Alaric II (d. 507) was the eighth king of the Visigoths in Spain and succeeded his father Euric or Evaric in 485.

His dominions not only included the whole of Spain except its north-western corner, but also Aquitaine and the greater part of Provence. In religion Alaric was an Arian, but he greatly mitigated the persecuting policy of his father Euric towards the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde.

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.

Alaric was of a peaceful disposition, and endeavoured strictly to maintain the treaty which his father had concluded with the Franks, whose king Clovis I, however, desiring to obtain the Gothic province in Gaul, found a pretext for war in the Arianism of Alaric. The intervention of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and father-in-law of Alaric, proved unavailing. The two armies met in 507 at the Campus Vogladensis, near Poitiers, where the Goths were defeated, and their king, who took to flight, was overtaken and slain, it is said, by Clovis himself.

His son, Amalaric was still a child, so he was succeeded by his illegitimate son, Gesalic

Preceded by: Euric

King of the Visigoths

Followed by: Gesalic

see History of Spain

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

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