[gothic-l] Analogy between fate of Eruli and Burgundians?

[george knysh]

(To Dirk)
The part of your message dealing with the "mass
slaughter" of Burgundians by the Huns in 437 was
truncated in reply. But it's worth a brief comment
isn't it? I don't see how this supports your view of
Procopius on the double mass slaughter of the Eruli.
The Burgundians went on to create a significant
kingdom which lasted until 534. My understanding was
that Gundahar's defeat only involved a part of the
Burgundian army. And that is how I think Procopius
should be read with respect to the Eruli. Perhaps the
Erulian state collapsed in 509 not so much because of
a "mass slaughter" of its warriors by the Lombards,
but because it was a gathering of heterogeneous
elements, led by the most energetic and aggressive
"predator types" (for lack of a better term). The most
violent among them decided to take on the Lombards,
but not all went along with the idea. So we might
assume that "most" of the group that faced the
Lombards were indeed slaughtered, but that still left
quite a few . These were unable to find an integrating
ideology or programme to continue their earlier
community, and so it disintegrated, with some going
south to the Goths, others to Rugiland etc., and still
others "back home" including those who wound up in
southern Sweden.

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