Perceiving War and the Military in Early Christian Gaul (ca. 400-700 A.D.)

In Perceiving War and the Military, Laury Sarti highlights the significance of a permanently increasing contact with armed violence for the gradual transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, analysing contemporary ideas and concepts of war and the military.

The passage from Antiquity to the Middle Ages has been largely studied in the light of the thesis of a gradual transformation, which is in contradiction of the previous assumption of an abrupt break due to war and general calamity. Perceiving War and the Military reassesses this historical period of transition by an investigation of the contemporary world of thought that examines the impact and significance of a permanently increasing contact with warfare and armed violence. The study confirms the assumption of a gradual shift, but it most of all shows that the irrevocable end of the Roman Peace was a crucial factor in the late Roman world becoming gradually "medieval".

Laury Sarti, Dr. Phil. (2012), has studied history and archaeology at the University of Hamburg, where she earned her doctorate. She is currently working as a research fellow at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute of the Freie Universitat Berlin.