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Frankish Crises

Throughout the 6th century A.D., conflicts among the Frankish rulers of Gaul was relentless and mean-spirited, with kinsfolk often set one against another. For example, a commentary for A.D. 583 on the activities of the dukes Desiderius and Bladast, who served prince Chilperic, noted "There remained not a house, nor a vineyard, nor a tree; all was cut down and ruined." (Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks VI.22), When Chilperic's brother, king Guntrum, dispatched his forces to cut a swathe across Gaul two years later, the citizenry of Nimes could only stand and watch from their city's mighty walls, as surrounding houses were fire-gutted and vineyards were hacked to shreds.

Time and again, vine-cuttings were set only to be torn from the ground or burned as soon as they achieved some degree of maturity. Livelihoods were crippled to the point that any report on the state of vine crops became a yardstick for how disasterous Gallic politics had become. So the importation of wine into Gaul from the eastern provinces became something of a necessity, rather than a luxury.