the Franks under his own rule, partly at least by having all rival kings assassinated. And both Romans and Franks must have been impressed by the success with which he led his armies against other Germans: he conquered the Thuringians to the east, and the Alamans, who were moving from their homes in south-west Germany into what is now Alsace and northern Switzerland; and in 507 Clovis led his followers south across the Loire to destroy the Visigothic kingdom of Alaric II. When he died in 511 the kingdom was ruled jointly by his four sons, and it was they who destroyed the Burgundian kingdom and who, by offering military aid to the Ostrogoths in exchange, annexed Provence to their kingdom. By the middle of the sixth century the Frankish kings descended from Childeric and Clovis, known as the Merovingians, had become by far the most powerful of the barbarian heirs to the Roman Empire. Almost all Gaul was under their direct rule; they had a foot-

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