Burgundy, 450-535

Politics and Religion in the Gibichung Province

Wood, Ian

In the last years of the West Roman Empire and the following half century the valleys of the Rhône and Saône were governed by members of a royal burgundian family, the Gibichungs, who ruled as Roman magistri militum, and not as barbarian kings. They owed their prominence to their association with the magister militum praesentalis Ricimer, and they worked together with members the late-roman senatorial aristocracy, including Sidonius Apollinaris. At the same time the region under their control was a centre of religious and cultural activity, graced by the work of Sidonius, Claudianus Mamertus, Faustus of Riez and Avitus of Vienne. The interaction of politics and religion culminated in the creation of the monastery of Agaune, in a major episcopal gathering at Épaone, and an important promulgation of laws issued by Sigismund, before collapsing dramatically following political crisis caused by the ruler himself. The failure of the gibichung State marked the end of an experiment in governmental continuity in post-roman Gaul.