Per una fenomenologia delle usurpazioni nella tarda antichità

Under the Principate the two chief factors of legitimacy were the endorsement of the army and the acknowledgement by the senate; in late antiquity they became more and more weak, while the role of religion was growing: in Rome usurpers like Eugenius, Attalus and John in AD 423 sought for the support of pagan aristocrats and Christian minorities (e.g. the Arians), being unconcerned about the Pope; on the contrary in the Western territories usurpers like Magnentius, Magnus Maximus and Constantine III sought for the support of the Catholic bishops, whose legitimation role was by then prevailing