Ellora Bennett is an independent scholarGuido M. Berndt is an independent scholarStefan Esders is Professor of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages at the Freie Universität BerlinLaury Sarti is Lecturer at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

• 1 Introducing early medieval militarisation, 400–900 AD – Laury Sarti, Ellora Bennett, Guido M. Berndt and Stefan EsdersPart I: The military and society2 Soldier and civilian in the Byzantine Empire c. 600–c. 900: a militarised society? – Philip Rance3 The exercitus Gothorum in Italy: a professional army in a demilitarised society? – Kai Grundmann4 Military organisation as an indicator of militarisation (and demilitarisation) in Lombard Italy – Guido M. Berndt 5 The ‘dark matter’ evidence for Alfredian military reforms in their ninth-century context – Ryan LavellePart II: Warfare and society6 War and the transformation of society in the early Byzantine Arabia – Conor Whately7 The role of the military factor in the political and administrative shaping of the Visigothic Kingdom (sixth to seventh centuries) – Pablo Poveda Arias8 Recent archaeological research on fortifications in France, Belgium and Swizerland, 750–1000 – Luc Bourgeois9 Gens Germana gente ferocior: Lombards and warfare between representation and reality – Stefano Gasparri10 The blinkers of militarisation: Charles the Bald, Lothar I and the Vikings – Simon CouplandPart III: Ethics of war11 Manlike discipline and loyalty against the ‘enemies of God’: some observations on the militarised frontier society of eastern Francia around 600 – Stefan Esders12 Swords in Christian hands: reflections on the emergence of the ‘Schwertmission’ in the early Middle Ages – Uta Heil13 ‘Holy wars’? ‘Religious wars’? The perception of religious motives of warfare against non-Christian enemies in ninth-century chronicles – Hans-Werner GoetzPart IV: Perceptions of the warrior14 Change of habit equals change of values? Burials of ‘military men’ between 300 and 500 AD – Benjamin Hamm15 Warlike and heroic virtues in the post-Roman world – Edward James16 Military equipment in late antique and early medieval female burial evidence: a reflection of ‘militarisation’? – Susanne Brather-Walter17 The construction of the enemy in pre-Viking England – Ellora Bennett18 Warriors and warlike kings in the Gesta Karoli of Notker the Stammerer – Thomas Wittkamp19 Early medieval ‘warrior’ images and the concept of Gefolgschaft – Michel Summer20 Conclusion: militarisation: process or discourse? – Guy HalsallIndex

'The authors in this volume are seeking to understand a world remote from our ownthrough the lens of militarization, but in a way which always illuminates the broader aspectsof that society, and they have done this very creditably.'Speculum