Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 2264. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $760. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BURGUNDIANS. Godegisel. AD 473-500. AV Tremissis (1.43 g, 6h). Struck in the name of Anastasius I, AD 491-518. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Victory advancing right, holding palm and wreath. Oddy 9; Tomasini Group A6, 121; cf. MEC 1, 337-338 (Gundobald). VF, light scratch on obverse.

From the Marc Poncin Collection.

An eastern Germanic people, the Burgundians came to live along the upper Rhine, from which they were dislodged by a Hunnic attack in AD 436. From there they moved into the area around Geneva, establishing a petty state and recognizing the Roman emperors as their suzerains. As the authority of the Romans declined in Gaul in the later fifth century, the Burgundians expanded their control, and established a kingdom that encompassed the area from Chalon-sur-Saône to Avignon and the Durance, including the important cities of Lugdunum (Lyon) and Vienne. Around AD 480, upon the death of their king Gundioc the kingdom was split between his sons. This left the resultant kingdoms vulnerable, particularly to the growing power of the Merovingian Franks, who eventually conquered the kingdom circa AD 532/4.