into the midst of its bed to dig out a place for his grave.
In the depths of this pit they buried Alaric, together with
many treasures, and then turned the waters back into
their channel. And that none might ever know the place,
they put to death all the diggers. They bestowed the
kingdom of the Visigoths on Athavulf his kinsman, a
man of imposing beauty and great spirit; for though not
tall of stature, he was distinguished for beauty of face
and form.

[Sidenote: DEEDS OF KING ATHAVULF]

[Sidenote: Marries Galla Placidia 414]

[Sidenote: KING SEGERIC 415]

XXXI When Athavulf became king, he returned 159
again to Rome, and whatever had escaped the first sack
his Goths stripped bare like locusts, not merely despoiling
Italy of its private wealth, but even of its public
resources. The Emperor Honorius was powerless to
resist even when his sister Placidia, the daughter of the
Emperor Theodosius by his second wife, was led away
captive from the city. But Athavulf was attracted by her 160
nobility, beauty and chaste purity, and so he took her to
wife in lawful marriage at Forum Julii, a city of Aemilia.
When the barbarians learned of this alliance, they were
the more effectually terrified, since the Empire and the
Goths now seemed to be made one. Then Athavulf set
out for Gaul, leaving Honorius Augustus stripped of his