TEODORICO I and II, kings of the VISIGOTHS. — The people of the Visigoths who, following Alaric, proclaimed king, had sacked Rome and overrun all Italy, after the death of that audacious leader withdrew with Ataulf into southern Gaul, bound to the Empire by a foedus repeatedly violated and renewed. In 418 King Wallia was succeeded by T. I, who, taking advantage of the death of Honorius and the misfortunes of the Empire, constantly sought to enlarge the boundaries of the territory granted to him, advancing toward the centre of Gaul, at times restrained by the magister utriusque militiae Aetius and his generals, but always ready to resume his advances.
It is doubtful whether, in any of the peace treaties repeatedly renewed with him by the imperial government, the complete independence of the Visigothic Kingdom centred around Toulouse was recognized, or whether the semifiction of a federated state continued; but when Attila’s Huns poured into Gaul, T., feeling himself threatened as well, joined forces with Rome and played an honourable part in the resistance, falling in battle at Campus Mauricus near Troyes in 451.
T. II, the preceding king’s son, seized the throne by killing his brother Thorismund. He maintained good relations with the Romans, especially after Genseric’s sack of Rome; he was able to play a significant role in the events that unfolded in Gaul, supporting Avitus’s imperial candidacy, fighting for Rome against the Vandals of Spain, adopting a stance that was first hostile and then favourable toward the emperor Majorian, and succeeding in enlarging his domains toward Narbo Martius (Narbonne) and Aurelianum (Orléans). After Majorian’s assassination, he allied himself with his murderer, Flavius Ricimer, who had become extremely powerful. But this friendship did not succeed in saving him from the treachery of his own brother Henry, who had him killed in the year 466.