ATANARICO. — Visigothic chieftain, son of Roeseto, “judge,” that is, leader of the Tervingi settled along the Danube, antagonist of Fritigern.
In conflict with the emperor Valens (365, 367–69), he was defeated by Valens in 369 and again by the Huns in 375; his subjects forced him in 380 to conclude an alliance with Theodosius. He died in Constantinople on 25 January 381.
In his hostility toward the Romans, he also involved the Christian religion, which he persecuted severely, especially from 369 to 372. Among the documents that recall his struggle against both the orthodox and the Arians, we may cite the incomplete sixth-century Gothic calendar of Arian observance that has come down to us.
Bibl.: O. Seeck, s. V. in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl., II, Stuttgart 1866, cols. 1934–35; H. Delehaye, Les Saints de Thrace et de Mésie, in Anal. Boll., 31 (1912), pp. 161–202, text of the Gothic calendar, pp. 275–81; A. Lambert, s. V. in DHG, IV, cols. 1305–18 (with numerous source references). A. Pietro Frutaz
ATANASIANO (PSEUDO), SIMBOLO: V. ATANASIO, SANTO.