In the research on "The transformation of the Roman world" relatively little attention has been paid to the transformation of early medieval peoples and the development of their communities into kingdoms, and we lack a comparative study on this subject. The aim of this volume is, therefore, to examine the relationship between gens and regnum by systematically comparing the "Germanic" and non-Germanic successor states of the Roman Empire, a question that leads to important results about the role of ethnic processes and of political developments in the formation of the new kingdoms. By trying to answer leading questions, 16 authors (historians, archaeologists and linguists) deal with ten important kingdoms of this period and with their political and legal context (role of the Empire and the law-codes). An introduction to the subject and its inherent problems and a comparative conclusion summarizing the results completes the volume. Contributors: Javier Arce, Ann Christys, Evangelos Chrysos, Falko Daim, Hans-Werner Goetz, Matthias Hardt, Peter Heather, Jörg Jarnut, J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, Walter Pohl, Michael Schmauder, Isabel Velázquez, Ian N. Wood, Alex Woolf, Patrick Wormald, and Barbara Yorke.