10 Facts About Theodoric I

Theodoric I was the King of the Visigoths from 418 to 451.

Theodoric I used this situation and tried to capture the important road junction Arelate, but the Magister militum Aetius, who was assisted by the Huns, was able to save the city.

The later Emperor Avitus visited Theodoric I, lived at his court and taught his sons.

Theodoric I's offer of peace was refused, but the king won the decisive battle at Tolosa, and Litorius soon died in Gothic imprisonment from the injuries which he had received in this battle.

Theodoric I therefore accused the daughter of Theodoric of planning to kill him, and in 444 had her mutilated - her ears and nose cut off - and sent back to her father, which earned the enmity of the Visigoths.

Theodoric I was an enemy of the Suevic king Rechila in Iberia, because Visigoth troops assisted the imperial commander Vitus in his campaign against the Suevi in 446.

Theodoric I joined this coalition because he recognized the danger of the Huns to his own realm.

Theodoric I's forces contributed decisively to the victory of the Romans, but he himself was killed during the battle.

Jordanes records two different accounts of his death: one was that Theodoric I was thrown from his horse and trampled to death; the second was that Theodoric I was slain by the spear of the Ostrogoth Andag, who was the father of Jordanes's patron Gunthigis.

The body of Theodoric I wasn't found until the next day.