Theodoric II
Encyclopedia
- For the Lord of Isenburg-Kempenich, see Theodoric II of Isenburg-KempenichTheodoric II of Isenburg-KempenichTheodoric II of Isenburg-Kempenich was a Lord of Isenburg-Kempenich co-ruling with his brothers Salentin and Florentin, and eventually his nephew Theodoric III....
.
Theodoric II (in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
Teodorico; died 466) was King of Visigoths from 453 to 466.
Theoderic II, son of Theodoric I
Theodoric I
Theodoric I sometimes called Theodorid and in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian Teodorico, was the King of the Visigoths from 418 to 451. An illegitimate son of Alaric, Theodoric is famous for defeating Attila at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, where he was mortally wounded.-Early...
, obtained the throne by killing his elder brother Thorismund
Thorismund
Thorismund became king of the Visigoths after his father Theodoric was killed in the Battle of Châlons in 451 CE...
. English historian Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
writes that "he justified this atrocious deed by the design which his predecessor had formed of violating his alliance with the empire." In late 458 Western Roman Emperor Majorian
Majorian
Majorian , was the Western Roman Emperor from 457 to 461.A prominent general of the Late Roman army, Majorian deposed Emperor Avitus in 457 and succeeded him. Majorian was one of the last emperors to make a concerted effort to restore the Western Roman Empire...
entered Septimania
Septimania
Septimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. Under the Visigoths it was known as simply Gallia or Narbonensis. It corresponded roughly with the modern...
to attack Theodoric and reclaim the province for the empire. Majorian defeated Theodoric at the Battle of Arelate
Battle of Arelate
The Battle of Arelate was fought in late 458 near Arelate between Western Roman Emperor Majorian and Visigothic king Theodoric II. After the assassination of Flavius Aetius in 454, the Visigoths began to expand their kingdom at the expense of the crumbling Roman administration in Gaul and Hispania...
, forcing the Visigoths to abandon Septimania and withdraw west to Aquitania
Aquitania
Aquitania may refer to:* the territory of the Aquitani, a people living in Roman times in what is now Aquitaine, France* Aquitaine, a region of France roughly between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic ocean and the Garonne, also a former kingdom and duchy...
. Under the new treaty with the Romans, the Visigoths had to relinquish their recent conquests in Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
and return to federate status. However, after the assassination of Majorian in 461, Theodoric recaptured Septimania and invaded Hispania again. Theodoric was himself murdered in 466 by his younger brother Euric
Euric
Euric, also known as Evaric, Erwig, or Eurico in Spanish and Portuguese , Son of Theodoric I and the younger brother of Theodoric II and ruled as king of the Visigoths, with his capital at Toulouse, from 466 until his death in 484.He inherited a large portion of the Visigothic possessions in the...
, who succeeded him to the throne.
Described by a Roman
The Gallo-Roman Sidonius ApollinarisSidonius Apollinaris
Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg...
wrote a famously vivid and gushing letter to his friend Agricola describing the king and his court: