>doesn't control Rome >still calls themselves

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>Not from Rome
>Still calls himself the Roman Emperor

>>2640950
Rome really was irrelevant even in the west by the late period of the Roman empire. The Eastern empire was in every way an unbroken line of succession and governmental institutions. The meaning of Rome was larger than the city by that time.

>>2640965
>The Eastern empire was in every way an unbroken line of succession

I consider the byzantines to be Romans but I don't understand what people mean when they say this. The Byzantine throne was repeatedly usurped.

>>2640950
Rome stopped being anything more than a useless city of welfare queens from the 210s AD onwards. From the 3rd century most emperors didn't even bother visiting the city at all and even cities like Milan, Trier and Nicomedia were considered more important.

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>>2640950

>Is loose confederation of ethnically German principalities
>Calls themselves the Roman Empire

>>2640950
The Holy Roman Empire owned Rome. Should they have changed their name half way through?

>>2640974
It was a nod of respect to the Pope who crowned the emperor you dumb frog.

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>>2640978

The Eastern Roman Empire was still the Roman Empire. The day Odoacer deposed Romulus didn't suddenly mean this changed overnight. Why is this so hard to understand?

>doesn't control France
>calls themselves the free French

What did De Gaulle mean by this?

>>2640970
So was the Roman one.

Neither ever had a proper dynastic succession.

It's more it's the same administrational structure

>>2640981
The Pope granted something that wasn't in his power

>>2641012
>The Pope granted something that wasn't in his power
But some people thought he did. It actually is very bizarre how the idea of the Bishop of Rome as being able to crown emperors managed to gain traction.

>>2640950
>doesn't control kansas city
>still calls themselves kansas

>>2641012
Who the hell are you to decide what is or isn't in the popes power? If people accept it it's legitimate. Nothing more needs apply.

>>2641012
Welcome to religions 101

>>2640950
>Roman Empire
>EMpire of the Romans

Not Empire of Rome. Rome doesn't matter, the Romans do.

>>2641028
Yeah people in these threads always seem to forget that ancient peoples didn't see their polities as being entities in their own right. They saw them as just being made up of people. e.g. the Athenian state is never referred to as "Athens", they are conceptualised merely as being "the Athenians".

>>2640950
I like how the wording on this is left ambiguois

>>2640970
Civil war and coups are Roman tradition.