ALARIC II. (d. 507), eighth king of the Goths in Spain, suc ceeded his father Euric, or Evaric, on Dec. 28, 484. His dominions not only included the whole of Spain except its north-western corner, but also Aquitaine and the greater part of Provence. In religion Alaric was an Arian, but he greatly mitigated the persecut ing policy of his father, Euric, towards the Catholics and author ized them to hold, in 506, the council of Agde. He appointed a commission to prepare an abstract of the Roman laws and imperial decrees, which should form the authoritative code for his Roman subjects. _ This is generally known as the Breviariuyn Alaricianum, or Breviary of Alaric (q.v.). Alaric endeavoured strictly to main tain the treaty which his father had concluded with the Franks, but Clovis found a pretext for war in the Arianism of Alaric. The two armies met in 507 at the Campus Vogladensis, near Poitiers, where the Goths were defeated, and their king, who took to flight, was overtaken and slain, it is said, by Clovis himself. This battle ended the rule of the Visigoths in Gaul.
(anc. PHILADELPHIA), Aidin vilayet, Asia Minor, in the Kuzu Chai valley (Cogamus), at the foot of the Boz Dagh (Mt. Tmolus) 83 m. east of Smyrna (ro5 by railway). Pop. (1927) 32,8o1. Philadelphia was founded by Attalus II. of Pergamum about r 5o B.C., became one of the "Seven Churches" of Asia, and was called "Little Athens" on account of its festivals and temples. It was subject to frequent earthquakes. Philadel phia was an independent neutral city, under the Latin Knights of Rhodes, when taken in 1390 by Sultan Bayezid I. and an auxiliary Christian force under the emperor, Manuel II., after a long resistance, when all other cities of Asia Minor had surrendered. Twelve years later it was captured by Timur, who built a wall with the corpses of his prisoners. A fragment of the ghastly struc ture is in the library of Lincoln cathedral. The town is connected by railway with Afiun Qarahisar and Smyrna. It is ill-built, but, as it stands above the wide fertile Hermus plain, the distant view is imposing. There are small industries and a fair trade. A mineral spring yields a heavily charged water, "Eau de Vals," in great request in Smyrna.
See W. M. Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches (i9o4).