Note 721 — BOOK XI.

'Burgundio quinetiam, ut sua reciperet, devotus effectus est: reddens se totum dum accepisset exiguum. Elegit quippe integer obedire, quam imminutus obsistere: tutius tunc defendit regnum quando arma deposuit. Recuperavit enim prece, quod amisit in acie.' The meaning of these mysterious words, as interpreted by Binding (268-270) and Jahn (ii. 252), is that Godomar, King of the Burgundians, received back from Amalasuentha (probably about 530, or a little later) the territory between the Durance and the Isere, which Theodoric had wrested from his brother in 523. The occasion of this cession was probably some league of mutual defence against the Franks, which Cassiodorus could without dishonesty represent as a kind of vassalage of Burgundy to Ostrogothia. If so, it availed Godomar little, as his territories were overrun by the Frankish Kings in 532, and the conquest of them was apparently completed by 534 (Jahn ii. 68-78).