Translatio imperii

Translatio imperii (Latin for 'transfer of rule') is a historiographical concept that was prominent among medieval thinkers and intellectuals in Europe, but which originated from earlier concepts in antiquity. According to this concept, the notion of decline and fall of an empire is theoretically replaced by a natural succession from one empire to another. Translatio implies that an empire can metahistorically be transferred from hand to hand and place to place, from Troy to Romans and Greeks to Franks (both claiming to be Romans) and further on to Spain, and has therefore survived.

In classic antiquity, an authoritative user of this scheme was Virgil, who has been traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. In his work Aeneid, which has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome, he linked the Rome in which he lived, reigned by its first emperor Caesar Augustus, with Troy. The discourse of translatio imperii may be traced from the ninth century to the fourteenth, and may be carried on into the sixteenth century or even further. In the Early modern period, the translatio scheme was used by many authors who wished to legitimate their new centre of power and to provide it with prestige. In Renaissance Florence, humanists wrote Latin poems fashioning their city as the new Rome, and members of the Medici family as Roman rulers.

More generally speaking, this concept views history as a linear succession of transfers of an imperium that invests supreme power in a singular ruler, an "emperor", or sometimes even several emperors (e.g. the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Holy Roman Empire). The concept is closely linked to translatio studii, the geographic movement of learning. Both terms are thought to have their origins in the second chapter of the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible (verses 39–40).