Burgundians between Visigoths and Romans in the mid-5th century AD

Sources referring to the Burgundians around the mid-fifth century imply the existence of various, sometimes opposing groups, whose location and historical trajectory is difficult to reconstruct. A few more precise details concern the Burgundians led by the Gibichung chiefs. They presumably took part in the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields. However, we do not know whether they fought as auxiliaries of the Romans or on the side of the Visigoths. In 456 they accompanied Theoderic in Spain and with his consent they settled in the Rhône Valley. With this episode our sources are not quite so «scattered and ambiguous» as Walter Goffart claimed: with the collapse of imperial authority, Theoderic planned to extend his control over a wider area in Gaul; as a consequence, the Burgundians moved with their women and children to the region around Lyon; Roman landowners agreed to cede portions of their land, leaving the imperial fiscal circuit. A new phase began with Majorian, when the conditions in force under Valentinian III with the Burgundians and Visigoths were most probably restored. After 461, the balance shifted again. The Burgundian chiefs gained formal recognition in the high military hierarchies of the Roman Empire and, with it, a greater autonomy from the Visigoths, on whom they had in fact depended in the preceding years.