Roman Empire in 376, and there
seems to have been no permanent royal office. Roman commentators
on the Goths, such as the fourth-century historian Ammianus
Marcellinus (c. 380/90), refer to at least two different types of ruler,
kings and judges, with the latter apparently the more powerful.^9 No
single figure seems to have exercised authority over the whole of the
Visigothic people. This distinguishes them from the Ostrogoths, who,
by the time of the destruction of their realm by the Huns (c. 370),
had developed a unitary dynastic kingship that could accommodate
the succession of minors. For the Visigoths, this was only to occur
after their entry into the Empire, when their difficulties in the period
378-410 made the acceptance of a single permanent war-leader a
necessity. Before 376, such military leaders appear to have been elected
by different groups amongst the main body of the Visigoths, and only
for limited periods, sufficient to cover the immediate offensive or
defensive purposes. Judges may have been permanent, and fulfilled
superior priestly and judicial functions.
These origins set the basic character of Visigothic kingship for the
centuries to follow. The kings were essentially the war-leaders of their