ed in and again made gorgeous by the stately
ceremonial of the Catholic rite. In other ways, too, Alaric showed
himself anxious to conciliate the favour of his Roman subjects. He
ordered an abstract of the Imperial Code to be prepared, and this
abstract, under the name of the _Breviarium Alaricianum_[92] is to this
day one of our most valuable sources of information as to Roman Law. He
is also said to have directed the construction of the canal, which still
bears his name _(Canal d'Alaric),_ and which, connecting the Adour with
the Aisne, assists the irrigation of the meadows of Gascony. But all
these attempts to close the feud between the king and his orthodox
subjects were vain. When the day of trial came, it was seen, as it had
long been suspected, that the sympathies and the powerful influence of
the bishops and clergy were thrown entirely on the side of the Catholic
invader.

[Footnote 92: Sometimes called the _Breviarium Aniani,_ from the name of
the Registrar whose signature attested each copy of the _Breviarium._]

Between the Visigothic and Ostrogothic courts there was firm friendship
and alliance, the remembrance of their common origin and of many perils
and hardships shared together on the shores of the Euxine and in the
passes of the Balkans being fortified by the knowledge of the dangers to
which their common profession of Arianism exposed them amidst the
Catholic population of the Empire. The alliance, which had served
Theodoric in good stead when the Visigoths helped him in his struggle
with Odovacar, was yet further strengthened by kinship, the young king
of Toulouse having received in marriage a princess from Ravenna, whose
name is variously given as Arevagni or Ostrogotho.

A matrimonial alliance also connected Theodoric with the king of the
_Burgundians_. These invaders, who were destined so strangely to
disappear out of history themselves, while giving their name to such
wide and rich regions of mediaeval Europe, occupied at this time the
valleys of the Saone and the Rhone, as well as the country which we now
call Switzerland. Their king, Gundobad, a man somewhat older than
Theodoric, had once interfered zealously in the politics of Italy,
making and unmaking Emperors and striking for Odovacar against his
Ostrogothic rival. Now, however, his whole energies were directed to
extending his dominions in Gaul, and to securing his somewhat precarious
throne from the machinations of the Catholic bishops,