Consortium Imperii

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Consortium imperii is a Latin term dating from the Roman Dominate, denoting the sharing of imperial authority between two or more emperors, each hence designated as consors imperii, i.e. "partner in imperium", either as formal equals or in subordination; the junior is then often the senior's designated heir-not necessarily the natural one-and successor. The purpose can be either to share the burden of government and/or to ensure smooth succession, as rivalry at these moments was a major threat to the stability of the Empire, but the net result was often more civil war. Although in political reality adoption was an alternative technique to aim for the same result in terms of succession, constitutionally, this was a horror as the republic had never been abandoned in law, so monarchical succession in the Principate, however realistic, was officially out of the question, regardless of the trappings during the Dominate; designation could at least be justified by qualitative criteria