Laury Sarti, Mediterranean Connections: The Frankish Kingdoms and the Roman Empire (476–756). The Medieval Mediterranean, 145. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2026, pp. VIII, 240.

The central theme of the volume is the prominent role that Laury Sarti attributes to the Franks, and to the Merovingian dynasty in particular, in the delicate transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. This topic is discussed in six chapters analyzing the broad Mediterranean context in which the Merovingians acted, balancing two dimensions: the Roman and the barbarian. In the first chapter (“Introduction,” pp. 1–15), Sarti emphasizes that we should not continue focusing on the effects of Romulus Augustus’s deposition in 476. This event did not mark the end of the Franks’s relations with the Empire. Therefore, the monograph aims to reevaluate relations between the Franks and the Byzantines up to the eighth century. This period included significant moments in the interactions between the Merovingian courts and Constantinople, starting, for example, from the recognition of the consular title given by Anastasius I to Clovis in 508. Sarti therefore proposes focusing on the diplomatic relations between the Merovingians and the Byzantines before the rise of the Carolingians. This is a period that has not been studied in much detail. After briefly reviewing the most recent scholarly literature on relations between the East and West in the early Middle Ages – studies that are referred to throughout the volume – the author illustrates the historiographical methodology on which she based his research. In particular, overly complex and detailed analyses of sources are avoided to provide readers with essential data on the relations between the Franks and the Byzantines, as handed down by contemporary accounts. Additionally, specific previous historiographical analyses are avoided because, according to Sarti, they have fueled real prejudices, such as the idea that there was a strong cultural divide between the Eastern Empire and Merovingian Gaul.