Chanyu 單于 or Huangdi 皇帝—Rex or Augustus: Royal and Imperial Titles in the Post-Roman West and Early Medieval China

The collapse of the Western Jin dynasty (265-316) in northern China and the dissolution of the Roman west (c. 476) saw the rise of multiple conquest states founded by military elites of foreign origin. In light of the different forms of titulature adopted by these regimes, this talk will discuss the ways in which these new states situated themselves along a spectrum of distinction from, and assimilation to, the respective imperial traditions.