De mortibus usurpatorum. L'eliminazione violenta degli usurpatori tra IV e VI secolo d.C.

Abstract: Usurpation as a feature of the imperial system was characteristic of the last historical phase of the Roman empire. The legitimate emperor was often a usurper who had succeeded, who had managed to defeat his adversary militarily and who had convinced his subjects - and posterity - through propaganda that his right to rule was indisputable. Victory in battle was in fact presented as a sign of the divine predilection that had chosen its champion. The defeat of the adversary was the sign of his delegitimisation in the eyes of God and in the eyes of men; it was accomplished by his elimination, which could take place either by death in combat or by suicide following defeat, or through his execution through often infamous rituals that expressed the ritualistic overthrow or the contrapasso always associated with these ceremonies.