The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives

A challengingly unfamiliar examination of the Roman Empirein context forwards, backwards, sideways and through thelooking glass by an intriguing assemblage of scholars. Aremarkable and thought–provoking collection.

The Roman Empire in Context is a stimulatingcollection of essays of comparative history, ranging widely overtime and space and informed conceptually by an engagement withtheoretical literature on government and Empire.

This is a wide ranging volume that achieves a genuinelycomparative perspective. The editors have been uniquely successfulin bringing together papers that complement each other across timeand space. This is a book that should interest anyone with aserious interest in how we might learn from the experience of thosewho have gone before us.  

Notes on Contributors.

Series Editor′s Preface.

1 Introduction (Johann P. Arnason).

Part I Expansion and Transformation.

2 From City–State to Empire: Rome in Comparative Perspective(Kurt A. Raaflaub).

3 The Transition from Republic to Principate: Loss ofLegitimacy, Revolution, and Acceptance (Egon Flaig).

4 Strong and Weak Regimes: Comparing the Roman Principate andthe Medieval Crown of Aragon (D. A. Cohen and J. E.Lendon).

Part II Late Antiquity: Division, Transformation, andContinuity.

5 The Background to the Third–Century Crisis of the Roman Empire(Adam Ziolkowski).

6 The End of Sacrifice: Religious Mutations of Late Antiquity(Guy G. Stroumsa).

7 Contextualizing Late Antiquity: The First Millennium (GarthFowden).

Part III Destinies of the Roman Legacy.

8 The Franks: Rome s Heirs in the West (MatthiasBecher).

9 The End of Rome? The Transformation of the Eastern Empire inthe Seventh and Eighth Centuries CE (John Haldon).

10 The First Islamic Empire (Chase F. Robinson).

Part IV Comparative Perspectives.

11 From City–State to Empire: The Case of Assyria (MarioLiverani).

12 China s Early Empires: The Authority and Means ofGovernment (Michael Loewe).

13 The Legs of the Throne: Kings, Elites, and Subjects inSasanian Iran (Scott McDonough).

14 The King of Kings: Universal Hegemony, Imperial Power, and aNew Comparative History of Rome (Peter Fibiger Bang).

Part V Conceptual and Theoretical Reflections.

15 The Roman Phenomenon: State, Empire, and Civilization(Johann P. Arnason).

16 Roman European Continuities: Conceptual and HistoricalQuestions (Peter Wagner).

General Index.

Index of Sources (selective).

Johann P. Arnason is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and Visiting Professor atthe Charles University in Prague. His recent publications include Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and TheoreticalTraditions (2003); Axial Civilizations and World History(co–ed., 2005); Eurasian Transformations, 10th to 13thCenturies: Crystallizations, Divergences, Renaissances (co–ed.,2005), and Domains and Divisions of European History(co–ed., 2010)

Kurt A. Raaflaub is David Herlihy University Professor andProfessor of Classics and History Emeritus at Brown University,where he was also Director of the Program in Ancient Studies.Recent publications include The Discovery of Freedom in AncientGreece (2004, winner of the American HistoricalAssociation s James Henry Breasted Prize), War and Peacein the Ancient World (ed., 2007); Origins of Democracy inAncient Greece (co–author, 2007); A Companion to ArchaicGreece (co–ed., 2009); and  Epic and History(co–ed., 2010).

"Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty." (Choice, 1 November 2011)