Gondioc
king of the Burgundians
Gondioc (c. 420 – c. 473), also called Gunderic and Gundowech, was a king of the Burgundians who held a senior command in the Roman army. Under his authority, the foundations were laid for the later Burgundian kingdom. Around 455, he led the Burgundian people together with his brother Chilperic I.
Origin
The origins of Gondioc are unclear. According to the Frankish bishop Gregory of Tours, he was descended from the Gothic king Athanaric († 381), which historian Reinhold Kaiser rejects in light of the name-pattern of the Burgundian list of kings found in the Lex Burgundionum. Some scholars believe that the list implies that he was a close relative, possibly a even a son, of King Gundahar who had been the previous king of the Burgundians.
Familial kinship ties
Gondioc married a sister of Ricimer, the commander-in-chief of the Roman army in Italy, the Gothic general who effectively ruled the Western Roman Empire. Gundioc's marriage to Ricimer's sister tied his royal house by kinship to the dominant West-Roman military figure. Gondioc had four sons: Godigisel, Gundobad, Chilperic II, and Gundomar.
(Family tree)
Shared kingship with Chilperic
Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours indicate that Gondioc and his brother Chilperic exercised joint authority over the Burgundian people. Most historians interpret this as a shared dynastic rule rather than a division into separate realms.
“Gondioc” enters the record as king of the Burgundians. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gondioc, king and Burgundians can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Gondioc” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Gondioc, king and Burgundians provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q437712. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gondioc” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.