Burgundians

The Burgundians (Latin: Burgundiones or Burgundii) were one or more Germanic peoples of the Roman imperial era, associated with different European regions in different periods. The last well-known Burgundians were the followers of the Gibichung dynasty who established the Kingdom of the Burgundians, after being moved by the Romans from the Rhine border region to Sapaudia, now in French-speaking Switzerland in about 443. Once established they expanded into what is now France, and eventually integrated with the local population. The kingdom became an important part of the medieval Frankish empire in 534, and the name of these Burgundians survives in the regional name Burgundy.

A fictionalized version of some of the earlier generations of the Gibichung dynasty who lived near the Rhine played a notable part in medieval German legends, including the Nibelungenlied which was spread throughout Norse and German-speaking regions in various forms in Middle Ages. On the other hand, although they used Germanic language and customs when they arrived in Sapaudia, the Burgundians as led by the Gibichungs had diverse origins, and there are indications that even before leaving the Rhine they had long seen themselves as descendants of Roman soldiers who had once manned Roman border defences in what is now southern Germany.

As known from Greco-Roman literature, still earlier Burgundians lived between the first and third century near the Vistula river in present day Poland. These Burgundians are likely to be the source of the name of the Rhine Burgundians, and some of their ancestry. After suffering devastating defeats against the eastern European Gepids and Goths in the third century, a significant number of them apparently moved westwards into what is now southern Germany, becoming neighbours of the Suebian Alemanni. The Alemanni themselves had been settling into the Agri Decumates territories between the Rhine and Upper Danube, which had been under Roman imperial control. The Burgundians remained outside this area, apparently taking over older farmlands where Alemanni had lived previously. In the fourth century the Burgundians became allies of the Romans in their conflicts against the Alemanni.

Although there is no clear documentary evidence for any exact connection to the other Burgundians, the early medieval inhabitants of the Baltic island of Bornholm, were probably also called Burgundi (never Burgundiones). It has not only been proposed that there must be a connection between these island-dwellers and the continental Burgundi known to the Romans, but also that they originally came from what is now Norway, where there are many similar placenames. This narrative remains well-known, and is connected to the once more popular idea that many Germanic peoples originally migrated from Scandinavia. However, many modern historians are sceptical.

The ethnonym Burgundians is commonly used in English to refer to the Roman era Burgundi or Burgundiones, including the earliest phases of the Kingdom of the Burgundians. Both main forms of the names, along with their various Latin and Greek variants, are believed to have a Germanic etymologies, with the main stem *burgund- meaning "high", from earlier Proto-Indoeuropean *bʰérǵʰonts. It is probable that the Burgundians were named after a high place or area which was referred to with this name. The form Burgundiones includes the Germanic suffix -jan-, which is typically used to form masculine nouns referring to people.^[1]

Confusingly, in English the term "Burgundians" can also sometimes refer to inhabitants of various much later medieval or modern polities and regions called Burgundy, which derive their names from associations with regions once ruled by the medieval Kings of the Burgundians. In modern times the only area still referred to as Burgundy (French: Bourgogne) is in France, which derives its name from the medieval Duchy of Burgundy and County of Burgundy, which are now both within the modern French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. This region does not correspond to the original core of the earlier medieval kingdom, which is mainly in present day Switzerland. Furthermore, in the context of the Late Middle Ages the term "Burgundian" can sometimes also refer to the powerful political entity the Dukes of Burgundy controlled, which eventually expanded to have a strong association with areas now in modern Belgium.

A notable classical etymology also exists, which is not accepted by modern scholars, but which gives an indication of thoughts at the time. Orosius, a contemporary of the Burgundian move across the Rhine, and their acceptance into the empire, wrote as follows:^[2]

In earlier times, when the interior of Germany had been subjugated by Drusus and Tiberius, the adopted sons of Caesar, the Burgundians were stationed at different frontier posts. Later they united to form a great people. They took their name from their stations, for the dwelling places at frequent intervals along the frontier are commonly called burgi.

While this is etymologically incorrect, it is noted by Schipp that there were probably Burgundians stationed in forts along the Rhine frontier in his own time, and so this story probably projects that situation back in time to create a believable story, which may have been widely accepted.^[3] On the other hand, already in about 369, when emperor Valentinian was first seeking their alliance against the Alemanni, Ammianus Marcellinus claimed the Burgundians "know that they are descendants of the Romans from ancient times".^[4]

Early medieval writers reported that the now Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic sea was called "Burgund land" or "Burgund island" – holm being a word for an island. In a 9th century description of Europe attached to his translation of Orosius, Alfred the Great called it Burgenda land in Old English. He was quoting Wulfstan of Hedeby, who reported that this was an island with its own king. He also quoted Ohthere of Hålogaland who mentioned Burgendan (plural), south of the Swedes (Sweon), east of the Ostseæ, and south of the Swedes – the Ostseæ being the "arm" of sea running north of the Danes, and south of the Swedes. Much later, Saxo Grammaticus called Bornholm Burgenda insula in Latin (insula also meaning island), and Icelandic sources from the 13th century onward refer to the island as Borgundarhólmr.^[5]

The old name of the island is believed to imply that there was a people living on Bornholm with a name identical to one of the Latin forms used to refer to the Burgundians, even though the name, meaning "high island", probably referred to the geography of the island itself.^[5] Whether or not there is a connection to the continental Burgundii known to Rome is unknown. Scholars believe that a name coincidence is likely, because the simple "Burgundii"-version of the name is based upon a descriptive placename which can be found in many places in Europe. A parallel Celtic tribal name is for example also known, the Brigantes in the highlands of northern England. On the other hand, it has been argued that this geographical placename is especially common in Scandinavia.^[1] In Norway, for example, there are small villages named Borgund in Lærdal Municipality, Stad Municipality, and another in Ålesund Municipality.

An old proposal, now doubted by modern historians, is that the continental Burgundians known to the Romans had previously migrated from Bornholm. A related proposal associated with older historiography is that these Burgundi of Bornholm had themselves migrated from Norway.

A people with a similar named were first described by early Roman writers as living in present-day Poland. In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder (IV.28) said there were five types of Germanic peoples (germanorum genera quinque) and the first of these he listed were the Vandili. This group included "Burgodiones, Varinnae, Charini, and the Gutones". The Gutones and Varini are known from other sources to have lived east of the Elbe, and the Gutones are widely believed to be ancestors of the Goths. Modern scholars therefore typically see Pliny's Burgodiones as speakers of East Germanic languages similar to Gothic. Furthermore, because the 6th-century origin story of the Goths written by Jordanes claims that they moved from Scandinavia, which he saw as a womb or workshop of barbarian nations, this "Vandili"-category reported by Pliny is also sometimes seen as evidence that the Vistula Burgundians were originally Scandinavian.

In the 2nd century the geography of Claudius Ptolemy seems to list the Burgundians twice, in two neighbouring regions, with two different name variants. On the west side of the Vistula, in "Germania", he noted the Βουργοῦνδοι (Ancient Greek Burgundi) living between the Suevus (probably the Oder) and Vistula rivers, living south of the coastal tribes and north of those living in the mountains. East of the Vistula, in "Sarmatia", the Burgundians also seem to have been present as the Frugundiones.^[1] Based on this geographical description, scholars believe that the Vistula Burgundians were users of Przeworsk culture (or "cremation-pit" culture) material technologies, as identified by archaeologists in this region and period.

Writing in the 6th century, Jordanes reported that during the 3rd century AD, during the reign of Ostrogotha, the Burgundians had been living near the Vistula basin, where they were almost annihilated (pene usque ad internicionem) by Fastida, king of the Gepids. Jordanes believed the Gepids were living near the mouth of the Vistula prior to this, but seeking new lands to the south. According to scholars the expansionism of the Gepids and Goths is a possible reason that archaeological evidence indicates that the Przeworsk culture shifted southwards starting in the second century. Some scholars propose that while some Burgundians remained near the Vistula the main concentration of their settlements shifted westwards to both banks of the Oder river, but mainly on the western side.^[6] The idea of a Burgundian polity between the Elbe and Oder is based upon archaeological evidence involving the larger Przworsk culture, and no classical sources including Jordanes report any Burgundian presence in this area. Possible support for a Burgundian presence in this region comes from the report in the Origo Gentis Langobardorum, an account of Langobard origins, that the Langobards stopped in a land called Vurgundaib – apparently a place named after the Burgundians, located somewhere on the Langobard trek from the Lower Elbe to the Middle Danube.

Latin panegyric "number 11" (as it is known to modern scholarship), which was written in 291 AD, mentioned that during the reign of the emperor Maximian (reigned 286-305) the Burgundians were utterly destroyed by another Gothic group, this time simply referred to as the Goths (Gothi Burgundos penitus excidunt, using the short form of the Burgundian ethnonym). The Goths were associated in this period with regions south and east of the Carpathians. Following on from this, the panegyric says that the Alemanni "again arm themselves for/as losers" (rursumque pro victis armantur Alamanni), implying that they fought in support of (or perhaps against) the Burgundians after this defeat. The Alamanni in this period were far to the west in what is now southern Germany, having taken control of the Agri Decumates around 260. Because of the distance between the Goths and Alemanni historians have sometimes argued that the text must be an error, perhaps originally referring to the Alans.^[7] However, in a second passage soon afterwards, this panegyric mentions that in this period the Burgundians took farmland from the Alamanni (Burgundiones Alamannorum agros occupauere, using the longer -iones name), which the Alamanni were still trying to recover in 291. This panegyric therefore appears to associate the same Burgundians with both the eastern Goths, and the western Alamanni.^[8]

In the late 3rd century AD, already before the panegyric of 291, there is a first report of Burgundians near the Rhine and Roman Gaul. Zosimus (1.68) reports the Burgundi and Vandals (Ancient Greek: Βουργούνδοις και Βανδίλοις) being defeated by the emperor Probus in 278, near a river, during a campaign based upon the Rhine. Some scholars interpret the text to be specifying that this was the Lech river, which enters the Danube from the south in what is now Bavaria, but this reading is uncertain.^[9]

In his Latin panegyric "10" of 289, Claudius Mamertinus mentioned the Burgundiones et Alamanni first as allies who attacked Gaul with a large force in 287 AD, and were defeated by Maximian, when the large size of their force led to famine.^[10] The Alamanni at this time had recently taken control of the Agri Decumates on the eastern side of the Rhine. This panegyric taken together with panegyric "11" of 291 may represent a series of conflicts. The implication is that the Alamanni became involved in conflict with the Burgundians after they were defeated by Goths, presumably in the east. It is not clear if they were initially on the side of the Burgundians or not, but the two peoples came into conflict when the Burgundians started taking over Alemanni farmlands.^[8] A common interpretation of modern scholars is that the Burgundians had been moving from the east into the Main river area, perhaps already before the Gothic defeat, and that to become neighbours of the Alemanni, which may have been territory that the Alemanni had abandoned when they took control of the Agri Decumates.^[7]

The Laterculus Veronensis, written in about 314, places the Burgunziones between the Chatti (which is one of the last mentions of this people) and the Alamanni. This was a listing of barbarian peoples who had supposedly been under imperial control at some point. This adds to the impression that Burgundians were living close to the Alemanni in the third century.^[11]

In 359 contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus reported that emperor Julian the Apostate began a campaign at Mainz, and travelled through Alemanni lands until he reached old border posts marking the edge of Burgundian territory. There are two interpretations of the text, which says either that the boundary was between "Alamanni and the Burgundians" (Alamannorum et Burgundiorum), or "Romans and the Burgundians" Romanorum et Burgundiorum. According to the interpretation of Hans H. Anton the second version is correct, and the Alemanni are living within the Agri Decumates, which had been Roman, and which still had a Roman population. This interpretation would mean in turn that the boundary between Burgundians and Alemanni was approximately where the old Romes border (limes) had been. Ammianus says the place was called Capillacii or Palas, and scholars have proposed that this may be ^[7]

In 369/370, the Emperor Valentinian I enlisted the aid of the Burgundians in his war against the Alamanni. In this context, Ammianus wrote an extended digression about the Burgundians, which gives insight into their language and customs:^[12]

8 Valentinian, turning over many different plans in his mind, was gripped with anxious concern, considering many things and looking around for what stratagems he might use to break the pride of the Alamanni and their king Macrianus, who without end or limit kept disturbing the Roman state with their restless movements.

9 For this fierce nation, diminished from its earliest beginnings by many changes of fortune, so often grows strong again that it might be thought to have remained untouched for many centuries. The emperor, approving one proposal after another, finally settled on the plan of stirring up the Burgundians against them—warlike and abounding in the strength of a vast youth population, and therefore feared by all their neighbors.

10 He wrote frequently to their kings through certain discreet and trustworthy messengers, asking that they, at an appointed time, should fall upon the Alamanni. He promised that he himself, after crossing the Rhine with Roman troops, would meet the frightened enemy—taken by surprise as they tried to avoid the weight of arms.

11 The princes received the emperor’s letters gladly, for two reasons: first, because the Burgundians knew that from ancient times they were descended from the Romans; second, because they had often quarreled with the Alamanni over salt works and boundaries. So they sent out their choicest companies, which, before the Roman soldiers had assembled in one body, advanced as far as the banks of the Rhine. There, while the emperor was occupied with building defensive works, they became a source of great alarm to our troops.

12 But after delaying for a short while—when neither did Valentinian, as he had promised, arrive on the appointed day, nor did they see any of the promises fulfilled—they sent envoys to the imperial court, requesting that assistance be given them for their return home, so that they would not be left to expose their unprotected backs to the enemy.

13 When they realized, through evasions and delays, that this would be refused, they departed in sadness and indignation. When the kings learned of this, they raged as if they had been mocked, killed all their captives, and returned to their native lands.

14 Among them, the general title for “king” is Hendinos; and according to ancient custom, he is removed from power if, under his rule, fortune wavers in war or the land refuses to produce abundant crops—just as the Egyptians are accustomed to attribute such misfortunes to their rulers. The highest priest among the Burgundians is called Sinistus; his office is perpetual, and, unlike that of the kings, he is subject to no such dangers.

Based upon the mention of a disputed salt spring, Anton argues that this must have been in the Kocher valley at Schwäbisch-Hall, and that this must have been near the border between the Alemanni and Burgundians. According to Anton, the Burgundians eventually managed to break through the old Roman boundary and gain access to the Rhine between present-day Wiesbaden and Mannheim, pushing the Alemanni south of the Neckar river.^[13]

Approximately four decades later, the Burgundians appear again. Following Stilicho's withdrawal of troops to fight Alaric I the Visigoth in 406–408 AD, a large group of peoples from central Europe north of the Danube came west and crossed the Rhine, entering the Empire near the lands of the Burgundians who had moved much earlier. The dominant groups were Alans, Vandals (Hasdingi and Silingi), and Danubian Suevi. The majority of these Danubian peoples moved through Gaul and eventually established themselves in kingdoms in Roman Hispania. One group of Alans was settled in northern Gaul by the Romans.

Some Burgundians were settled as foederati in the Roman province of Germania Prima along the Middle Rhine. Other Burgundians, however, remained outside the empire and apparently formed a contingent in Attila's Hunnic army by 451 AD.^[14][15]

In 411, the Burgundian "tribal leader" (phylarch) named Gundahar (or Gundicar) set up a puppet emperor, Jovinus, in cooperation with Goar, king of the Alans. With the authority of the Gallic emperor that he controlled, Gundahar settled on the left (Roman) bank of the Rhine, between the river Lauter and the Nahe, seizing Worms, Speyer, and Strassburg. Apparently as part of a truce, the Emperor Honorius later officially "granted" them the land,^[16] with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of Borbetomagus (present Worms).

Despite their new status as foederati, Burgundian raids into Roman Upper Gallia Belgica became intolerable and were ruthlessly brought to an end in 436, when the Roman general Aëtius called in Hun mercenaries, who overwhelmed the Rhineland kingdom in 437. Gundahar was killed in the fighting, reportedly along with the majority of the Burgundian tribe.^[17]

The destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns became the subject of heroic legends that were afterwards incorporated in the Nibelungenlied—on which Wagner based his Ring Cycle—where King Gunther (Gundahar) and Queen Brünhild hold their court at Worms, and Siegfried comes to woo Kriemhild. (In Old Norse sources the names are Gunnar, Brynhild, and Gudrún as normally rendered in English.) In fact, the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied is based on Attila the Hun.

For reasons not cited in the sources, the Burgundians were granted foederati status a second time, and in 443 were resettled by Aëtius in Sapaudia^{[n 1]}, part of the Gallo-Roman province of Maxima Sequanorum.^[19] Burgundians probably even lived near Lugdunum, known today as Lyon.^[20] A new king, Gundioc or Gunderic, presumed to be Gundahar's son, appears to have reigned following his father's death.^[21] The historian Pline tells us that Gunderic ruled the areas of Saône, Dauphiny, Savoie and a part of Provence. He set up Vienne as the capital of the kingdom of Burgundy. In all, eight Burgundian kings of the house of Gundahar ruled until the kingdom was overrun by the Franks in 534.

As allies of Rome in its last decades, the Burgundians fought alongside Aëtius and a confederation of Visigoths and others against Attila at the Battle of Châlons (also called "The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields") in 451. The alliance between Burgundians and Visigoths seems to have been strong, as Gundioc and his brother Chilperic I accompanied Theodoric II to Spain to fight the Sueves in 455.^[22]

Also in 455, an ambiguous reference infidoque tibi Burdundio ductu^[23] implicates an unnamed treacherous Burgundian leader in the murder of the emperor Petronius Maximus in the chaos preceding the sack of Rome by the Vandals. The Patrician Ricimer is also blamed; this event marks the first indication of the link between the Burgundians and Ricimer, who was probably Gundioc's brother-in-law and Gundobad's uncle.^[24]

In 456, the Burgundians, apparently confident in their growing power, negotiated a territorial expansion and power sharing arrangement with the local Roman senators.^[25]

In 457, Ricimer overthrew another emperor, Avitus, raising Majorian to the throne. This new emperor proved unhelpful to Ricimer and the Burgundians. The year after his ascension, Majorian stripped the Burgundians of the lands they had acquired two years earlier. After showing further signs of independence, he was murdered by Ricimer in 461.

Ten years later, in 472, Ricimer–who was by now the son-in-law of the Western Emperor Anthemius–was plotting with Gundobad to kill his father-in-law; Gundobad beheaded the emperor (apparently personally).^[26] Ricimer then appointed Olybrius; both died, surprisingly of natural causes, within a few months. Gundobad seems then to have succeeded his uncle as Patrician and king-maker, and raised Glycerius to the throne.^[27]

In 474, Burgundian influence over the empire seems to have ended. Glycerius was deposed in favor of Julius Nepos, and Gundobad returned to Burgundy, presumably at the death of his father Gundioc. At this time or shortly afterwards, the Burgundian kingdom was divided among Gundobad and his brothers, Godigisel, Chilperic II, and Gundomar I.^[28]

According to Gregory of Tours, the years following Gundobad's return to Burgundy saw a bloody consolidation of power. Gregory states that Gundobad murdered his brother Chilperic, drowning his wife and exiling their daughters (one of whom was to become the wife of Clovis the Frank, and was reputedly responsible for his conversion).^[29] This is contested by, e.g., Bury, who points out problems in much of Gregory's chronology for the events.

In c. 500, when Gundobad and Clovis were at war, Gundobad appears to have been betrayed by his brother Godegisel, who joined the Franks; together Godegisel's and Clovis' forces "crushed the army of Gundobad".^[30] Gundobad was temporarily holed up in Avignon, but was able to re-muster his army and sacked Vienne, where Godegisel and many of his followers were put to death. From this point, Gundobad appears to have been the sole king of Burgundy.^[31] This would imply that his brother Gundomar was already dead, though there are no specific mentions of the event in the sources.

Either Gundobad and Clovis reconciled their differences, or Gundobad was forced into some sort of vassalage by Clovis' earlier victory, as the Burgundian king appears to have assisted the Franks in 507 in their victory over Alaric II the Visigoth.

During the upheaval, sometime between 483 and 501, Gundobad began to set forth the Lex Gundobada (see below), issuing roughly the first half, which drew upon the Lex Visigothorum.^[21] Following his consolidation of power, between 501 and his death in 516, Gundobad issued the second half of his law, which was more originally Burgundian.

The Burgundians were extending their power over eastern Gaul—that is western Switzerland and eastern France, as well as northern Italy. In 493, Clovis, king of the Franks, married the Burgundian princess Clotilda (daughter of Chilperic), who converted him to the Catholic faith.

At first allied with Clovis' Franks against the Visigoths in the early 6th century, the Burgundians were eventually conquered at Autun by the Franks in 532 after a first attempt in the Battle of Vézeronce. The Burgundian kingdom was made part of the Merovingian kingdoms, and the Burgundians themselves were by and large absorbed as well.

The 5th century Gallo-Roman poet and landowner Sidonius, who at one point lived with the Burgundians, described them as a long-haired people of immense physical size:

Why... do you [an obscure senator by the name of Catullinus] bid me compose a song dedicated to Venus... placed as I am among long-haired hordes, having to endure Germanic speech, praising often with a wry face the song of the gluttonous Burgundian who spreads rancid butter on his hair? ... You don't have a reek of garlic and foul onions discharged upon you at early morn from ten breakfasts, and you are not invaded before dawn... by a crowd of giants.^[32]

The Burgundians and their language were described as Germanic by the poet Sidonius Apollinaris.^[33] Herwig Wolfram has interpreted this as being because they had entered Gaul from Germania.^[34]

In contrast, their language is thought to have belonged to the East Germanic language group, based upon their presumed origins near the Vistula in the east, and some names and placenames. However, this is now considered uncertain.^[35] Little is known of the language. Some proper names of Burgundians are recorded, and some words used in the area in modern times are thought to be derived from the ancient Burgundian language,^[36] but it is often difficult to distinguish these from Germanic words of other origin, and in any case the modern form of the words is rarely suitable to infer much about the form in the old language.

The language appears to have become extinct during the late 6th century, likely due to the early conversion of the Burgundians to Latin Christianity.^[36]

Somewhere in the east the Burgundians had converted to the Arian Christianity from earlier Germanic paganism. Their Arianism proved a source of suspicion and distrust between the Burgundians and the Catholic Western Roman Empire.

Divisions were evidently healed or healing circa 500, however, as Gundobad, one of the last Burgundian kings, maintained a close personal friendship with Avitus, the bishop of Vienne. Moreover, Gundobad's son and successor, Sigismund, was himself a Catholic, and there is evidence that many of the Burgundian people had converted by this time as well, including several female members of the ruling family.^[37]

The Burgundians left three legal codes, among the earliest from any of the Germanic tribes.

The Liber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada ("The Book of Constitutions or Law of Gundobad"), also known as the Lex Burgundionum, or more simply the Lex Gundobada or the Liber, was issued in several parts between 483 and 516, principally by Gundobad, but also by his son, Sigismund.^[38] It was a record of Burgundian customary law and is typical of the many Germanic law codes from this period. In particular, the Liber borrowed from the Lex Visigothorum^[39] and influenced the later Lex Ripuaria.^[40] The Liber is one of the primary sources for contemporary Burgundian life, as well as the history of its kings.

Like many of the Germanic tribes, the Burgundians' legal traditions allowed the application of separate laws for separate ethnicities. Thus, in addition to the Lex Gundobada, Gundobad also issued (or codified) a set of laws for Roman subjects of the Burgundian kingdom, the Lex Romana Burgundionum (The Roman Law of the Burgundians).

In addition to the above codes, Gundobad's son Sigismund later published the Prima Constitutio.

• Dauphiné
• List of kings of Burgundy
• Nibelung (later legends of the Burgundian kings)

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• Bury, J. B. The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians. London: Macmillan and Co., 1928.
• Dalton, O. M. The History of the Franks, by Gregory of Tours. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1927.
• Darvill, Timothy, ed. (2009). "Burgundians". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727139. Archived from the original on January 28, 2020. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
• Drinkwater, John Frederick (2012). "Burgundians". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191735257. Archived from the original on April 10, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
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• Nerman, Birger. Det svenska rikets uppkomst. Generalstabens litagrafiska anstalt: Stockholm. 1925.
• Rivers, Theodore John. Laws of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks. New York: AMS Press, 1986.
• Rolfe, J.C., trans, Ammianus Marcellinus. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1950.
• Shanzer, Danuta. 'Dating the Baptism of Clovis.' In Early Medieval Europe, volume 7, pages 29–57. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1998.
• Shanzer, D. and I. Wood. Avitus of Vienne: Letters and Selected Prose. Translated with an Introduction and Notes. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002.

• Media related to Burgundians at Wikimedia Commons