The Epitaphium Arsenii (‘Epitaph for Arsenius’) written by a Carolingian abbot, Pascasius Radbertus (c. 790–860), might seem an obscure and challenging text to deserve its own monograph. The Epitaphium survives in a single manuscript (BnF, Paris, ms Lat. 13909), in difficult Latin that has often bewildered English translators. It is notorious to students of early medieval history for its complex use of allusion to classical literature, late antique history and to the Old Testament. While a work of history, it is not a straightforward narrative, but a dialogue, in which several monks discuss the memory of their abbot, Wala (named Arsenius after the tutor to the Roman emperor Honorius). What might such an idiosyncratic text have to tell us about early medieval politics or religion?

In the capable hands of Mayke de Jong, the resounding answer is ‘a great deal’. Wala, after all, was Charlemagne's cousin, an adviser to various Carolingian rulers, and involved in the rebellions against the Emperor Louis the Pious in 830 and 833. Radbert was not simply Wala's admirer, but a major intellectual figure and one-time successor to Wala as abbot of the royal monastery at Corbie. Following on her 2009 study of Louis the Pious, de Jong uses the Epitaphium as a unique springboard into bigger questions about Carolingian political life, especially the importance of the rhetoric skills displayed by Radbert. The result is a characteristically insightful and engaging monograph.

In the Epitaphium, Radbert sought to defend Wala's reputation, and by extension that of his community, following the crises of Louis the Pious's reign. De Jong argues that the Epitaphium, although idiosyncratic, was not a ‘private’ text but written for a privileged group within the courtly elite, who had been involved in the events described and would appreciate Radbert's technical brilliance. As de Jong shows, Radbert conceived the Epitaphium as a literary whole, but wrote its first book sometime after 836, and the second after his deposition as abbot of Corbie in the 850s. Radbert tackled major questions of loyalty to God and the political order, in the hope of securing Wala's legacy and support for himself.

Having discussed various codicological questions, de Jong proceeds in three stages. Part i concerns ‘History’: how the Epitaphium informs our understanding of Radbert, his master Wala and Wala's half-brother Adalhard, and also their monasteries at Corbie and Corvey. This includes discussion of Radbert's biography of Adalhard, the less ambitious Vita Adalhardi (completed in about 826). Chapter iii helpfully discusses the close yet complex relationship between cloister and court. Radbert wrote for an elite culture that cannot be divided into ‘lay’ and ‘clerical’, but which shared a common, biblically and classically informed worldview.

Part ii turns to ‘Rhetoric’: how Radbert's complex textual strategies intended to appeal to this audience. Chapters iv and v reflect growing scholarly interest in medieval rhetoric. The Epitaphium is simultaneously a funerary oration, a legal defence of Wala and a persuasive appeal, thereby engaging with all three modes of classical rhetoric, and using an impressive array of classical allusion. Chapter vi covers the allusive pseudonyms used for Radbert's characters, which took his readers into the world of Ambrose of Milan. Ambrose had overseen the penance of the Roman Emperor Theodosius, a penance imitated in 822 by Louis. As de Jong points out, Radbert doubted Louis's sincerity and pointedly did not nick-name him Theodosius in his narrative, while using other characters from Theodosius’ reign. De Jong further emphasises that these pseudonyms were not intended to hide Radbert's intentions but to be recognised and their implications felt. Part ii also engages with debates about the continuation of ‘frank speech’ and ‘dialogue’ into the early Middle Ages (pp. 91–2). While some have argued that dialogue was a feature of classical antiquity which disappeared in the Christian West, the Epitaphium (itself a dialogue) reveals a political world which valued ‘frank speech’.

Part iii (‘Politics’) brings that political world to life. Chapter vii follows Radbert's narrative of the two rebellions against Louis the Pious in the 830s. Chapter viii explores Radbert's political vocabulary, such as respublica, and its relevance to debates in the reign of Charles the Bald. Chapter ix situates Radbert's text alongside those of Nithard and Dhuoda, who also engaged with the legacies of Louis's reign. Together these texts lament a world that their authors believed had been lost, reflecting their own assumptions about how the Carolingian Empire ought to have worked. Part iii thus intervenes in various scholarly debates about early medieval politics, such as the relationship between ‘Church’ and ‘State’ and the meaning of imperium. Rather than a monolithic ‘Church’ confronting an intransigent ‘State’, Radbert conceived of ‘churches’ and the ‘public domain’ working together to serve God, under imperial leadership, for the benefit of the Christian people. This demanded unanimity and concord in imperial rule, but not necessarily the territorial unity assumed by some modern scholarship.

We often imagine political history from the perspective of a regime or a ruler (such as Louis the Pious). By using such a unique text, Epitaph for an era brings us the perspective of an empire's stakeholders: the monks at the royal monastery of Corbie, the emperor's kinsmen (Adalhard and Wala) and a deposed abbot (Radbert). These figures made up the Carolingian polity, yet were aware of their own vulnerability before a menacing emperor and a rapidly changing world. Although de Jong focuses on politics and political ideas, her conclusions are never reductionist. She shows Radbert working hard to salvage his master's reputation and his own position, but also captures the ideals, passions and fears of such political actors. Consequently, her book should appeal as much to historians of religion as to those of politics and provides a model for those wishing to combine both with in-depth literary analysis. Together with the new English translation of the Epitaphium, undertaken by de Jong with Justin Lake, and due out later this year, foundations have been laid for exciting scholarship on Radbert and his world for years to come.