ALARICO II, king of the VISIGOTHS. — Son of Euric and Ranachilde, he was elected king of the Visigoths upon his father’s death in 484. At that time, the Visigothic kingdom extended from the strait later called Gibraltar to the Loire, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rhône; its capital was Toulouse. A. became related by marriage to Theodoric, whom he had previously assisted in the war against Odoacer, by marrying his daughter Theodogota. An Arian, he made his rule weigh very harshly upon his Catholic subjects and confined several of them, among whom were Bishop Volusianus of Tours at Toulouse and, temporarily, Caesarius of Arles at Bordeaux (505).
On 2 February 506 he promulgated the so-called Breviarium Alaricianum (v. below).
In 506 Clovis, king of the Franks, began the war against A. that had until then been postponed out of consideration for the powerful Theodoric. In 507, in the famous battle of Vouillé, near Poitiers, the Visigoths were defeated and A. was killed, apparently by the Frankish king himself.
BIBLI.: Lex Romana Visigothorum, ed. G. Haenel, Leipzig 1849; Liber iudiciorum sive Lex Visigothorum, in MGH. Leges, I, Leipzig 1902, pp. 33–456. — F. Dahn, Die Könige der Germanen, V, Würzburg 1870; VI, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1885; Hartmann, s.V. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl., I, 1, Stuttgart 1803, cols. 1201–92; F. Patetta, Breviario Alariciano, in Digesto Italiano, V, Turin 1890–99, pp. 975–78; G. Ferrari, Osservazione sulla trasmissione diplomatica del codice teodosiano e sulla « Interpretazione Visigotica », Padua 1915. Emma Santovito
THE ALARICIAN BREVIARY. — A., king of the Visigoths, with the aim of correcting whatever in ancient law might appear inequitable or ambiguous, had a collection of laws compiled by a commission of Roman jurists, called the Lex Romana Visigothorum (from the sixteenth century it was also called Breviarium Alaricianum). The collection was published at Aire in Gascony in the year 506, at a solemn assembly of bishops and lay nobles, and was sent to the counts with the express injunction, contained in the « commonitorium », that it alone should be in use among those subjects of the Gothic kingdom who were of Roman stock.
It contains the only two types of sources then in force: Leges, or Constitutions, and ius, or the writings of jurists; this second group also includes the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes, which, not having been promulgated by imperial authority, lacked official status. The sources, each of which constitutes an independent whole, are arranged in the following order: 1) The Theodosian Code; 2) Novels of Theodosius, Valentinian, Marcian, Majorian, and Severus; 3) Gaius; 4) Paulus (Receptae sententiae); 5) Gregorian Code; 6) Hermogenian Code; 7) Papinian.
All parts of the text, except Gaius, are accompanied by a commentary called « Interpretatio ». The compilation is chiefly practical in character. The collection achieved wide circulation and influenced the Visigothic, Salic, and other laws; it remained in use until approximately the twelfth century. It is the sole repository of certain sources, and it is the mildest of the barbarian laws. Among the numerous epitomes made from it, notable is the one called « Lex Romana Curiensis seu Utinensis », from the eighth century.
BIBLI: F. C. Savigny, Storia del diritto romano nel Medioevo, II, Firenze 1844; M. Conrat, Breviarium Alarici, Lipsia 1903; V. also the bibliography given above. Alberto Scola