Everybody and their second cousin have been trying to call themselves the successors of the Romans, from the Byzantines to the Franks to the Ottomans to the Rus

Everybody and their second cousin have been trying to call themselves the successors of the Romans, from the Byzantines to the Franks to the Ottomans to the Russians to Mussolini. (Edit: and, of course, the Pope) But I think this is the first time I've heard it as a pejorative.