Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse (418-507): Goths Settle in Gaul

The Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse was the realm the Visigoths built in south-western Gaul between 418 and 507. It began as a Roman treaty settlement of Gothic soldiers in Aquitaine and grew into the strongest of the early successor kingdoms, ruling much of Gaul and Spain. It ended when the Frankish king Clovis defeated the Visigoths at Vouillé in 507.

Background: from Rome’s enemies to allies

The Visigoths emerged from the Gothic groups settled inside the empire after the Battle of Adrianople and the treaty of 382. Under Alaric they sacked Rome in 410, and under his successor Athaulf they moved into Gaul and then Spain. Short of food and blockaded by the Roman general Constantius, King Wallia agreed in 416 to fight for Rome against the Vandals and Alans who had crossed into Spain after the Crossing of the Rhine.

In 418, after successful campaigns, the Goths were recalled and settled in Aquitania Secunda, along the Garonne valley from Toulouse to Bordeaux, with some neighbouring districts. How the land or its tax revenues were shared with Roman landowners is still debated by historians.

Growth under Theodoric I and Theodoric II

Wallia died in 418 and was succeeded by Theodoric I (418–451). He served Rome when it suited him, but also tried to seize Arles and Narbonne, the key cities of the Mediterranean coast. In 439 the Goths defeated a Roman army under Litorius outside Toulouse. In 451 Theodoric joined the Roman general Aetius against Attila and was killed at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.

His son Thorismund ruled only until 453, when he was murdered by his brothers. One of them, Theodoric II (453–466), backed the Gallic aristocrat Avitus as Western emperor in 455. In 456 he invaded Spain on Rome’s behalf and crushed the Suebi near the river Órbigo, where their king Rechiar was captured and later executed. The Gallo-Roman poet Sidonius Apollinaris left a famous portrait of Theodoric II’s daily routine at court.

Euric: an independent kingdom

Theodoric II was killed in 466 by his brother Euric (466–484), who treated the weakened Western Empire as a rival rather than a partner. Euric conquered most of Spain and pushed east and north in Gaul. Clermont in the Auvergne, defended by Sidonius, now its bishop, held out for several years until Rome ceded the region in 475. Arles and Marseille followed in 476.

At its height Euric’s kingdom stretched from the Loire to the Strait of Gibraltar. He issued a written law code, the Code of Euric, among the earliest of the Germanic law codes, for disputes involving Goths. The Visigoths were Homoian (Arian) Christians, and Euric’s hostility to some Catholic bishops was long remembered.

Alaric II and the fall of Toulouse

Euric’s son Alaric II (484–507) faced a new threat in the expanding Frankish kingdom of Clovis. He tried to secure the loyalty of his Roman subjects, issuing the Breviary of Alaric, a digest of Roman law, in 506 and allowing a council of Catholic bishops at Agde the same year.

In 507 Clovis invaded. At Vouillé near Poitiers the Goths were defeated and Alaric II was killed; Gregory of Tours says Clovis struck him down himself. The Franks took Toulouse and the royal treasure there, as told in Clovis I and the Battle of Vouillé. Intervention by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great saved Septimania, the coastal strip around Narbonne, and the Visigoths moved their centre to Spain, where Toledo later became their capital.

Society and government

The Visigoths were a minority among a much larger Gallo-Roman population, perhaps a few tens of thousands among millions. The kings therefore relied on Roman structures. Towns kept their bishops and councils, Roman landowners kept most of their estates, and Latin remained the language of law and government. Educated Romans such as Leo of Narbonne served Euric as advisers and drafted his laws.

Society was divided along legal and religious lines. Goths lived under Gothic custom, later written down in the Code of Euric, while Romans continued to use Roman law, which Alaric II collected in his Breviary. Goths and Romans were also separated by faith: the Gothic church was Homoian, with its own clergy, while the Catholic bishops of Gaul were often powerful local aristocrats.

Toulouse itself was a royal residence rather than a capital in the modern sense, and kings also held court at Bordeaux and, later, at Arles. Little of the Visigothic city survives above ground, but finds of jewellery, belt buckles and burials in the region show a mixed Gothic and Roman material culture.

Timeline

• 416: Wallia agrees to fight for Rome in Spain.
• 418: Visigoths settled in Aquitaine; Theodoric I becomes king.
• 439: Goths defeat Litorius outside Toulouse.
• 451: Theodoric I killed at the Catalaunian Plains.
• 456: Theodoric II defeats the Suebi in Spain.
• 466: Euric seizes the throne.
• 475–476: Auvergne, Arles and Marseille pass to Euric.
• 506: Breviary of Alaric issued; Council of Agde.
• 507: Battle of Vouillé; Alaric II killed.

Why it matters

The Kingdom of Toulouse is often regarded as the first barbarian kingdom created inside the Western Empire by treaty, and it showed how Roman administration, law and landowners could survive under Germanic kings. Its law codes influenced medieval Europe, and its defeat at Vouillé settled that Gaul would become Frankish while Spain became Visigothic.