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After possibly having dwelt in the Vistula basin, according to the mid-6th century historian of the Goths, Jordanes, they were beaten there in battle by Fastida, king of the Gepids and were overwhelmed, almost annihilated. They migrated westwards in the 4th century CE, and settled in the Rhine Valley during the Völkerwanderung, or Germanic migrations. Somewhere in the east they were converted to the Arian form of Christianity, which long sustained a gulf of suspicion and distrust between Burgundians and the Catholic Roman Empire of the West. Divisions were evidently healed or healing circa 500 AD, however, as Gundobad, the second to last Burgundian king, maintained a close personal friendship with Avitus, the Catholic bishop of VienneThis article is about the French departement. For the city, see Vienne, Isere''. Vienne Details Information Number86 Region Poitou-Charentes Prefecture Poitiers Subprefectures Chatellerault Montmorillon Population Total 1999 Density Ranked 56th 399,024 57. Moreover, Gundobad's son and successor, Sigismund, was himself a Catholic, and there is evidence that many of the Burgundian people had converted by this time as well, including several female members of the ruling family.
There was, it seems at times a friendly relationship between the Huns and the Burgundians. It was a Hunnish custom for females to have their skull artificially elongated by tight binding of the skull when the child was an infant. Germanic graves are sometimes found with Hunnish ornaments but also with skulls of females that have been treated in this way; west of the RhineAt 1,320 km (820 miles), the Rhine River ( German Rhein French Rhin Dutch Rijn is one of the longest rivers in Europe. Its name is derived from the Celtic word renos (meaning "raging flow"). Together with the Danube it formed most of the northern frontier only Burgundian graves contain a large number of such skulls (Werner, 1953)
In the Rhineland, though the Burgundians were nominally Roman foederatiFoederatus early in the history of the Roman Republic identified one of the tribes bound by treaty foedus , who were neither Roman colonies nor had they been granted Roman citizenship civitas but were expected to provide a contingent of fighting men when, they periodically raided portions of eastern GaulGallia (in English Gaul is the Latin name for the region of western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. In English the word Gaul commonly ref. Burgundians lived in an uneasy relationship with the imperial Roman government: in 370 the western Emperor Valentinian IValentinian I ( 321 November 17, 375) was a Roman emperor of the Western Empire ( 364 375). He was born at Cibalis, in Pannonia. He had been an officer of the guard under Julian and Jovian, and had risen high in the imperial service. Of robust frame and d attempted to enlist the Burgundians against their enemies the Alamanni, promising to support them with Roman forces. Negotiations with the Burgundians broke down when Valentinian, not understanding that a Germannic treaty was essentially a personal bond, refused to meet with the Burgundian envoys and give them his promise of Roman support.