ABSTRACT
Perhaps the foremost historian of the Merovingians, Wood’s views on Frankish legends already appeared above in selection 5. In the present study Wood demolishes the idea that with the “fall” of Rome darkness and barbarism descended upon Europe with the result that all civilized and sophisticated governmental activity ceased. If the reader is wondering, after reading the articles of Lebecq and McCormick, whether the Merovingians were only good at pretending to be Romans, Wood’s article should dispel the doubts. Clearly, the Merovingians were capable of understanding and maintaining a good deal of the Roman infrastructure in Gaul. And why wouldn’t they have done so? Roman mechanisms were tried and true. In reflecting on the particular examples discussed by Wood, the reader will want to weigh the extent of accommodation and assimilation represented by the survival of various bureaucratic, or quasi-bureaucratic, practices. Yet again, the reader needs to ask if we have here evidence of gradual transformation or of catastrophic change.
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