ATHANARIC (d. 381), a ruler of the Visigoths from about 366 to 380. He bore the title not of king but of judge, a title which may be compared with that of ealdorman among the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain. Athanaric waged an unsuccess ful war with the emperor Valens (367 to 369), and the peace by which the war was ended was ratified by the Roman and Gothic rulers meeting on a barge in mid-stream of the Danube. Athanaric was a harsh and obstinate heathen, and his short reign was chiefly famous for his brutal persecution of his Christian fellow-countrymen. In 376 he was utterly defeated by the Huns, who a few years before had burst into Europe. Athanaric seems to have fled into Transylvania. Being attacked there by two Ostrogothic chiefs he sought, in 381, the protection of Theodosius I. at Constantinople, where he died a fortnight later.