caption predecessor successor succession death_date religion title image article_title name reign
illustration of agila i at biblioteca nacional de españa theudigisel athanagild king of the visigoths 554 arianism king of hispania and septimania agila-rey-visigodo . png agila i
 agila i 549 -- 554
agila i

'' `` agil '' redirects here .
for the sociological paradigm , see agil paradigm .
agila i -lrb- also `` achila '' , `` akhila '' , `` aquila '' , or `` agil '' ; gothic : agila -rrb- , was visigothic king of hispania and septimania -lrb- 549 -- 554 -rrb- .
peter heather notes that agila 's reign was during a period of civil war following the death of amalaric , the last member of the old visigothic dynasty , when ambitious gothic nobles competed openly for the throne .
agila came to power after the assassination of theudigisel , who had ruled for less than two years .
however , opposition to his rule soon emerged .
first was the revolt of the city of córdoba , which isidore of seville suggests was due to local roman catholics objecting to his arianism : in his account , isidore mentions that agila defiled the church of a local saint , acisclus , by drenching the sepulcher `` with the blood of the enemy and of their pack-animals '' , and attributes the death of agila 's son in the conflict -- along with the majority of his army , and the royal treasury -- to `` the agency of the saints '' .
peter heather lists several groups who revolted against agila : a local dynast , aspidius , established a hegemony in one mountainous region ; the landowners of cantabria established a `` senate '' to govern their affairs ; and then there are the sappi and suani mentioned by john of biclar .
the most important rebel opposed to agila was athanagild , whose open revolt began in 551 , following agila 's defeat at cordoba .
the armies of agila and athanagild met at seville , where agila met a second defeat .
at this point , a third party entered the war between these two : the byzantine empire .
as peter heather writes , `` one of the two -- which is the subject of varying report -- summoned a byzantine army , which duly arrived in southern spain in 552 . ''
heather understands isidore 's chronicle states that athangild summoned the byzantines , while jordanes implies in his `` getica '' that agila had asked them for help .
during this three-sided conflict king agila was killed -- according to isidore by his own people , who realized the destruction agila 's wars to retain power had caused , but `` fearing even more that roman soldiers might invade spain on the pretext of giving help '' .
athanagild was then accepted as king .
