Vor- und Frühformen einer Renovatio Imperii in christlichen Germanenreichen der Völkerwanderungszeit

Abstract

A lead seal of Charlemagne, presumably from the year 803, bears the device Renovatio Romani Imperii, referring obviously to the political programme of Constantine the Great. Other evidences (Charlemagne's coinage, his titles in the Divisio regnorum of 806) also show the influence of Constantinian patterns. This kind of reference to the Roman Empire is not unparalleled: In the later Roman Empire, Germanic-barbarian rulers were conscious of the idea of imitatio imperii, as a relevant number of examples proves. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, refers in a letter to the Emperor Anastasius to the unici exemplar imperii (about 508); Ataulf, king of the Visigoths, calls himself Romanae restitutionis auctor. With permission of the Byzantine Emperor - praised as new Constantine by Gregory of Tours - Clovis is named consul and augustus since 508; Theudebert I. even usurps an imperial privilege, for he mints gold coins in his own name. In imitating the Roman model, the Germanic peoples, especially the Franks, gain in self-esteem; traditionally comparing themselves with Rome, they not only claim an equal rank, but partly even a moral and qualitative precedence. Surely, Charlemagne's idea of a renovatio Romani imperii is more than the continuous development of older traditions; however there are some remarkable prefigurations, which eventually lead to the idea of a translatio imperii from the Romans to the Franks.