f the Franks in early youth and lost at once his
kingdom and his life. Then his guardian Thiudis, advancing
from the same kingdom, assailed the Franks and
delivered the Spaniards from their disgraceful treachery.
So long as he lived he kept the Visigoths united. After 303
him Thiudigisclus obtained the kingdom and, ruling but
a short time, met his death at the hands of his own followers.
He was succeeded by Agil, who holds the kingdom
to the present day. Athanagild has rebelled against
him and is even now provoking the might of the Roman
Empire. So Liberius the Patrician is on the way with
an army to oppose him. Now there was not a tribe in
the west that did not serve Theodoric while he lived,
either in friendship or by conquest.

[Sidenote: THEODORIC THE GREAT DIES 526]

[Sidenote: KING ATHALARIC 526-534]

LIX When he had reached old age and knew that he 304
should soon depart this life, he called together the Gothic
counts and chieftains of his race and appointed Athalaric
as king. He was a boy scarce ten years old, the son of
his daughter Amalasuentha, and he had lost his father
Eutharic. As though uttering his last will and testament,
Theodoric adjured and commanded them to honor their
king, to love the Senate and Roman People and to make
sure of the peace and good will of the Emperor of the
East, as next after God.

[Sidenote: AMALASUENTHA]

[Sidenote: Theodahad 534-536]

[Sidenote: 534]

They kept this command fully so long as Athalaric 305
their king and his mother lived, and ruled in peace for
almost eight years. But as the Franks put no confidence
in the rule of a child and furthermore held him in contempt,
and were also plotting war, he gave back to them
those parts of Gaul which his father and grandfather had
seized. He possessed all the rest in peace and quiet.
Therefore when Athalaric was approaching the age of
manhood, he entrusted to the Emperor of the East both
his own youth and his mother's widowhood. But in a
short time the ill-fated boy was carried off by an untimely
death and departed from earthly affairs. His mother 306
feared she might be despised by the Goths on account of
the weakness of her sex. So after much thought she decided,
for the sake of relationship, to summon her cousin
Theodahad from Tuscany, where he led a retired life at
home, and thus she established him on the throne. But
he was unmindful of their kinship and, after a little time,
had her taken from