Gundobad

Gundobad (Latin: Flavius Gundobadus; French: Gondebaud, Gondovald; c. 452 – 516 AD) was King of the Burgundians (473–516), succeeding his father Gundioc of Burgundy.

He is perhaps best known today as the probable issuer of the Lex Burgundionum legal codes, which synthesized Roman law with ancient Germanic customs.

According to Gregory, Gundobad had his wife drowned by tying a stone round her neck and Chilperic's two daughters driven into exile.

[4] However, a letter written by Avitus, bishop of Vienne, consoling Gundobad on the death of a daughter whose name is not mentioned, gives details that suggest there was more to the story.

According to the explication of Danuta Shanzer and Ian Wood of Avitus' notoriously difficult Latin, the bishop writes, "In the past, with ineffable tender-heartedness, you mourned the deaths of your brothers.

At this point occurs the earliest firm date in Gundobad's reign: in the early months of 490, while Odoacer and Theodoric the Great were locked in battle over control of Pavia, the Burgundians seized the opportunity to invade northwestern Italy.

[7] Once Theodoric had killed Odoacer and was securely in control of Italy, he sent bishop Epiphanius of Pavia on a mission to ransom as many of these captives as possible.

[8] Shanzer and Wood believe Epiphanius was possibly also entrusted with a mission in connection with the marriage of Gundobad's son Sigismund to Theodoric's daughter Ostrogotho.

[15] Despite Theoderic's best efforts, the two kings met at Vouillé, and Alaric was slain; according to Isidore of Seville, Gundobad supported Clovis in this battle.

[16] Delayed by the threat of the Byzantine navy, which had been hovering off the Italian shore around the time of the battle, the Ostrogothic army arrived to relieve the Burgundian siege of Arles.

[contradictory] However, there are a number of inconsistencies in this ascription, and L. R. deSalis proposed a restored version of this passage which does not include a date—which would better fit the reign of his son, Sigismund.

[21] Cassiodorus' Variae includes a group of letters which discuss obtaining and sending a time piece to Gundobad as a diplomatic present.