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This volume looks at 'visions of community' in a comparative
perspective, from Late Antiquity to the dawning of the age of
crusades. It addresses the question of why and how distinctive new
political cultures developed after the disintegration of the Roman
World, and to what degree their differences had already emerged in
the first post-Roman centuries. The Latin West, Orthodox Byzantium
and its Slavic periphery, and the Islamic world each retained
different parts of the Graeco-Roman heritage, while introducing new
elements. For instance, ethnicity became a legitimizing element of
rulership in the West, remained a structural element of the
imperial periphery in Byzantium, and contributed to the inner
dynamic of Islamic states without becoming a resource of political
integration. Similarly, the political role of religion also
differed between the emerging post-Roman worlds. It is surprising
that little systematic research has been done in these fields so
far. The 32 contributions to the volume explore this new line of
research and look at different aspects of the process, with leading
western Medievalists, Byzantinists and Islamicists covering a wide
range of pertinent topics. At a closer look, some of the apparent
differences between the West and the Islamic world seem less
distinctive, and the inner variety of all post-Roman societies
becomes more marked. At the same time, new variations in the
discourse of community and the practice of power emerge. Anybody
interested in the development of the post-Roman Mediterranean, but
also in the relationship between the Islamic World and the West,
will gain new insights from these studies on the political role of
ethnicity and religion in the post-Roman Mediterranean.
Roman identity is one of the most interesting cases of social
identity because in the course of time, it could mean so many
different things: for instance, Greek-speaking subjects of the
Byzantine empire, inhabitants of the city of Rome, autonomous civic
or regional groups, Latin speakers under 'barbarian' rule in the
West or, increasingly, representatives of the Church of Rome.
Eventually, the Christian dimension of Roman identity gained
ground. The shifting concepts of Romanness represent a
methodological challenge for studies of ethnicity because,
depending on its uses, Roman identity may be regarded as 'ethnic'
in a broad sense, but under most criteria, it is not. Romanness is
indeed a test case how an established and prestigious social
identity can acquire many different shades of meaning, which we
would class as civic, political, imperial, ethnic, cultural, legal,
religious, regional or as status groups. This book offers
comprehensive overviews of the meaning of Romanness in most
(former) Roman provinces, complemented by a number of comparative
and thematic studies. A similarly wide-ranging overview has not
been available so far.
This volume looks at 'visions of community' in a comparative
perspective, from Late Antiquity to the dawning of the age of
crusades. It addresses the question of why and how distinctive new
political cultures developed after the disintegration of the Roman
World, and to what degree their differences had already emerged in
the first post-Roman centuries. The Latin West, Orthodox Byzantium
and its Slavic periphery, and the Islamic world each retained
different parts of the Graeco-Roman heritage, while introducing new
elements. For instance, ethnicity became a legitimizing element of
rulership in the West, remained a structural element of the
imperial periphery in Byzantium, and contributed to the inner
dynamic of Islamic states without becoming a resource of political
integration. Similarly, the political role of religion also
differed between the emerging post-Roman worlds. It is surprising
that little systematic research has been done in these fields so
far. The 32 contributions to the volume explore this new line of
research and look at different aspects of the process, with leading
western Medievalists, Byzantinists and Islamicists covering a wide
range of pertinent topics. At a closer look, some of the apparent
differences between the West and the Islamic world seem less
distinctive, and the inner variety of all post-Roman societies
becomes more marked. At the same time, new variations in the
discourse of community and the practice of power emerge. Anybody
interested in the development of the post-Roman Mediterranean, but
also in the relationship between the Islamic World and the West,
will gain new insights from these studies on the political role of
ethnicity and religion in the post-Roman Mediterranean.
After Charlemagne's death in 814, Italy was ruled by a succession
of kings and emperors, all of whom could claim some relation to the
Carolingians, some via the female line of succession. This study
offers new perspectives on the fascinating but neglected period of
Italy in the ninth century and the impact of Carolingian culture.
Bringing together some of the foremost scholars on early medieval
Italy, After Charlemagne offers the first comprehensive overview of
the period, and also presents new research on Italian politics,
culture, society and economy, from the death of Charlemagne to the
assassination of Berengar I in 924. Revealing Italy as a
multifaceted peninsula, the authors address the governance and
expansion of Carolingian Italy, examining relations with the other
Carolingian kingdoms, as well as those with the Italian South, the
Papacy and the Byzantine Empire. Exploring topics on a regional and
local level as well as presenting a 'big picture' of the Italian or
Lombard kingdom, this volume provides new and exciting answers to
the central question: How Carolingian was 'Carolingian Italy'?
This volume analyses the importance of history, the textual
resources of the past and the integration of Christian and imperial
Rome into the cultural memory of early medieval Europe within the
wider question of identity formation. The case studies in this book
shed new light on the process of codification and modification of
cultural heritage in the light of the transmission of texts and the
extant manuscript evidence from the early Middle Ages. The authors
demonstrate how particular texts and their early medieval
manuscript representatives in Italy, Francia, Saxony and Bavaria
not only reflect ethnic, social and cultural identities but
themselves contributed to the creation of identities, gave meaning
to social practice, and were often intended to inspire, guide,
change, or prevent action, directly or indirectly. These texts are
shown to be part of a cultural effort to shape the present by
restructuring the past.
This volume analyses the importance of history, the textual
resources of the past and the integration of Christian and imperial
Rome into the cultural memory of early medieval Europe within the
wider question of identity formation. The case studies in this book
shed new light on the process of codification and modification of
cultural heritage in the light of the transmission of texts and the
extant manuscript evidence from the early Middle Ages. The authors
demonstrate how particular texts and their early medieval
manuscript representatives in Italy, Francia, Saxony and Bavaria
not only reflect ethnic, social and cultural identities but
themselves contributed to the creation of identities, gave meaning
to social practice, and were often intended to inspire, guide,
change, or prevent action, directly or indirectly. These texts are
shown to be part of a cultural effort to shape the present by
restructuring the past.
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