Alaric II

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Alaric II

Alaric II, also known as Alarik, Alarich, and Alarico in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
and Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
or Alaricus in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
(d. 507) succeeded his father Euric

Euric

Euric, also known as Evaric, Erwig, or Eurico in Spanish language and Portuguese language , was the younger brother of Theodoric II and ruled as king of the Visigoths, with his capital at Toulouse, from 466 until his death in 484....
in 485 and became eighth king of the Visigoths. His dominions included not only the whole of Hispania

Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Ancient Rome to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into Roman provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior....
except its north-western corner but also Gallia Aquitania

Gallia Aquitania

Gallia Aquitania was a province of the Roman Empire, bordered by the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gallia Narbonensis, and Hispania Tarraconensis....
and the greater part of an as-yet undivided Gallia Narbonensis

Gallia Narbonensis

Gallia Narbonensis was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in southern France. Narbonese Gaul "lay between the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and the C?vennes Mountains....
.

86 Alaric II denied refuge to Afranius Syagrius, the former ruler of the Domain of Soissons

Domain of Soissons

In the Late Antiquity period, two states in the area of modern-day northwest France were termed the Domain of Soissons. This area is often incorrectly called the Kingdom of Soissons or the Kingdom of Syagrius....
who was defeated by Clovis I

Clovis I

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Encyclopedia

Alaric II, also known as Alarik, Alarich, and Alarico in Spanish

Spanish language

Portuguese language

Latin

Euric

Hispania

Gallia Aquitania

Gallia Narbonensis

Reign

In 486 Alaric II denied refuge to Afranius Syagrius, the former ruler of the Domain of Soissons

Domain of Soissons

Clovis I

Clovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Franks under one king. He succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salian Franks, one of the Frankish tribes who were then occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with their centre around Tournai and Cambrai along the modern frontier between France and Belgium, in an...
. Alarmed by a summons from Clovis, Alaric imprisoned and repatriated Syagrius back to Clovis I, where he was decapitated.

In 506, the Visigoths captured the city of Dertosa in the Ebro valley. There they captured the Roman usurper

Roman usurper

Usurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpers were a common feature of the late Roman Empire, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule....
Peter

Peter (usurper)

Peter was a Roman usurper of the early sixth century, recorded in two minor sources: the Consularia Caesaraugustana and the Victor of Tunnuna....
and had him executed.

In religion Alaric was an Arian

Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heresy at the First Council of Nicea, later exonerated and then pronounced a heretic again after his death....
, like all the early Visigothic nobles, but he greatly mitigated the persecuting policy of his father Euric toward the Catholics

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde

Agde

Agde is the commune in France in the H?rault Departments of France in southern France that is the Mediterranean Sea port of the Canal du Midi....
. He was on uneasy terms with the Catholic bishops of Arles as epitomized in the career of the Frankish Caesarius, bishop of Arles, born at Châlons

Chalons

The word "Chalons"' and variants can have several meanings:*Chalons or Ch?lons is the name or part of the name of several commune in France in France:...
and appointed bishop in 503. Caesarius was suspected of conspiring with the Burgundians

Burgundians

File:Roman Empire 125.svgThe Burgundians were an East Germanic language Germanic tribes which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe....
to turn over the Arelate to Burgundy, whose king had married the sister of Clovis

Clovis I

Bordeaux

is a Port city on the Garonne in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its aire urbaine at a 2008 estimate. It is the Capital of the Aquitaine regions of France, as well as the Prefectures in France of the Gironde Departments of France....
in Aquitania before allowing him to return unharmed when the crisis had passed ().

He displayed similar wisdom and liberality in political affairs by appointing a commission to prepare an abstract of the Roman laws and imperial decrees, which should form the authoritative code for his Roman subjects. This is generally known as the Breviarium Alaricianum or Breviary of Alaric

Breviary of Alaric

The Breviary of Alaric is a collection of Roman law, compiled by order of Alaric II, Visigothic Kingdom Visigoths, with the advice of his bishops and nobles, in the year 506, the twenty-second year of his reign....
.

Battle of Vouillé and aftermath

Alaric endeavoured strictly to maintain the treaty which his father had concluded with the Franks

Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
. The Frankish king Clovis I

Clovis I

Clovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Franks under one king. He succeeded his father Childeric I in 481 as King of the Salian Franks, one of the Frankish tribes who were then occupying the area west of the lower Rhine, with their centre around Tournai and Cambrai along the modern frontier between France and Belgium, in an...
, however, desired to obtain the Gothic province in Gaul and he found a pretext for war in the Arianism of Alaric. The intervention of Theodoric

Theodoric the Great

File:Theodoric bronze weight inlaid with silver issued by prefect Catulinus Rome 493 526.jpg'Theodoric the Great' , known in Latin as 'Flavius Theodericus' and in Greek sources, was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , and regent of the Visigoths ....
, king of the Ostrogoths and father-in-law of Alaric, proved unavailing. The two armies met in 507 at the Battle of Vouillé

Battle of Vouillé

The Battle of Vouill? or Campus Vogladensis was fought in the northern marches of Visigothic territory, at a small place near Poitiers , in the spring of 507 between the Franks commanded by Clovis I and the Visigoths of Alaric II, the conqueror of Spain....
, near Poitiers, where the Goths were defeated and their king, who took to flight, was overtaken and slain, it is said, by Clovis himself. As a consequence of their defeat the Visigoths lost all their possessions in Gaul

Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
to the Franks, except Septimania

Septimania

Septimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II....
(i.e. the western region of Gallia Narbonensis, which includes the contemporary Arles

Arles

Arles is a city in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rh?ne Departments of France, of which it is a Subprefectures in France, in the former Provinces of France of Provence....
and the Provence

Provence

Provence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative regions of France of Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur....
). Alaric was succeeded by his illegitimate son, Gesalec

Gesalec

Gesalic was king of the Visigoths from 507 through 511. He was the illegitimate son of Alaric II. When Alaric was killed in battle by the Franks, his only legitimate son, Amalaric, was a child....
, because his legitimate son Amalaric

Amalaric

Amalaric, or in Spanish language and Portuguese language, Amalarico, was a son of king Alaric II and of Theodegotho, daughter of Theodoric the Great and his first wife....
was still a child.