Orbis Romanus

Byzantium and the Legacy of Rome in the Carolingian World
How did the medieval Frankish world relate to the orbis Romanus? Although this term is only sporadically attested in the early medieval evidence, Laury Sarti makes use of it to designate the sum of what may have been understood, from a western medieval perspective, as characteristic of or belonging to the Roman world. She argues that, although the Roman empire mainly persisted in the east beyond the fifth century, the orbis Romanus was not limited to Byzantium. The medieval west had emerged from that same Roman imperial tradition, and it retained some notable Roman characteristics and features even after it ceased to belong to the empire.The Byzantines acknowledged that the Franks had their share in the Roman world, which they conceived as a connatural people.
Publication 30 August 2024