he Burgundian and Visigothic wars of Clovis
(500-507) can only be stated conjecturally.]

Theodoric exerted himself strenuously to prevent the impending struggle,
which, as he too surely foresaw, would bring only disaster to his
Visigothic allies. He caused his eloquent secretary to write letters to
Clovis, to Alaric, to Gundobad, to the neighbours of the Franks on their
eastern border, the kings of the Heruli, the Warni, and the Thuringians.
To Clovis he dilated on the horrors which war brings upon the
inhabitants of the warring lands, who have a right to expect that the
kinship of their lords will keep them at peace. A few paltry words were
no sufficient cause of war between two such monarchs, and it was the act
of a passionate and hot-headed man to be mobilising his troops while he
was sending his first embassy. To Alaric he sent an earnest warning
against engaging in war with Clovis: "You are surrounded by an
innumerable multitude of subjects, and you are proud of the remembrance
of the defeat of Attila, but war is a terribly dangerous game, and you
know not how the long peace may have softened the warlike fibre of your
people". He besought Gundobad to join with him in preserving peace
between the combatants, to each of whom he had offered his arbitration.
"It behoves us old, men to moderate the wrath of the royal youths, who
should reverence our age, though they are still in the flower of their
hot youth".[101] The kings of the barbarians were reminded of the
friendship which Alaric's father, Euric, had shown them in old days, and
invited to join in a "League of Peace", in order to check the lawless
aggressions of Clovis, which threatened danger to all.

[Footnote 101: There is some difficulty in understanding this remark
about the relative ages of the sovereigns If we put the date of the
letters at 506 (and a later date is hardly possible, nor one more than
two or three years earlier), though Gundobad might well be over sixty,
Theodoric himself could be only fifty-two, while on the other hand the
"regii juvenes", Clovis and Alaric, were about forty. But _senex_ and
_juvenis_ are expressions often used with no great exactness; and I
conjecture that the cares and struggles of Theodoric's early manhood had
made him an old man before his time.]

The diplomatic action of Theodoric was powerless to avert the war;
possibly even it may have stimulated Clovis to strike rapidly before a
hostile coalition could be formed a