There his course of conquest was destined to end. After the battle of
Vouille he had sent his eldest son, Theodoric, in command of a division,
with orders to cross Central Gaul from west to east, to go and join the
Burgundians of Gondebaud, who had promised his assistance, and in
conjunction with them to attack the Visigoths on the banks of the Rhone
and in Narbonensis. The young Frank boldly executed his father's orders,
but the intervention of Theodoric the Great, king of Italy, prevented
the success of the operation. He sent an army into Gaul to the aid of
his son-in-law Alaric; and the united Franks and Burgundians failed in
their attacks upon the Visigoths of the eastern provinces. Clovis had no
idea of compromising by his obstinacy the conquests already
accomplished; he therefore raised the siege of Carcassonne, returned
first to Toulouse, and then to Bordeaux, took Angouleme, the only town
of importance he did not possess in Aquitania; and feeling reasonably
sure that the Visigoths, who, even with the aid that had come from
Italy, had great difficulty in defending what remained to them of
Southern Gaul, would not come and dispute with him what he had already
conquered, he halted at Tours, and stayed there some time, to enjoy on
the very spot the fruits of his victory and to establish his power in
his new possessions.
It appears that even the Britons of Armorica tendered to him at that
time, through the interposition of Melanius, bishop of Rennes, if not
their actual submission, at any rate their subordination and homage.
Clovis at the same time had his self-respect flattered in a manner to
which barbaric conquerors always attach great importance. Anastasius,
emperor of the East, with whom he had already had some communication,
sent to him at Tours a solemn embassy, bringing him the titles and
insignia of patrician and consul. "Clovis," says Gregory of Tours, "put
on the tunic of purple and the chlamys and the diadem; then mounting his
horse, he scattered with his own hand and with much bounty gold and
silver among the people, on the road which lies between the gate of the
court belonging to the basilica of St. Martin and the church of the
city. From that day he was called consul and augustus. On leaving the
city of Tours he repaired to Paris, where he fixed the seat of his
government."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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