He granted fresh charters to many cities, legalizing the system of self-government which the Romans had bequeathed to the Visigoths and the Moors had retained or improved.

When the Visigoths conquered the territory, however, they retained the Roman rural villa system in establishing the Campos Góticos.

* 378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople – A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths in present-day Turkey.

However, much of southeastern Europe and central Europe, including many of the Goths and Vandals respectively, had embraced Arianism ( the Visigoths converted to Arian Christianity in 376 ), which led to Arianism being a religious factor in various wars in the Roman Empire.

Disappointed, he left the army and was elected reiks of the Visigoths in 395, and marched toward Constantinople until he was diverted by Roman forces.

A second invasion also ended in defeat at the Battle of Verona, though Alaric forced the Roman Senate to pay a large subsidy to the Visigoths.

Honorius, however, refused to appoint Alaric as the commander of the Western Roman Army, and in 409 the Visigoths again surrounded Rome.

The contemporary ecclesiastics recorded with wonder many instances of the Visigoths ' clemency: Christian churches saved from ravage ; protection granted to vast multitudes both of pagans and Christians who took refuge therein ; vessels of gold and silver which were found in a private dwelling, spared because they " belonged to St. Peter "; at least one case in which a beautiful Roman matron appealed, not in vain, to the better feelings of the Gothic soldier who attempted her dishonor.

In 506, the Breviarum or " Lex Romana " of Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, adopted and consolidated the Codex Theodosianus together with assorted earlier Roman laws.

After the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 378, in which the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Visigoths within a few days ' march, the city looked to its defences, and in 413 – 414, Theodosius II built the 18-meter ( 60-foot )- tall triple-wall fortifications, which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder.

Lacking a strong general to control the by-now mostly barbarian Roman Army, Honorius could do little to attack Alaric's forces directly, and apparently adopted the only strategy he could in the situation: wait passively for the Visigoths to grow weary and spend the time marshalling what forces he could.

* 506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgates The Breviary of Alaric ( Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum ) a collection of Roman law.

The Goths (; ; ; ; ) were an East Germanic tribe whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe.

Seven large German-speaking tribes – the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, Lombards, Saxons and Franks – moved west and took part in the Decline of the Roman Empire and transformation of the old Western Roman Empire.

The Visigoths tended to maintain more of the old Roman institutions, and they had a unique respect for legal codes that resulted in continuous frameworks and historical records for most of the period between 415, when Visigothic rule in Spain began, and 711, when it is traditionally said to end.

The Visigoths inherited from Late Antiquity a sort of feudal system in Spain, based in the south on the Roman villa system and in the north drawing on their vassals to supply troops in exchange for protection.

The ruling Visigoths nevertheless showed some respect for the outward trappings of Roman culture.

In 400, the Visigoths invaded the Western Roman Empire and, although briefly forced back from Italy, in 410 they were able to sack the city of Rome.

* 456 – The Visigoths under king Theodoric II, acting on orders of the Roman emperor Avitus, invade Spain with an army of Burgundians, Franks and Goths, led by the kings Chilperic I and Gondioc.

Theodoric the Great (; ;, Theuderikhos ; ; ; 454 – August 30, 526 ) was king of the Ostrogoths ( 471 – 526 ), ruler of Italy ( 493 – 526 ), regent of the Visigoths ( 511 – 526 ), and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Visigoths emerged out of the Gothic groups who entered the Roman Empire in and after 376 and defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378.

The Visigoths were the only people to found new cities in western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and before the rise of the Carolingians.

A " Germanic " Byzantine or Italian author referred to one of the two peoples as the Valagothi, meaning " Roman Goths ", and in 469 the Visigoths were called the " Alaric Goths ".

In response to the invasion of Roman Hispania of 409 by the Vandals, Alans and Suevi, Honorius, the emperor in the West, enlisted the aid of the Visigoths to regain control of the territory.

The Visigoths ' second great king, Euric, unified the various quarreling factions among the Visigoths and, in 475, forced the Roman government to grant them full independence.

These divisions remained constant even after the Visigoths controlled the Iberian peninsula.

By the beginning of the 8th century, these kingdoms had either been conquered by Nicene neighbors ( Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians ) or their rulers had accepted Nicene Christianity ( Visigoths, Lombards ).

In 507, the Visigoths were expelled by the Franks from most of their Gallic possessions, and thereafter ruled a state in Hispania.

The natural consequence of all this was that these men, to the number of 30, 000, flocked to the camp of Alaric I, King of the Visigoths, clamouring to be led against their cowardly enemies.

The Visigoths meanwhile, having sacked Rome two years earlier, arrived in the region in 412 founding the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse ( in the south of modern France ) and gradually expanded their influence into the Iberian peninsula at the expense of the Vandals and Alans, who moved on into North Africa without leaving much permanent mark on Hispanic culture.

Even while the country enjoyed a degree of prosperity when compared to the famines of France and Germany in this period, the Visigoths felt little reason to contribute to the welfare, permanency, and infrastructure of their people and state.

This usage, however, was adopted by the Visigoths themselves in their communications with the Byzantine Empire and was in use in the seventh century.

Thereafter the only territory north of the Pyrenees that the Visigoths held was Septimania, such that their kingdom became limited to Hispania.

In or around 589, the Visigoths, under Reccared I, converted from Arianism to the Nicene faith, gradually adopting the culture of their Hispano-Roman subjects.

In 711 or 712 the Visigoths, including their king and many of their leading men, were killed in the Battle of Guadalete by a force of invading Arabs and Berbers.

This usage, however, was adopted by the Visigoths themselves in their communications with the Byzantine Empire and was in use in the 7th century.

Other Visigoths, refusing to adopt the Muslim faith or live under their rule, fled north to the kingdom of the Franks, and Visigoths played key roles in the empire of Charlemagne a few generations later.

During their long reign in Spain, the Visigoths were responsible for the only new cities founded in Western Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries.

One of the greatest contributions of the Visigoths to family law was their protection of the property rights of married women, which was continued by Spanish law and ultimately evolved into the community property system now in force in part of the United States.

There was a religious gulf between the Visigoths, who had for a long time adhered to Arianism, and their Catholic subjects in Hispania.

But if Priscillianist bishops hesitated to be barred from their sees, a passionately concerned segment of Christian communities in Iberia were disaffected from the more orthodox hierarchy and welcomed the tolerant Arian Visigoths.

* 376: Visigoths appear on the Danube and are allowed entry into the Roman Empire in their flight from the Huns.

* 410: Rome sacked by Visigoths led by their king Alaric.

* Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius I, is captured by the Visigoths and becomes an hostage during their move from the Italian Peninsula to Gaul.

* The Visigoths under king Euric extend their rule from the Loire River to Gibraltar ( approximate date ).

* The Romans fail to disarm the Visigoths, bungle administration of the refugees, and mistreat them, taking some of their children as slaves.

* Priscus Attalus is twice proclaimed rival emperor by the Visigoths at Bordeaux, in order to impose their terms on Honorius who has his residence in Ravenna.

* The Visigoths continue their invasion of Hispania and take control of Tarraconensis.