Athaulf (370-415) was King of the Visigoths from 410 to 415, succeeding Alaric I and preceding Sigeric.
Biography[]
Athaulf was born in 370, the brother-in-law of King Alaric I of the Visigoths. He was elected king on Alaric's death from fever in 410, and he halted Alaric's southward expansion into Italia. In 412, pressured by the Western Roman magister militum Constantius III, Athaulf was forced to abandon Italy. Athaulf and his horde migrated to a momentarily pacified Gaul, and he defeated and executed the pretender Jovinus' Gothic commander Sarus. In 413, he defeated Jovinus and his brother Sebastianus and sent them to Narbonne to be executed by the prefect Claudius Postumus Dardanus. Athaulf became close with the Western Roman emperor Honorius, and Athaulf married Honorius' sister Galla Placidia at Narbo in 414. However, he was betrayed by Honorius' general Constantius, who blockaded the Mediterranean ports of Gaul and forced Athaulf and his people to retreat into northern Hispania. There, he was joined by Sarus' followers, but one of them avenged his former master by murdering Athaulf as he bathed.