t, at Xeres de la Frontera.

All through the year 507 the allied forces of Franks and Burgundians
seem to have poured over the south-west and south of Gaul, annexing
Angouleme, Saintonge, Auvergne, and Gascony to the dominions of Clovis,
and Provence to the dominions of Gundobad. Only the strong city of
Aries, and perhaps the fortress of Carcassonne (that most interesting
relic of the early Middle Ages, which still shows the handiwork of
Visigothic kings in its walls), still held out for the son of Alaric.

In 508 the long delayed forces of Theodoric appeared upon the scene
under his brave general, Tulum, and dealt some severe blows at the
allied Frankish and Burgundian armies. In 509 another army, under Duke
Mammo, crossed the Cottian Alps near Briancon, laid waste part of
Dauphine, and probably compelled a large detachment of the Burgundian
army to return for the defence of their homes. And lastly, in 510,
Theodoric's general, Ibbas, inflicted a crushing defeat on the allied
armies, leaving, it is said, thirty thousand Franks dead upon the field.
The number is probably much exaggerated (as these historical bulletins
are apt to be), but there can be no doubt that a great and important
victory was won by the troops of Theodoric. The immediate result of this
victory was the raising of the siege of Aries, whose valiant defenders
had held out against storm and blockade, famine and treachery within,
Franks and Burgundians without, for the space of two years and a half.
Ultimately, and perhaps before many months had passed, the victory of
Ibbas led to a cessation of hostilities, if not to a formal treaty of
peace, between the three powers which disputed the possession of Gaul.
The terms practically arranged were these. Clovis remained in possession
of far the largest part of Alaric's dominions, Aquitaine nearly up to
the roots of the Pyrenees, and so much of Languedoc (including Toulouse,
the late capital of the Visigoths) as lay west of the mountains of the
Cevennes. Theodoric obtained the rest of Languedoc and Provence, the
first province being deemed to be a part of the Visigothic, the second
of the Ostrogothic, dominions, Gundobad obtained nothing, but lost some
towns on his southern frontier--a fitting reward for his tortuous and
shifty policy.

In the meantime something like civil war had been waged on the other
side of the Pyrenees for the Spanish portion of the Visigothic
inheritance. Alaric, slain on the field of