Theodoric I

Theodoric I
King of the Visigoths
Teodorico rey godo by Felix Castello 1635
Reign	418 - 451 AD
Coronation	418 AD
Predecessor	Wallia
Successor	Thorismund
Born	Peuce Island, Dobruja
Died	451 AD Battle of Chalons
Burial	Marne, France
Issue	Thorismund Theodoric II Frederic Euric Retimer Himnerith
House	Balti dynasty
Father	Alaric I
Religion	Arianism

Theodoric I (Gothic: Þiudareiks; German: Theodorid or Theodorich; Latin: Theodericus), (c. 393 – 20 June 451) known in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian as Teodorico, was the Germanic King of the Visigoths from 418 to 451 AD. An illegitimate son of Alaric,^[1] Theodoric is famous for his part in defeating Attila at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, where he was killed.

Early career

In 418 he succeeded King Wallia. The Romans had ordered King Wallia to move his people from Iberia to Gaul. As king, Theodoric completed the settlements of the Visigoths in Gallia Aquitania II, Novempopulana and Gallia Narbonensis, and then used the declining power of the Roman Empire to extend his territory to the south.

After the death of Emperor Honorius and the usurpation of Joannes in 423 internal power struggles broke out in the Roman Empire. Theodoric used this situation and tried to capture the important road junction Arelate, but the Magister militum Aëtius, who was assisted by the Huns, was able to save the city.^[2]

The Visigoths concluded a treaty and were given Gallic noblemen as hostages. The later Emperor Avitus visited Theodoric, lived at his court and taught his sons.^[3]

Expansion to the Mediterranean

Because the Romans had to fight against the Franks, who plundered Cologne and Trier in 435, and because of other events Theodoric saw the chance to conquer Narbo Martius (in 436) to obtain access to the Mediterranean Sea and the roads to the Pyrenees. But Litorius, with the aid of the Huns, could prevent the capture of the city and drove the Visigoths back to their capital Tolosa.^[4] The peace offer of Theodoric was refused, but the king won the decisive battle at Tolosa, and Litorius soon died in Gothic imprisonment from the injuries which he had received in this battle.^[5] Avitus went – according to the orders of Aëtius – to Tolosa and offered a peace treaty which Theodoric accepted.^[6] Perhaps the Romans recognized at that time the sovereignty of the Visigoth state.

Conflict with Vandals

A daughter of Theodoric had been married to Huneric, a son of the Vandal ruler Geiseric (in 429?), but Huneric later had ambitions to wed Eudocia, a daughter of the Emperor Valentinian III. He therefore accused the daughter of Theodoric of planning to kill him, and in 444 had her mutilated - her ears and nose cut off^[7] - and sent back to her father.^[8] This action caused an enmity between the Visigoths and the Vandals.

An enemy of Aëtius, the former Magister militum Sebastianus, came in 444 to Tolosa.^[9] So there could have emerged strained relations with Aëtius, but Theodoric soon sent his unwelcome guest away who captured Barcelona and was later (in 450) executed at the orders of Geiseric.

Theodoric was also an enemy of the Suevic king Rechila in Iberia, because Visigoth troops assisted the imperial commander Vitus at his campaign against the Suevi in 446.^[10] But the ability of this people to conduct a strong defence and the better relations between Geiseric and the Roman Empire led Theodoric to change his foreign policy. He therefore married in February 449 one of his daughters to the new Suevic king Rechiar, who visited his father-in-law at Tolosa in July 449.^[11] On his return – according to the author Isidore of Seville - Rechiar, with the assistance of Visigoth troops,^[12] devastated the area surrounding the city of Caesaraugusta and managed by guile to take Ilerda.

Some recent scholars doubt that Theodoric took legislative measures, as it was assumed in earlier times.^[13]

Alliance against the Huns

When Attila the Hun advanced with his large army to Western Europe and finally invaded Gaul, Avitus arranged an alliance between Theodoric and his long-standing enemy Aëtius against the Huns.^[14] Theodoric accepted this coalition because he recognized the danger of the Huns to his own realm. With his whole army and his sons, Thorismund and Theodoric, he joined Aëtius.

The Visigoth and Roman troops then saved the civitas Aurelianorum and forced Attila to withdraw (June 451).^[15]

Battle of Châlons

Then Aëtius and Theodoric followed the Huns and fought against them at the Battle of Châlons near Troyes in about September 451. Most Visigoths fought at the right wing under the command of Theodoric but a smaller force fought at the left under the command of Thorismund.^[16]

Theodoric's forces contributed decisively to the victory of the Romans, but he himself was killed during the battle. Jordanes records two different accounts of his death: one was that Theodoric was thrown from his horse and trampled to death; the second was that Theodoric was slain by the spear of the Ostrogoth Andag, who was the father of Jordanes's patron Gunthigis.

The body of Theodoric was only found at the next day. According to Gothic tradition he was mourned and buried by his warriors on the battlefield.^[17] Immediately Thorismund was elected as successor of his father. Other sons of Theodoric were Theodoric II, Frederic, Euric, Retimer and Himnerith.^[18]

Legacy

For his sacrifice and subsequent victory over Attila at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, Theodoric became a revered figure in Western historiography, and served as an inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien in his creation of king Théoden of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings.

See also

Media related to Teodorico I at Wikimedia Commons

Notes

1. Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
2. Prosper, Epitoma chronicon 1290, in: MGH Auctores antiquissimi (AA) 9, p. 471; Chronica Gallica of 452, 102, in: MGH AA 9, p. 658; Sidonius Apollinaris, letters 7. 12. 3
3. Sidonius Apollinaris, carmen 7. 215sqq.; 7. 495sqq.
4. Prosper, Epitoma chronicon 1324 and 1326, in: MGH AA 9, p. 475; Hydatius, chronicle 107 und 110, in: MGH AA 11, p. 22-23; Merobaudes, panegyric, fragment II A 23, in: Vollmer, MGH AA 14, p. 9; Sidonius Apollinaris, carmen 7. 246sqq.; 7. 475sqq.
5. Prosper, Epitoma chronicon 1335, in: MGH AA 9, p. 476; Hydatius, chronicle 116, in: MGH AA 11, p. 23; Salvian, de gubernatione dei 7. 9. 39sqq.
6. Prosper, Epitoma chronicon 1338, in: MGH AA 9, p. 477; Hydatius, chronicle 117, in: MGH AA 11, p. 23; Sidonius Apollinaris, carmen 7. 295sqq.
7. "The Fall of the West" by Adrian Goldsworthy, W&N (2009), ISBN 978-0-297-84563-8 (page 330)
8. Jordanes, Getica 36, 184
9. Hydatius, chronicle 129, in: MGH AA 11, p. 24 (dated into the year 444); Prosper, Epitoma chronicon 1342, in: MGH AA 9, p. 478 (wrongly dated into the year 440)
10. Hydatius, chronicle 134, in: MGH AA 11, p. 24
11. Hydatius, chronicle 140 and 142, in: MGH AA 11, p. 25; Jordanes, Getica 44. 229 and 231
12. Isidore, Historia Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum 87, in: MGH AA 11, p. 301
13. G. Kampers, RGA, vol. 30, p. 420
14. Sidonius Apollinaris, carmen 7. 332sqq.; 7. 336sqq.; 7. 352sqq.; Prosper, Epitoma chronicon 1364, in: MGH AA 9, p. 481; compare Jordanes, Getica 36. 187sqq.
15. Sidonius Apollinaris, carmen 7, 346sqq.; letters 7. 12. 3; 8. 15. 1; Jordanes, Getica 37. 195; Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum 2. 7; Vita S. Aniani 7 und 10, in: MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 3. 112-113; 3. 115-116
16. Jordanes, Getica 38. 197 and 201
17. Jordanes, Getica 40. 209 and 41. 214; Hydatius, chronicle 150, in: MGH AA 11, p. 26
18. Jordanes, Getica 36. 190

References

• G. Kampers: Theoderid. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). vol. 30 (2005), p. 419-421.
• Wilhelm Enßlin: Theoderich I. In: Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. V A 2, col. 1735-1740.