Euric

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Euric

Euric, also known as Evaric, Erwig, or Eurico 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....
(c. 415–484), was the younger brother of Theodoric II

Theodoric II

Theodoric II murdered his elder brother Thorismund to become king of the Visigoths in 453. Edward Gibbon writes that "he justified this atrocious deed by the design which his predecessor had formed of violating his alliance with the empire." During Theodoric's reign the Kingdom of the Visigoths, centered in what is now Aquitaine, continued t...
and ruled as king of the Visigoths, with his capital at Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
, from 466

466

Events...
until his death in 484

484

EventsBy PlaceEurope* December 28 ? Alaric II succeeds Euric as king of the Visigoths.* Gunthamund becomes king of the Vandals....
.

He inherited a large portion of the Visigothic possessions in the Aquitaine

Aquitaine

Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 26 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain....
region of 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....
, an area that had been under Visigothic control since 415

415

Sorry, no overview for this topic
.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Euric'

Start a new discussion about 'Euric'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Euric, also known as Evaric, Erwig, or Eurico in Spanish

Spanish language

Portuguese language

Theodoric II

Toulouse

Toulouse is a commune of France in southwest France on the banks of the Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea....
, from 466

466

Events...
until his death in 484

484

Aquitaine

Gaul

415

Sorry, no overview for this topic
. Over the decades the Visigoths had gradually expanded their holdings at the expense of the weak Roman government, advancing well into 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....
in the process.

Upon becoming king, Euric defeated several other Visigothic kings and chieftains in a series of civil wars and soon became the first ruler of a truly unified Visigothic nation. Taking advantage of the Romans' problems, he extended Visigothic power in Hispania, driving the Suevi into the northwest of Iberia. By the time the Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
ended in 476

476

Sorry, no overview for this topic
he controlled nearly the entire Iberian peninsula

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France....
.

In 470

470

Events...
Euric defeated an attempted invasion of Gaul by the Celt

Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
ic magnate Riothamus

Riothamus

Riothamus , was a Romano-British military leader, who was active circa 470. He fought against the Goths in alliance with the declining Roman Empire....
and expanded his kingdom even further north, possibly as far as the Somme River

Somme River

The Somme is a river in Picardy, northern France. The name Somme comes from a Celtic languages word meaning tranquility. The department Somme was named after this river....
, the March of Frankish

Frankish Empire

Francia or Frankia, later also called the Frankish Empire , Frankish Kingdom , Frankish Realm or occasionally Frankland, was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the 3rd to the 10th century....
territory.

Previous Visigothic kings had officially ruled only as legates of the Roman Emperor but Euric was the first to declare his complete independence from the puppet emperors. In 475

475

Sorry, no overview for this topic
he forced the western emperor Julius Nepos

Julius Nepos

Flavius Julius Nepos was a Roman Emperor of the West during the Roman Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Some historians consider him to be the last De jure Western Emperor, others consider the western line to have ended with Romulus Augustus in 476....
to recognize his full independence in exchange for the return of 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....
region of Gaul. The Roman citizens of Hispania then pledged their allegiance to Euric, recognizing him as their king. In the same year Clermont(-Ferrand)

Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune in France of France, in the Auvergne regions of France, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census....
surrendered to him after a long siege, and its bishop, Sidonius Apollinaris

Sidonius Apollinaris

Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris , a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius was "the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg....
, sued for peace. He divided the Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

Odoacer

Odoacer , also known as Odovacar , was a Germanic general and the first non-Roman King of Italy after 476. He deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, that year, but continued to rule first as a nominal client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in AD 480, as a client of the Eastern Roman Emperor....
.

Euric was one of the more learned of the great Visigothic kings and was the first German to formally codify his people's laws. The Code of Euric
Code of Euric

The Codex Euricianus or Code of Euric was a collection of laws governing the Visigoths compiled at the order of Euric, King of Spain, sometime before 480, probably at Toulouse ....
of 471

471

Events...
codified the traditional laws that had been entrusted to the memory of designated specialists who had learned each article by heart.

At Euric's death in 484 the Kingdom of the Visigoths encompassed all of Iberia except for the region of Galicia (ruled by the Suebi

Suebi

The Suebi or Suevi were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with Ariovistus' campaign, c....
) and more than two-thirds of modern France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
. Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788....
, in Chapter 38 of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, remarks:

The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents; and France may ascribe her greatness to the premature death of the Gothic king, at a time when his son Alaric

Alaric II

File:Alaric II 484 507 gold 1470mg reverse.jpgAlaric II, also known as Alarik, Alarich, and Alarico in Spanish language and Portuguese language or Alaricus in Latin succeeded his father Euric in 485 and became eighth king of the Visigoths....
was a helpless infant, and his adversary Clovis

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...
an ambitious and valiant youth.

External links

Edward Gibbon, Chapter 37
Edward Gibbon, Chapter 38