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IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 317: Wealth, Vengeance, and Literary Culture in the Early Middle Ages

Monday 11 July 2011, 16.30-18.00

Moderator/Chair:Helmut Reimitz, Department of History, Princeton University
Paper 317-aWealth and Poverty in the Aftermath of the Gallic War of 507-510
(Language: English)
Glenn McDorman, Department of History, Princeton University
Index terms: Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 317-bPoor Society - Rich Culture: The Topoi-graphy of Resource Allocation in Late 6th-Century Gaul
(Language: English)
Wesley Rykalski, Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London
Index terms: Economics - General, Language and Literature - Latin, Mentalities, Social History
Paper 317-cVengeance and Wergild in Early Medieval Law: Legal Transmission in Germanic Europe
(Language: English)
Miriam Tveit, Institutt for historie og religionsvitenskap, Universitetet i Tromsø
Index terms: Administration, Law, Learning (The Classical Inheritance)
Abstract

Paper -a:
In late 507, war erupted in Gaul. The war lasted for nearly three years and had dramatic consequences for the political situation in the West. But beyond these political implications, the war had a significant material impact on the inhabitants of Gaul. Many cities were burned and pillaged and thousands of people were enslaved and sent to distant lands, while many on the victorious side profited from the acquisition of loot and slaves. This paper investigates the effect of this war on the wealth and poverty of individuals and communities throughout Gaul in the form of the erection of new public buildings, the issuance of tax relief, and the ransoming of slaves.

Paper -b:
Using the literary products of Venantius Fortunatus and taking the work of Douglas & Isherwood on 'separate economic spheres' and 'exclusion activity' and Benjamin's comments on the entanglement of literary works with the 'mode of production' of their society/culture this paper suggest that the literary culture of late antiquity and the very early medieval period, which Venantius was the last example of, was a lot more than just 'culture' that could be utilised by the social actors of the time. Rather it was an essential part of the system of resource allocation and control of the period imbricated with the 'economic' as much as with the discursive.

Paper -c:
The paper will discuss transmission of law in Germanic legislation from the 5th to the 9th centuries, focusing on authorities' institutionalization of private violence. Although compensatory penalties were an established legal tradition in early medieval law codes, such resolutions were still a developing topic. To control vengeance among subjects, compensation was also prescribed in cases of violent crimes, often stipulated from the victim's wergild. Legal similarities of fines and procedure in relation to vengeance give clues to the borrowings and influences of law in the forming states of Germanic Europe. The aim of this paper is to analyse examples of such legal transmission.