Some Have Ancestors Thrust Upon Them

This chapter focuses on ‘invented ancestry’: openly invented genealogical claims by imperial successors. It questions how demonstrably fictive claims, like those by Septimius Severus, fit into the patterns that were set out in the earlier chapters. Was there more or less coherence in imagery when the messages that were broadcast recognizably had no basis in reality? By looking at such an extravagant type of ancestral claim, this chapter shows the limits of the notions that the first chapters of this book have put forward. It analyses whether expectations and traditions constrained the flexibility with which invented ancestors became part of imperial imagery, and the importance of precedents. Since invented claims of imperial descent became more common in the later Empire, the focus of this chapter is on the third and fourth centuries, with attention on Constantine, Christian ancestral claims, and Late-Antique nomenclature.

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