The Merovingian Kingdoms and the Mediterranean World

Revisiting the Sources

Stefan Esders, Yitzhak Hen, Pia Lucas, Tamar Rotman, Stefan Esders, Yitzhak Hen, Pia Lucas, Tamar Rotman

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781526629685
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350048409
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

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.

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

A survey of the entire world and its peoples

55. Beyond the [province of Campania] lies Italy, which is renowned by this word alone [i.e. Italy], and reveals its glory by its name. It has many different towns and, full of all good things, it is governed by providence. You can find in that Italy many types of wine: [from the regions] of Picenum, Sabinum, Tibur and Tuscany, which borders the above-mentioned province [i.e. Italy], and whose beauty we shall recount shortly. Italy, abounding in everything, also possesses this ultimate good – the largest, most eminent and royal city, which reveals her virtue by its name, and which is called Rome; it was founded, we are told, by the child Romulus. It is much decorated with divine buildings, since each of the emperors, past and present, wanted to build something there, and every single one of them established something under his name. If you just think of the Antonine [dynasty], you can find innumerable monuments [sponsored by them], such as the so-called forum of Trajan, which has an outstanding and famous basilica. It also has a well-situated circus, decorated with numerous bronze statues. Also, in that same Rome, there are seven virgins of free and noble birth, who, consecrated to the gods for the benefit of the city, perform [their religious duties] according to the ancient customs; they are called the Vestal virgins. Similarly, it [i.e. Rome] also has a river, known to many as the Tiber, which is useful for the above-mentioned city, because it crosses it before reaching the sea, so that anyone who comes from abroad has to climb eighteen miles. And so, the city abounds in all goods. It also has the greatest senate of rich men; and if you want to check each of them, you will find that they were all governors, or will be [governors] or have the potential [to become governors], but they do not want to, because they rather enjoy their wealth with no obligations. They worship the gods, among them Jupiter and Sol; it is also said that they perform the sacred [ceremonies] of the Mother of gods, and it is certain that they also have haruspices [i.e. priests who interpret omens by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals]. […]

58. After Pannonia lies the province of Gaul. Since it is large and always in need of an emperor, it has one for itself. Because of the ruler’s presence, it abounds with everything in huge quantities, but at a very high price. It has, we are told, a large town which is called Trier, where the master [i.e. the emperor] resides, and [that town] is located in the middle of the country. Similarly, it has another town, which helps [Trier] in every respect; it is located on the sea-shore, and its name, so they say, is Arles. Receiving merchandise from all over the world, it dispatches them to the above-mentioned town [i.e. Trier]. The entire region is inhabited by strong and noble men; and this is why the army of the Gauls is large and strong. Everything in this province is admirable. It has the barbarian people of the Goths as neighbours.¹

Inserting a short geographical description into an otherwise pure historical treatise was a common historiographical exercise in the Roman world. It would suffice to mention here the detailed description of Numidia given by Sallust in his De bello Iugurthino,² the grand opening of De bello Gallico by Julius Caesar,³ Appian’s description of the Roman Empire in his Ῥωμαϊκά,⁴ or even Tacitus’ opening sentences of his Germania,⁵ to demonstrate that such a historiographical practice was quite widespread among Roman historians of the later Republic and early Principate. It has been assumed that such a practice was nothing but a mere historiographical device, used by Roman historians to mark the geographical boundaries of their work, to demonstrate their rhetorical and literary skills, and probably to establish their place among a long list of well-known and well-read historians.⁶ Tacitus’ opening of the Germania, for example, clearly echoes Caesar’s description of Gaul and Sallust’s description of Numidia, and thus makes him their par.

From the second century onwards, and because of unknown reasons, the historiographical tradition that incorporated geographical passages into historiographical narratives slowly died out. It is impossible to gauge whether that was a calculated move made by historians, or simply an impression created by the paucity of the sources that survive. Whatever may have been the case, it appears that the vast majority of historical compositions that came down to us from the fourth century, such as Aurelius Victor’s Liber de caesaribus, Eutropius’ Breviarium ab urbe condita, and many others, did not incorporate any geographical description into their historical narrative.⁷ The same holds true for the Christian historiographical tradition, as reflected in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Jerome’s Chronicle, or Rufinus’ translation and adaptation of Eusebius’ work.⁸ It was only in the fifth century, as part of a new wave of creativity that swept the western provinces of the Roman Empire, that geographical descriptions found their way back into the writing of history. Such a geographical digression can be found in the opening chapters of Orosius’ Historiarum libri adversus paganos, that gives a full description of the entire world from an utterly Christian point of view,⁹ in Jordanes’ De origine actibusque Getarum,¹⁰ or in Isidore of Seville’s Historia Gothorum, Vandalorum et Sueborum.¹¹ There is little place to doubt that this geographical revival was partly nourished by the intensive events that changed completely the geo-political balance of the West during the later fourth and throughout the fifth century, events which traditionally and rather anachronistically are called “the Barbarian Invasions.”¹²

In his excellent book, History and Geography in Late Antiquity, Andy Merrills studied four late-antique and early medieval historians—Orosius, Jordanes, Isidore, and Bede—in whose historical writings one can find substantial geographical descriptions as part of the grand narrative.¹³ Like many historians before him, Merrills noted that during the fifth century there had been a resurgence of interest in geography that resulted in a growing number of geographical digressions incorporated into historical compositions. But, according to Merrills, unlike the historiographical tradit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Contributors
• List of Abbreviations
• Maps
• Introduction
• 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
• 2 True Differences: Gregory of Tours’ Account of the Council of Mâcon (585)
• 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?
• 4 Friendship and Diplomacy in the Histories of Gregory of Tours
• 5 Private Records of Official Diplomacy: The Franco-Byzantine Letters in the Austrasian Epistolar Collection
• 6 The Language of Sixth-century Frankish Diplomacy
• Part Three Bridging the Seas: Law and Religion
• 7 Mediterranean Homesick Blues: Human Trafficking in the Merovingian Leges
• 8 The Fifth Council of Orléans and the Reception of the “Three Chapters Controversy” in Merovingian Gaul
• 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
• 10 Imitation and Rejection of Eastern Practices in Merovingian Gaul: Gregory of Tours and Vulfilaic the Stylite of Trier
• Part Four Shifting Perspectives: Emperors, Tributes and Propaganda
• 11 Magnus et Verus Christianus: The Portrayal of Emperor Tiberius II in Gregory of Tours
• 12 When Contemporary History Is Caught Up by the Immediate Present: Fredegar’s Proleptic Depiction of Emperor Constans II
• 13 Byzantium, the Merovingians, and the Hog: A Passage of Theophanes’ Chronicle Revisited
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright