Comparative Questions?

  1. What do the documents in this chapter reveal about the political, cultural, and religious changes that had taken place since the time of ancient Rome (Chapter 6)?
  2. Compare and contrast The Law of the Salian Franks (Document 8-2) with other law codes included in this reader (Documents 2-2, 3-4, and 6-1). What similarities and differences do you note?
  3. Why does Procopius’s description of Justinian (Document 8-3) seem so different from Einhard’s description of Charlemagne (Document 8-5)? Compare the two rulers.
  4. Compare and contrast Einhard’s description of Charlemagne (Document 8-5) with Plutarch’s description of Cleomenes III (Document 5-3). What similarities and differences do you note?

Lewis Thorpe, trans., Two Lives of Charlemagne: Einhard and Notker the Stammerer (London: Penguin Books, 1969), 71, 78–80.