Court ceremonials introduced at Toledo—from Constantinople—tproclaim the imperial sovereignty and unity of the Visigothic state.

Still, civil war, royal assassinations, and usurpation are commonplace, and warlords and great landholders assume wide discretionary powers.

Bloody family feuds go unchecked.

The Visigoths have acquired and cultivated the apparatus of the Roman state, but not the ability to make it operate to their advantage.

In the absence of a well-defined hereditary system of succession to the throne, rival factions encourage foreign intervention by the Greeks, the Franks, and, finally, the Muslims in internal disputes and in royal elections.