Orbis Romanus

Abstract How were Franks related to the Roman world and its heritage? This monograph reassesses the role of the Franks in the early medieval world, their ties to the remaining empire and the imperial heritage by examining the connectivity between the two worlds, the visions of Antiquity, the conceptions of imperium, mutual perceptions and identities, the use and significance attributed to Greek and Latin, the role of the Church and religious controversies, and Roman culture. It argues that the Carolingian world was still conceived to belong to the multiethnic orbis Romanus. However, this Frankish participation was not based on intense connectivity, but on the significance attributed to Roman identities and their imperial heritage. The Byzantines shared this opinion, considering the Franks as a connatural people, and acknowledging that both had emerged from the same Roman world. The Frankish kingdoms had originated from inside the empire, with a large Roman population and continuity on virtually every level of society, including governance, law, the Church, language, and culture. They smoothly transitioned from “Roman” to “Frankish” society by retaining some notable Roman elements as part of a gradually transforming world. Frankish Romanness, defined by the imperial past, the Byzantine present, and genuinely western Roman features belonging to the Carolingian kingdoms, had evolved over the centuries. Still, when Charlemagne rose to the status of emperor, he meant to resurrect the tradition of western emperorship. The idea that the Franks governed the same imperium as the emperor of the east was only abandoned at the time of his successors. Although the Franks never designated themselves as Romans, Romanness had remained a constitutive feature of their Frankish identity and world.