Clovis was fifteen or sixteen years old when he became king of the
Salian Franks of Tournai. Five years afterward his ruling passion,
ambition, exhibited itself, together with that mixture of boldness and
craft which was to characterize his whole life. He had two neighbors:
one, hostile to the Franks, the Roman patrician Syagrius, who was left
master at Soissons after the death of his father AEgidius, and whom
Gregory of Tours calls "king of the Romans"; the other, a
Salian-Frankish chieftain, just as Clovis was, and related to him,
Ragnacaire, who was settled at Cambrai. Clovis induced Ragnacaire to
join him in a campaign against Syagrius. They fought, and Syagrius was
driven to take refuge in Southern Gaul, with Alaric, king of the
Visigoths.
Clovis, not content with taking possession of Soissons, and anxious to
prevent any troublesome return, demanded of Alaric to send Syagrius back
to him, threatening war if the request were refused. The Goth, less
bellicose than the Frank, delivered up Syagrius to the envoys of Clovis,
who immediately had him secretly put to death, settled himself at
Soissons, and from thence set on foot, in the country between the Aisne
and the Loire, plundering and subjugating expeditions which speedily
increased his domains and his wealth, and extended far and wide his fame
as well as his ambition.
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