the annulment of the anti-Arian decree. When he
failed to attain this, he resolved upon a general persecution of the
Catholics which was forestalled, however, by his death in 526 A. D.

The Burgundians were also Arians, and this prevented their winning the
loyal support of the orthodox clergy, who, however, recognized the
authority of the Burgundian kings. Although Sigismund, the son of
Gundobad, who came to the throne in 516, was converted to orthodoxy, it
was too late to heal this religious breach before the fall of the
Burgundian power.

Unlike their neighbors, the Visigoths and Burgundians, the Franks were
pagans when they established themselves upon Roman territory and remained
so until toward the close of the fifth century. In 496 the Frankish king
Clovis was converted to Christianity, and to the orthodox, not the Arian,
belief, a fact of supreme importance in his relations with the other
Germanic peoples in Gaul.

*The expansion of the Franks.* The foreign policy of Theoderic was
directed towards strengthening his position in Italy by establishing
friendly relations with the western Germanic kingdoms and maintaining
peace and a balance of power among them. To this end he contracted a
series of family alliances with the rulers of these states. In 492 he
himself wedded a sister of Clovis the Frank, and gave his own sister in
marriage to the Vandal king Thrasamund. One of his daughters became the
wife of Sigismund, king of the Burgundians, and another was married to
Alaric II, who succeeded Euric as king of the Visigoths.

However, Theoderic's scheme was rudely disturbed by the ambitions of
Clovis. In 496 the latter conquered the Alamanni. He next forced the
Burgundians to acknowledge his overlordship, and with these as his allies
in 507 he attacked the Visigothic kingdom. The conquests of Euric in Gaul
and Spain had overtaxed the strength of the Visigothic people and weakened
their hold upon the territory they occupied. Furthermore, their Roman
subjects gave active aid to the orthodox Clovis. In a battle near Poitiers
the Visigoths were defeated and their king, Alaric II, slain. Theoderic
had been hindered from intervening previously by the outbreak of
hostilities between himself and the emperor Anastasius, who gave his
sanction to the action of Clovis and sent him the insignia of the
consulship. Now, however, the Ostrogothic king came to the aid of the
Visigoths. He repulsed the Franks and Burgundians before Ar