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518 18. the north-western provinces
Heruls and Burgundians, as well as Ostrogothic insurgents against the
Huns – queued for audience. 184
The expansion of the Visigoths under Euric, particularly in the early
470s, finally broke imperial power in Gaul. Yet this most disruptive of the
barbarian kings to rule in Gaul also played a significant role in the continuance
of certain aspects of Roman government, for it is he who is the earliest
barbarian king known to have issued a law code. 185 In terms of the
preservation of Roman tradition, his son went one degree further, issuing
an abridgement of the Theodosian Code, the so-called Breviary of Alaric,for
his Roman subjects in 506. Despite the Arianism of these two monarchs,
and despite the brief period of persecution experienced by the Catholic
church in those areas captured by Euric in the 470s, 186 they were largely on
good terms with their Gallo-Roman bishops, who met under Alaric II’s
aegis at Agde in 506 and who opened the council with prayers for the king. 187
This apparently flourishing sub-Roman kingdom, however, was brought to
a sudden end in 507 with Alaric’s defeat and death at the hands of Clovis at
the battle known as Vouillé, although it was probably fought at Voulon. 188
The equally Romanized kingdom of the Burgundians, based on the
Rhône valley and centred on the towns of Chalon-sur-Saône, Geneva and
Lyons, survived a little longer. The Burgundians, or what remained of them
after their defeat at the hands of Aetius, 189 had been settled in Sapaudia, the
territory between Geneva and Neufchâtel. 190 While there, they took advantage
of the crisis following the deposition of the emperor Avitus to make
a special arrangement with the senators of Gaul. 191 The new emperor,
Majorian, however, forced them back, presumably to Sapaudia. 192 We next
meet the Burgundians controlling Lyons and Geneva as Roman officials.
Chilperic acted as magister militum of Gaul under the emperor Glycerius
and, as such, appears in the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris. In the changing
political circumstances of the 470s the job was not an easy one, not least
when Glycerius was superseded by Julius Nepos. 193 In such circumstances
Chilperic’s government was wide open to criticism: he was as liable to the
admonitions of a holy man as were his Rugian contemporaries. Lupicinus,
one of the so-called Jura Fathers, rebuked him for his harsh treatment of
the poor, calling him an impostor. 194 Chilperic was naturally impressed.
184 Sid. Ap. Ep. 8.9.5. 185 Wolfram (1988) 194–5.
186 Sid. Ap. Ep. 7.6: a letter which should be understood as both rhetorical and belonging to very
specific circumstances.
187 Council of Agde (506), praef., ed. C. Munier, Concilia Galliae A.314–A.506, CSEL 148 (Turnhout
1963). 188 Gerberding (1987) 41. 189 Chronicle of 452 118 (436).
190 Chronicle of 452 128 (443); on the problem of the date, Wood (1992) 14–15.
191 Marius of Avenches, s.a. 456, ed. J. Favrod, La Chronique de Marius d’Avenches (455–581) (Lausanne
1991). 192 Sid. Ap. Carm. v.564–71; Harries (1994) 85–6. 193 Sid. Ap. Epp. 5.6.2; 5.7.1.
194 Vita Patrum Iurensium 92–5 (=ii.10), ed. F. Martine, Vie des Pères du Jura, SChrét. 142 (Paris 1968);
see also Greg. Tur. Liber Vitae Patrum i.5, ed. Krusch, MGH, SRM 1 (2).
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