Professor Freedman considers the Merovingians as an example of barbarian kingship in the post-Roman world. In the absence of a strong government, Merovingian society was held together by kinship, private vengeance, and religion. Kings were judged by their ability to lead men in war. Gregory of Tours believed that the violence characteristic of Frankish society was useful insofar as the kings wielded it to back up threats of supernatural retribution for bad actions. Professor Freedman ends with a brief summary of the decline of the Merovingians.

1. Course Introduction: Rome's Greatness and First Crises
2. The Crisis of the Third Century and the Diocletianic Reforms
3. Constantine and the Early Church
4. The Christian Roman Empire
5. St. Augustine's Confessions
6. Transformation of the Roman Empire
7. Barbarian Kingdoms
8. Survival in the East
9. The Reign of Justinian
10. Clovis and the Franks
11. Frankish Society
12. Britain and Ireland
13. Monasticism
14. Mohammed and the Arab Conquests
15. Islamic Conquests and Civil War
16. The Splendor of the Abbasid Period
17. The Crucial Seventh Century
18. The Splendor of Byzantium
19. Charlemagne
20. Intellectuals and the Court of Charlemagne
21. Crisis of the Carolingians
22. Vikings / The European Prospect, 1000

Major developments in the political, social, and religious history of Western Europe from the accession of Diocletian to the feudal transformation. Topics include the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam and the Arabs, the "Dark Ages," Charlemagne and the Carolingian renaissance, and the Viking and Hungarian invasions.

Original Course Name: HIST 210: The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000.