Gundobad

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Gundobad (incorrectly referred to as Gundebald; † 516 ) was magister militum and patricius in Rome and became king of the Burgundians (480-516) after the death of his uncle Chilperich I.

Intervention in Italy

Gundobad was the eldest son of the Burgundian king Gundioch . The Patricius and army master Ricimer was the actual regent of the Western Roman Empire instead of the emperor and brought his nephew Gundobad to Italy in 472. At that time Ricimer fought against the emperor Anthemius , who finally fled to a church disguised as a beggar after the conquest of Rome , but was beheaded there after betrayal on July 11, 472 either by Gundobad or by Ricimer himself.

The new emperor Olybrius († October / November 472) appointed Gundobad after Ricimer's death (August 18, 472) as his successor as magister militum and patricius . After the emperor's death, the throne remained vacant because the Eastern Roman emperor Leo I was probably unable to find a suitable successor. With his new power, Gundobad elevated the commander of the imperial bodyguard ( comes domesticorum ), Glycerius , to the new Augustus in March 473 , probably because he came from the Gallic nobility and had good relations with Ricimer. But Leo I saw this appointment as an affront and in turn determined the army master of Dalmatia, Julius Nepos , to be the ruler of Western Rome. When Nepos appeared in Italy with a strong army, Gundobad withdrew to the Burgundy Empire for reasons unknown. Glycerius surrendered without a fight and Julius Nepos succeeded him to the throne in June 474.

Possible conflict with the brothers

It is unclear to what extent Gundobad already exercised royal power in his homeland. Nor is his role in the battles in southern Gaul between the Burgundians and the Visigoth king Eurich , who defeated the Burgundians around 476 and presumably took some territories from them. It is certain that Gundobad succeeded as king after the death of his uncle Chilperich I (around 480) together with his three brothers Godegisel , Chilperich II and Godomar I , since all sons were entitled to inheritance under Burgundian law. The royal seat of Gundobad was Lyon .

Godomar I and Chilperich II died relatively early (around 486 and 493 respectively; according to recent research, however, as early as 476/77). According to the report of the Franconian historian Gregor von Tours , Gundobad cruelly murdered his brother Chilperich II and his wife and sent his two daughters, including Chrodechild , into exile. Finally, the exiled sisters were found by envoys of the Frankish king Clovis I , who immediately asked Gundobad for Chrodechild's hand - which the Burgundian king did not refuse for fear of the Franks. However, many researchers consider this portrayal of Gregory to be a tendentious distortion with which the later military action of the Franks against the Burgundians as Chrodechild's revenge for their murdered parents was to be justified. Against Gregory's report, reference is made to the testimony of Bishop Avitus of Vienne , who wrote in a letter of consolation to Gundobad that he had mourned the death of his brothers. According to this view, Chrodechild, who belongs to the Catholic faith, lived as an orphan with her uncle Gundobad from around 490 - and not in exile - and was probably married to Clovis around 494.

In more recent research it is also assumed that both Godomar and Chilperich II. 476/77 had already died and only Godegisel and Gundobad shared rulership.

Foreign policy from 490 to 500

During the war between Odoacer and Theodoric the Great in northern Italy, Gundobad invaded Liguria in 490 and withdrew with a lot of booty and numerous captured Italians. But after Theodoric had established his rule in Italy by eliminating Odoacer in 493 and soon afterwards he became friends with the latter by marrying Audofleda , the sister of Clovis, Gundobad presumably felt threatened in his rule by his two powerful neighbors sought a balance with them. When Theodoric therefore sent an embassy under Bishop Epiphanius of Pavia to the Burgundians in 494 to buy the Italians who were in custody, Gundobad granted this request immediately, so that a total of 6,000 prisoners of war could return home. In addition, not much later he married his son Sigismund to Ariagne-Ostrogotho, the daughter of Theodoric. Chrodechild's wedding with Clovis took place around this time, which was probably concluded with Gundobad's express consent, contrary to the tradition of the Franconian sources mentioned above.

Fight with Godegisel and Clovis

After the deaths of Godomar I and Chilperich II, Gundobad ruled the greater part of the Burgundy empire with residences in Lyon and Vienne , while his brother Godegisel ruled a smaller territory with the capital Geneva . Probably not satisfied with his share, Godegisel secretly asked the Frankish king for support against his more powerful brother and, if successful, promised him tribute payments and territorial cedings. However, Godegisel appeared to be on friendly terms with his brother. Clovis accepted Godegisel's offer and attacked Gundobad, who then turned to his brother for support. When the Frankish army met Gundobad's troops on the Ouche near Dijon , Godegisel apparently came to his brother's aid, but immediately joined Clovis. The combined armies defeated Gundobad, who fled to the extreme south of his empire to Avignon . According to the chronicler Marius von Avenches, this battle took place in the year 500. Satisfied with his success, Godegisel now regarded himself as the decisive Burgundian ruler and triumphantly moved into Vienne.

According to Gregory of Tours, Clovis is said to have moved on to Avignon and locked Gundobad there. A distinguished advisor to the besieged named Aredius therefore only apparently switched to the side of the Frankish king and recommended that he come to an agreement with his opponent that Gundobad promised annual tribute payments. Peace was made on this basis. This version of Gregory is not corroborated by Marius von Avenches. Most scholars reject it and instead assume that Clovis also withdrew after the victory at Dijon.

Just one year later (501), Gundobad was able to bring about the decisive turnaround in the war. Presumably he was supported by the Visigoth king Alaric II . He turned against Godegisel and besieged him in Vienne. Despite military support from a Frankish army, Godegisel proved to be inferior. When a famine broke out in Vienne, Godegisel sent the common people out of the city out of fear for his life. One of these exiles then showed Gundobad the way to get into the city via the aqueduct . This was then conquered by Gundobad and Godegisel was killed in an Arian church together with the bishop. Godegisel's family and his high-ranking Gallo-Roman and Burgundian supporters, who were probably accused of high treason, also fell victim to Gundobad's revenge. According to Gregory of Tours, however, Gundobad spared the Frankish soldiers who had come under his power, who are said to have numbered 5,000, and sent them to Toulouse , probably out of thanks for the military aid to the King of the Visigoths , where they had to live in exile. It is uncertain whether Gundobad also left Avignon to Alarich II at the time.

Help for Clovis in the Visigoth War

Gundobad was now the sole king of Burgundy and sought a rapprochement with Clovis, even if a formal peace agreement with the Frankish king cannot be expressly proven in terms of sources. Around 505 he made his son Sigismund sub-king of Geneva.

It did not escape Theodoric the Great that Gundobad's relationship with Clovis had improved considerably. Around the end of 506, not long before the outbreak of the Frankish-Visigoth war, the powerful Ostrogothic king, aware of the critical situation in Gaul, sent an embassy there with messages for Clovis, Alaric II, the kings of the Heruli , Warnen and Thuringia as well as for Gundobad. He saw himself as an arbiter in the conflict between Clovis and Alaric II, addressed an appeal for peace and threatened to support the Visigoths in the event of war. He urged Gundobad, to whom he had shortly before sent a complicated sundial and water clock at his request, to take an active part in preventing war. But Clovis was neither impressed by Theodoric's threat to take sides with Alaric II nor deterred Gundobad from an alliance and participation in Clovis' war against the Visigoths.

So when Clovis opened war against the Visigoths in 507, Gundobad was on his side - much to the delight of his Catholic subjects. It is possible that he was already providing military support to the Frankish king at the Battle of Vouillé near Poitiers , albeit not under his personal leadership . In this decisive military conflict, Clovis triumphed over Alaric II, who fell, in the late summer of 507. In any case, Clovis then conquered Toulouse in early 508 with the help of Burgundy. Thereafter, the Franconian ruler is likely to have withdrawn to the north and left the conquest of Visigoth territory in southeast Gaul to the Burgundians supported by Franconian auxiliary troops. Gundobad, whose personal participation in the war is mentioned here for the first time, defeated Alaric's illegitimate son and successor Gesalech near Narbonne , which was conquered. Burgundian troops now besieged Arles , but it is not known whether these forces were commanded by Gundobad himself. Theodoric was only able to come to the aid of the Visigoths in the summer of 508. His general Ibbas terrified Arles in the autumn of 508 and took Narbonne again. In another counter-attack, the Ostrogoths achieved further success by advancing over the Mont Genèvre into the kingdom of Gundobad as far as the area of Valence . Avignon now also fell into Theodoric's hands. So Gundobad lost almost all conquests in Provence to the Ostrogoths. As a result, he preferred a policy of peace in the last few years of government.

Religious and judicial policy

Although Gundobad was temporarily estranged from the Eastern Roman emperors because of the conflict with Julius Nepos, he soon approached them again and considered himself a high-ranking official in Eastern Rome, for example through his title of Gaulish army master. Undoubtedly he was one of the “most Roman” of the late antique Germanic rulers in his government policy and generously promoted Roman culture in his empire. On the obverse of his coins he had the portrait of the emperor depicted, on the reverse his monogram, which expressed his status as rex , as a military leader and recognized deputy of the emperor. Gundobad also surrounded himself with Roman advisers of senatorial rank. Ministers and advisers included Laconius and Pantagatus, while z. B. Aredius, Heraclius and the Romanized Burgundian Ansemund held no specific area of ​​office. The structure of the administration was mostly retained, but instead of the governors who were primarily responsible for the exercise of justice, two comites were set up for each city, one of which was responsible for the Roman and the Burgundian subjects; but they had to coordinate their dispositions.

Gundobad tried to achieve a peaceful coexistence of Romans and Burgundians as well as their harmonization and also created legislation to this end. Shortly before 500, with the help of Roman advisers, he was likely to have enacted a collection of laws, the Lex Burgundionum , which was based on Roman law, but also took Burgundian legal conceptions into account, for example about wergeld . He stands in a number of Germanic kings like Clovis and Theodoric, who also had works of law codified. Gundobad reserved the last word in all important matters of jurisprudence. The Lex Burgundionum had his son Sigismund revised. It lasted until the 10th century.

With regard to religious affiliation, the Burgundian royal family was split between the two denominations of the Arians and Catholics. While z. B. Gundobad and his brother Chilperich II adhered to Arianism, their wives were determined Catholics. Whether Caretene , whose epitaph for 506 is attested in Lyons, was Gundobad's wife is controversial; Newer scholars like Reinhold Kaiser and Martina Hartmann tend to this theory , while some older research believed it to be the wife of Chilperich II. However, Gundobad was very open-minded and tolerant towards the Catholic faith and had nothing to object to his son Sigismund's conversion to this denomination. He worked well with the leading representative of the Catholics of his empire, Bishop Avitus of Vienne, but remained an Arian himself, probably in order not to offend his fellow tribesmen. It was important for him to maintain good connections with both main faiths. The anti-Arian-minded Gregory of Tours asserts, falsely and tendentiously, that Gundobad finally turned away from Arianism and secretly wanted to be anointed by Avitus as a Catholic, but the bishop refused and demanded that the Burgundian king openly profess his new faith.

Last years of government

The two powerful neighbors Clovis and Theodoric forced Gundobad to behave peacefully in his last years of reign. He probably made peace with Theodoric in 513 at the latest. So he had already reached the height of his power at the beginning of his reign and was unable to enlarge his empire any further, but as a clever ruler he had the insight into his limited possibilities and was satisfied with what had been achieved. He died at a relatively old age in 516; he left the land to his son Sigismund. Therefore, Gundobad changed the previous Burgundian practice of including all sons in his successor, since his younger son Godomar II did not receive any share in the rule. Presumably, in view of his strong neighboring empires and the experiences in the war against his brother Godegisel, Gundobad thought it advisable to bequeath the reign of the Burgundian empire undivided.

swell

The most important source of Gundobad's life is the - albeit partly tendentious - representation in the Ten Books of Stories (2, 28; 2, 32–34; 3, 5f.) By Gregory of Tours . Fredegar (3, 17; 3, 22f .; 3, 33) and the Liber Historiae Francorum (11; 16; 20) only provide Gregor’s statements that are not very credible. The chronicler Marius von Avenches provides important information for events in the year 500 and dates Gundobad's death to 516. The historians Johannes von Antiochia ( fragments 209, 1f.), Johannes Malalas ( Weltchronik 374f.) And others bring some details about Gundobad's appearance in Italy. A correspondence between Gundobad and his son Sigismund and Avitus von Vienne is preserved under his letters (Avitus von Vienne, Epistulae 4–6; 21–23; 29–32; 44f .; 46a – 49; 76–79; 91–94) .

literature

Remarks

  1. John of Antioch , Fragment 209, 1f; Johannes Malalas , Weltchronik 375.
  2. Cassiodorus , Chronicle , ad a. 472, in: MGH Auctores antiquissimi (AA) 11 (= Chronica minora 2), p. 158; Marcellinus Comes , Chronicle , ad a. 472, in: MGH AA 11, p. 90; Prokop , Bellum Vandalicum 7, 1-3. The Chronica Gallica of 511 (No. 650, in: MGH AA 9 (= Chronica minora 1), p. 664) does not specify whether Gundobad or Ricimer murdered Anthemius.
  3. Cassiodorus, Chronicle , ad a. 473, in: MGH AA 11, p. 158; John of Antioch, fragment 209, 2; among others
  4. It has been suggested that Gundobad returned to Gaul because of the death of his father or because of an attempted raising of auxiliary troops for Glycerius.
  5. Gregory of Tours , Ten Books, Stories 2, 28 (further illustrated in Fredegar 3, 17-20 and in Liber Historiae Francorum 11-13); on the other hand Avitus von Vienne , Epistle 5, in: MGH AA 6, 2, p. 32f .; on these certificates cf. for example, on the one hand, HH Anton ( Chrodechilde , in: RGA 4, p. 604), who rejects Gregor's testimony as being tendentious, and on the other hand, Adolf Lippold ( Chlodovechus , in: RE, Supplementband 13, Sp Avitus letter does not consider exhausted.
  6. Reinhold Kaiser: The Burgundy . Stuttgart u. a. 2004, p. 115f.
  7. Ennodius , Vita Epiphanii 138f.
  8. ^ Ennodius, Vita Epiphanii 163.
  9. So z. BHH Anton, Gundobad , in: RGA 13, p. 214.
  10. Marius von Avenches , Chronicle , ad a. 500, in: MGH AA 11, p. 234; Gregory of Tours, Ten Books of Stories 2, 32.
  11. Some scholars equate this Aredius with a son of Arbogast , Aredius or Arigius, who was in correspondence with Bishop Avitus of Vienne and was vir illustrissimus at Gundobad's court, other scholars consider the whole report of Gregory of Tours to be fictitious (Reinhold Kaiser, Die Burgunder , Stuttgart et al. 2004, p. 218, note 154).
  12. For example Adolf Lippold, Chlodovechus , in: RE, Supplementband 13, Sp. 159f. and Ausbüttel (2007), p. 113f.
  13. Marius von Avenches, Chronicle , ad a. 500, in: MGH AA 11, p. 234; Gregory of Tours, Ten Books of Stories 2, 33.
  14. Fredegar 3, 23.
  15. Cassiodorus, Variae 3, 1-4; on this Adolf Lippold: Chlodovechus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume XIII, Stuttgart 1973, Sp. 139-174 (here: 162) .; Reinhold Kaiser: Die Burgunder , Stuttgart et al. 2004, p. 64f.
  16. ^ So Reinhold Kaiser: Die Burgunder , Stuttgart et al. 2004, p. 65; differently Adolf Lippold: Chlodovechus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Supplementary volume XIII, Stuttgart 1973, Sp. 139-174 (here: 163).
  17. ^ Isidor , Historia Gothorum, Vandalorum, Suevorum 37, in: MGH AA 11, p. 282.
  18. Reinhold Kaiser: Die Burgunder , Stuttgart et al. 2004, p. 66.
  19. ISBN (2007), pp. 115–117.
  20. Martina Hartmann: The Queen in the Early Middle Ages . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-17-018473-2 , p. 11 and ö.
  21. Gregor von Tours, Ten Books, Stories 2, 34, to Ausbüttel (2007), pp. 117f.
  22. ISBN (2007), pp. 115 and 119.
predecessor Office successor
Chilperich I. King of the Burgundians
480-516
Sigismund