Journal of Late Antiquity

While most post-Roman states were conquered, the Merovingian kingdoms led to the Carolingians and eventually to the rest of the Middle Ages. The Merovingians are thus naturally the beginning-point of most histories of the early medieval West. Yet, as scholars have increasingly argued over the past several decades, the Merovingian world should be re-attached both temporally to the rest of the late antique West and geographically to the broader Mediterranean. The volume under review aims to accomplish both of these goals.

Each contribution uses a translated excerpt from a longer text as a way to examine how a particular idea or practice in the Merovingian world was connected to broader Mediterranean trends. As two of its editors, Pia Lucas and Tamar Rotman, note in the volume’s introduction: “A close reading of a short section from a larger written source can be used as point of department to the study of wide-ranging issues from a broader perspective.” This is a wonderful approach which offers the opportunity to read a source in detail while placing it in its larger context which is often missing.

The book has thirteen articles plus an introduction and conclusion divided into four parts: These parts are: “The Wider World: Setting the Context of the Post-Roman World,” “Mediterranean Ties and Merovingian Diplomacy,” “Bridging the Seas: Law and Religion,” and “Shifting Perspectives: Emperors, Tributes and Propaganda.” This review will discuss four of the volume’s articles to highlight the main themes of the book.

Hope Williard’s “Friendship and Diplomacy in the Histories of Gregory of Tours” explores the idea of amicitia in Gregory’s Histories, showing how he used this term in diplomacy. Williard delightfully sketches the clever ways in which he structures diplomatic narratives to show the fragility of amicitia and how he understood its potential for duplicity. While amicitia might bolster friendly alliances, Gregory suggested that rulers tended to use it from a defensive position, which suggests a far more complex transformation of this late antique concept into the early Middle Ages.

Till Stüber’s “The Fifth Council of Orléans and the Reception of the ‘Three Chapters Controversy’ in Merovingian Gaul” examines the complex religious and political connections involved in the Three Chapters Controversy in Gaul. He squeezes every possible line of evidence [End Page 166] from a letter of Pope Vigilius to Bishop Aurelianus of Arles and then adds in lesser known letters, such as one from the so-called Codex Remensis, to piece together a far more nuanced political situation at the time, though it may have been more interesting to center this letter as the chosen source given its more obscure status.

Rotman’s “Imitation and Rejection of Eastern Practices in Merovingian Gaul: Gregory of Tours and Vulfilaic the Stylite of Trier” investigates why stylites were not a key part of Christian ascetic practice in the West. She suggests that stylites in the East and bishops in the West both aimed to codify their power and therefore a stylite appearing in the West would undermine Gregory of Tours’s (and other bishops’) episcopal power. This begs the question: what was the place of practice in Gregory’s ideas about stylites?

Finally, Lucas’s “Magnus et Verus Christianus: The Portrayal of Emperor Tiberius II in Gregory of Tours” offers a wonderful close reading of Gregory’s portrayal of the emperor Tiberius II. She notes that while Gregory depicted Tiberius as having little human depth, he crafted Tiberius into a model king, a blank canvas on which to paint an idealized ruler, as a way to critique other rulers for failing to live up to his standards. Lucas reminds us once again that Gregory wrote his seemingly simple works with deeper lessons embedded and readers should approach his works from this perspective.

Other articles in this volume offer...