:''For other uses of Alaric, see [[Alaric|Alaric (disambiguation)]].

[[Image:Visigoth_Kingdom.jpg|thumb|right|The Kingdom of the Visigoths under Alaric II.]] '''Alaric II''', also known as Alarik, Alarich, and ''Alarico'' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] or ''Alaricus'' in [[Latin]] (d. [[507]]) succeeded his father [[Euric]] in [[485]] as eighth king of the [[Visigoths]]. His dominions included not only the whole of [[Hispania]] except its north-western corner but also [[Gallia Aquitania]] and the greater part of an as-yet undivided [[Gallia Narbonensis]].

==Reign==
[[Image:Syagrius_brought_before_Alaric_II.jpg|thumb|left|The captured Syagrius is brought before Alaric II in 486.]]In [[486]] Alaric II denied refuge to [[Afranius Syagrius]], the former ruler of the [[Domain of Soissons]] who was defeated by [[Clovis I]]. 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]] [[Peter (usurper)|Peter]] and had him executed.

In religion Alaric was an [[Arianism|Arian]], like all the early Visigothic nobles, but he greatly mitigated the persecuting policy of his father Euric toward the [[Catholicism|Catholics]] and authorized them to hold in [[506]] the council of [[Agde]]. He was on uneasy terms with the Catholic bishops of Arles as epitomized in the career of the Frankish [[Caesarius of Arles|Caesarius, bishop of Arles]], born at [[Châlons]] and appointed bishop in 503. Caesarius was suspected of conspiring with the [[Burgundians]] to turn over the Arelate to Burgundy, whose king had married the sister of [[Clovis I|Clovis]], so Alaric exiled him for a year safely at [[Bordeaux]] in Aquitania before allowing him to return unharmed when the crisis had passed ([http://www.ccel.org/w/wace/biodict/htm/iii.iii.iv.htm Wace, ''Dictionary'']).

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]].

==Battle of Vouillé and aftermath==
Alaric endeavoured strictly to maintain the treaty which his father had concluded with the [[Franks]]. The Frankish king [[Clovis I]], 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 the Great|Theodoric]], king of the [[Ostrogoths]] and father-in-law of Alaric, proved unavailing. The two armies met in [[507]] at the [[Battle of Vouillé]], 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]] to the Franks, except [[Septimania]] (i.e. the western region of Gallia Narbonensis, which includes the contemporary [[Arles]] and the [[Provence]]). Alaric was succeeded by his illegitimate son, [[Gesalec]], because his legitimate son [[Amalaric]] was still a child.

==References==
*{{1911}}
*Edward Gibbon, [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/g/g43d/chapter38.html ''History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''] Chapter 38

{{start}}
{{s-hou|[[Balti dynasty]]||||507|name=King Alaric II of the Visigoths}}
{{s-reg|}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Euric]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Visigoths#Kings of the Visigoths|King of the Visigoths]]|years=485 – 507}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Gesalec]]}}
{{end}}

[[Category:Kings of the Visigoths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:507 deaths|Alaric]]

[[ca:Alaric II]]
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