The Burgundians ( or less commonly ) were a Germanic people of the Roman imperial era, who established the powerful Kingdom of the Burgundians within the Roman empire in what is now western Switzerland and south-eastern France. Burgundian rule of the kingdom ended when it was incorporated into the Frankish empire in 534, but they are the source of later names related to the nearby region now known as Burgundy, including medieval entities such as the Duchy of Burgundy. In earlier periods, Burgundians were also reported by Roman sources to have lived in regions now within Germany and Poland, and there are probably connections between these and the later Burgundian kingdom.
The kingdom's core group were non-Roman soldiers under the leadership of the Gibichung dynasty, who had previously held a kingdom as in Roman territory on the Rhine border, probably near Worms in present day Germany. The kingdom on the Rhine was destroyed when the Romans and their Hun allies killed many of the Burgundians along with their king Gundahar in 436, accusing them of rebellion. The death of Gundahar at the hands of the Huns became a central theme in medieval Germanic heroic legend, including the Nibelungenlied (where he is “Günther”) and the Völsunga saga (where he is “Gunnar”). After the remnants resettled in Sapaudia near Lake Geneva in about 443, their territory expanded to include the regional Roman capital of Lyon, which subsequently became the new Burgundian capital.
The Burgundians are one of the so-called "disappearing and reappearing tribes" listed by historian Peter Heather, appearing in early Roman records in one place, only to reappear much later in another place. The earliest Burgundians mentioned by Greco-Roman writers lived near the Vistula river in present day Poland, between the first and third century. Roman panegyrics reported that in the late third century these Burgundians suffered devastating defeats against the eastern European Gepids and Goths, and modern scholars believe this may have induced some of them to move west in this period, closer to the empire, including those who lived near the Main in the third century.
Although they used Germanic language and customs when they arrived in Sapaudia, the non-Roman soldiers led by the last Gibichungs had diverse origins. There are also indications in Greco-Roman accounts that the forerunners of their core group, the Rhine Burgundians, had seen themselves as descendants of Roman soldiers who had once manned Roman border defences in what is now southern Germany, east of the Rhine. In contrast, older Roman sources described Burgundians living in the region near the Main river only from the third century, initially as invaders and raiders. Both they and their neighbours the Alemanni were previously unattested in this region, much of which had been under Roman control. Archaeological evidence suggests that both these peoples included newcomers from the east, and once they arrived they ruled over populations which were partly Romanised, and partly made up of Germanic tribes who had lived in the same area previously. It was in the fourth century that the Burgundians became allies of the Romans in their conflicts against the Alemanni. In about 406, during a period of wider crisis, when large numbers of armed Alans and Vandals moved into the area from Pannonia, the Gibichung-led Burgundians crossed the Rhine and settled within the empire.
There are also indications that the much later medieval inhabitants of the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm were also called Burgundi, although there is no indication that they were ever called Burgundiones. Especially in older scholarship, some historians have proposed a connection between these islanders and the continental Burgundi known to the Romans. On the other hand, the shared name could have a topological explanation because these placenames and ethnonyms appear to share a similar etymology, indicating that the places or peoples were high or elevated in some way. A related traditional speculation traces the origins of the Burgundi to what is now Norway, where similar placenames are relatively common. These origin stories are influenced not only by placename similarities, but also by a tradition among early medieval scholars, most notably Jordanes and Paul the Deacon, according to which many barbarian peoples originally migrated south from Scandinavia.
Name The ethnonym "Burgundians" is commonly used in English to translate the Latin ethnonym , or less commonly , to refer to a people or peoples during the Roman era. In English the term "Burgundians" can also refer to inhabitants of various much later medieval or modern polities and regions called Burgundy, which derive their names from the Roman era kingdom. In modern times the only area still referred to as Burgundy () is in France, and it 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 was in the northern part of the old kingdom's territory, and does not include the original core of the early medieval kingdom, near Lake Geneva, or its later capital Lyon. In the context of the Late Middle Ages the term "Burgundian" can also refer to the institutions and culture of the Burgundian Netherlands, especially in present-day Belgium, where the Valois Dukes of Burgundy often held court.
Both the main Latin forms of the names appeared throughout the Roman era, and are believed to have the same Germanic etymology, with the main stem *burgund- meaning "high", from earlier Proto-Indoeuropean *bʰérǵʰ with the grammatical suffix *-onts making an adjective. It is probable that the Burgundians were named after a high place or area which was referred to with this name, although their name might have also been describing the Burgundians as high or elevated in some other sense. The long and short forms have different Germanic suffixes, -ja- or -jan-, which are typically used to form nouns for types of people.
Some scholars have argued that the less common short forms of the name are more associated with the small number of references to the "eastern" Burgundians near the Vistula, in the texts of Claudius Ptolemy, Jordanes, and Latin panegyric "11" of 291. Notably, the panegyric even uses the short forms when seeming to refer to eastern events, and the long form for western events. Scholars who have seen this as a sign that these are two distinct peoples have historically included Otto Maenchen-Helfen and Johann Kaspar Zeuss. However, major exceptions to the pattern include Ammianus Marcellinus, who always used the short form to refer to the Rhine Burgundians in the west (which he expressly describes as a name with a local origin). Furthermore, Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy both use the long form in eastern contexts.See discussions and references in and .
Orosius, a contemporary of the Burgundian move across the Rhine and their acceptance into the empire, also gave an etymology for the name. It is not accepted by modern scholars, but it gives an indication of beliefs at the time. He wrote: "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.", , citing Orosius, Historiae Adversus Paganos, 7.32
While this is etymologically incorrect, there may have still been Burgundians stationed in forts near the Rhine frontier in the lifetime of Orosius, and so this story probably projects that situation back in time to create a believable story, which appears to have been widely accepted, even among Burgundians. 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". Although political convenience and Roman propaganda may have been playing a role, this seems to indicate that the Burgundians in any case had no clear alternative origin stories., citing Ammianus Marcellinus, 28.5 The etymology given by Orosius was later taken up by Isidore of Seville and Fredegar. citing Isidore, Etymologies, 9.2.99 and 9.4.28; Fredegar 2.46
History Vistula Burgundians
Burgundians, or at least one or more peoples with the same name, were first described by early Roman writers as living in present-day Poland. In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder said there were five types of Germanic peoples () and the first of these he listed were the Vandili. This group included , and the .Pliny, 4.28 Pliny gives no exact location but the Gutones and Varini are known from other sources to have lived near the Baltic coast. The Gutones lived near the mouth of the Vistula and are believed to be important contributors to later Gothic culture in the Ukraine region. Modern scholars therefore typically see Pliny's as speakers of East Germanic languages similar to Gothic. Furthermore, because the 6th-century origin story of the Goths written by Jordanes claims that the Goths and Gepids 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 must also have Scandinavian origins.Jordanes, Getica 25 Latin English
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 (Ancient Greek, transcribable as Burgundi) living between the Suevus (probably the Oder) and Vistula rivers. To their west lived the powerful Semnones. To their north the Aelvaeones (perhaps Helveconae) were between them and the coastal Rugiclei (perhaps Rugii). To their south the Lugians lived between them and the Western Carpathian mountains. Secondly, east of the Vistula in "Sarmatia", the Burgundians also seem to have been present as the Phrugundiones. Based on this geographical description, scholars believe that the Vistula Burgundians were users of Przeworsk or "cremation-pit" material culture, which is identified by archaeologists in this region and period., ,
Writing in the 6th century, Jordanes reported that in the 3rd century AD, during the reign of Ostrogotha, Burgundians living near the Vistula basin were almost annihilated () by Fastida, king of the Gepids.Jordanes, Getica 97 English, Latin Jordanes believed the Gepids were living near the mouth of the Vistula prior to this, but seeking new lands to the south. (They would eventually settle in Dacia, which the Romans had abandoned.) The expansionism of Gepids and Goths in this period is a possible reason that archaeological evidence indicates that the Przeworsk culture shifted southwards starting in the second century. Within this archaeological complex, some scholars propose that while some Burgundians remained near the Vistula the main concentration of their settlements was shifting westwards over the Oder river, and that the Luboszyce culture is Burgundian.
The proposal that a Burgundian polity eventually formed with its centre between the Elbe and Oder is therefore based upon this archaeological evidence, and no classical sources including Jordanes report any specific Burgundian presence in this area. Possible support for a Burgundian presence in this region is sometimes seen as coming from the report in the Origo Gentis Langobardorum, an account of Langobard origins, which says that the migrating 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.
In east and west