The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Mediterranean World: Revisiting the Sources

Description

This book explores the Merovingian kingdoms in Gaul within a broader Mediterranean context. Their politics and culture have mostly been interpreted in the past through a narrow local perspective, but as the papers in this volume clearly demonstrate, the Merovingian kingdoms had complicated and multi-layered political, religious, and socio-cultural relations with their Mediterranean counterparts, from Visigothic Spain in the West to the Byzantine Empire in the East, and from Anglo-Saxon England in the North to North-Africa in the South. The papers collected here provide new insights into the history of the Merovingian kingdoms by examining various relevant issues, ranging from identity formation to the shape and rules of diplomatic relations, cultural transformation, as well as voiced attitudes towards the “other”. Each of the papers begins with a short excerpt from a primary source, which serves as a stimulus for the discussion of broader issues. The various sources' point of view and their contextualization stand at the heart of the analysis, thus ensuring that discussions are accessible to students and non-specialists, without jeopardizing the high academic standard of the debate. Acknowledgments vii List of Contributors ix List of Abbreviations x Maps xii Introduction Pia Lucas and Tamar Rotman 1 Part One The Wider World: Setting the Context of the Post-Roman World 1 History, Geography, and the Notion of Mare Nostrum in the Early Medieval West Yitzhak Hen 11 2 True Differences: Gregory of Tours’ Account of the Council of Mâcon (585) Helmut Reimitz 19 Part Two Mediterranean Ties and Merovingian Diplomacy 3 East and West from a Visigothic Perspective: How and Why Were Frankish Brides Negotiated in the Late Sixth Century? Anna Gehler-Rachůnek 31 4 Friendship and Diplomacy in the Histories of Gregory of Tours Hope Williard 41 5 Private Records of Official Diplomacy: The Franco-Byzantine Letters in the Austrasian Epistolar Collection Bruno Dumézil 55 6 The Language of Sixth-century Frankish Diplomacy Yaniv Fox 63 Part Three Bridging the Seas: Law and Religion 7 Mediterranean Homesick Blues: Human Trafficking in the Merovingian Leges Lukas Bothe 79 8 The Fifth Council of Orléans and the Reception of the “Three Chapters Controversy” in Merovingian Gaul Till Stüber 93 9 Reconciling Disturbed Sacred Space: The Ordo for “Reconciling an Altar Where a Murder Has Been Committed” in the Sacramentary of Gellone in Its Cultural Context Rob Meens 103 10 Imitation and Rejection of Eastern Practices in Merovingian Gaul: Gregory of Tours and Vulfi laic the Stylite of Trier Tamar Rotman 113 Part Four Shifting Perspectives: Emperors, Tributes and Propaganda 11 Magnus et Verus Christianus: The Portrayal of Emperor Tiberius II in Gregory of Tours Pia Lucas 127 12 When Contemporary History Is Caught Up by the Immediate Present: Fredegar’s Proleptic Depiction of Emperor Constans II Stefan Esders 141 13 Byzantium, the Merovingians, and the Hog: A Passage of Theophanes’ Chronicle Revisited Federico Montinaro 151 Conclusion Stefan Esders and Yitzhak Hen 159 Notes 163 Bibliography 223 Index 253