Mobility of Power

Succession in the Late Antique World

Volume editor Marco Cristini

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Extent: 194 pages

Publisher: Brill | Schöningh

Subjects: Classical Studies

Series: Antike Imperien

Series volume number: 5

Language: English

Hardback (Forthcoming)

(November 2026)

ISBN: 9783506706089

6.1 x 9.25 inches

Price: $89.00

Succession lay at the heart of political stability in Late Antiquity. In a world without fixed rules for inheritance, the choice and legitimation of an heir could decide the fate of empires and kingdoms alike.
This volume explores how rulers across the Post-Roman world navigated the challenges of power transfer. Drawing on contributions from leading scholars, it highlights the strategies employed to secure smooth transitions: from rituals and dynastic marriages to religious ceremonies and public displays of legitimacy. By moving beyond exceptional cases of usurpation and civil war, the book sheds new light on the often-overlooked “normality” of succession. Thus, the contributions of this volume offer a fresh and comparative perspective on a key political process of the late antique world.

Marco Cristini is currently Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Florence. He has published monographs on the second-last Ostrogothic king and African Latin Christianity in the Early Middle Ages as well as several papers on sixth-century Italy, Cassiodorus and late antique diplomacy.

  • Volume editor Marco Cristini