VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM

Hermenegild was the son of Liuvigild from his first marriage and was soon linked to the throne alongside his brother Reccared. At the age of fifteen, he married Ingund, daughter of King Sigebert of Austrasia. The significance of this marriage lies in the fsct that Ingund was Catholic, not Arian, and influenced her husband's conversion. They moved to Seville (then Ispali), and within a few months, Hermenegild converted to Catholicism and rebelled against his father, supported by the local Hispano-Roman aristocracy.
Hermenegild’s coins are among the rarest of Visigothic coinage. The obverse follows the model instituted by Liuvigild, who initiated what we consider properly Visigothic coinage by including his name and image on the coins, similar to the Byzantine emperors they emulated. On the reverse, victoria is so schematically represented that it has traditionally been called la cigarra ‘the cicada’. It also retains from its original model the CONOB formula in the exergue, although it has been modified and abbreviated to ONO.
Still, the most striking aspect of these coinages are the legends. On the obverse appears the king's name in the genitive case, and it should be noted that Hermenegild is the only Visigothic king who does not accompany it with the epithet PIVS. More complex is the REGI A DEO VITA formula on the reverse. The word REGI is associated with the king's name on the obverse, while A DEO VITA, which we could translate as ‘the king's life is in God’, acknowledges that all power and life itself come from God. This is one of the few complex formulas found in Visigothic coin legends. None of Hermenegild’s coins, however, indicate the mint where they were struck, although it is almost certain that it was Ispali (Seville).