O/rd U,..ty P.ess | 0195336909 | 2009 | PDF | 257 pages | 3 MB
Two thousand years ago, up to one-half of the human species was contained within two political systems, the Roman empire in western Eurasia (centered on the Mediterranean Sea) and the Han empire in eastern Eurasia (centered on the great North China Plain). Both empires
were broadly comparable in terms of size and population, and even
largely coextensive in chronological terms (221 BCE to 220 CE for the
Qin/Han empire, c. 200 BCE to 395 CE for the unified Roman empire). At
the most basic level of resolution, the circumstances of their creation
are not very different. In the East, the Shang and Western Zhou periods
created a shared cultural framework for the Warring States, with the
gradual consolidation of numerous small polities into a handful of large
kingdoms which were finally united by the westernmost marcher state of
Qin. In the Mediterranean, we can observe comparable political
fragmentation and gradual expansion of a unifying civilization, Greek in
this case, followed by the gradual formation of a handful of major
warring states (the Hellenistic kingdoms in the east, Rome-Italy, Syracuse and Carthage in the west), and likewise eventual unification by the westernmost marcher state, the Roman-led Italian confederation. Subsequent destabilization occurred again in strikingly similar ways: both empires
came to be divided into two halves, one that contained the original
core but was more exposed to the main barbarian periphery (the west in the Roman case, the north in China), and a traditionalist half in the east (Rome) and south (China). These processes of initial
convergence and subsequent divergence in Eurasian state formation have
never been the object of systematic comparative analysis. This volume,
which brings together experts in the history of the ancient Mediterranean
and early China, makes a first step in this direction, by presenting a
series of comparative case studies on clearly defined aspects of state
formation in early eastern and western Eurasia, focusing on the process
of initial developmental convergence. It includes a general introduction that makes the case
for a comparative approach; a broad sketch of the character of state
formation in western and eastern Eurasia during the final millennium of
antiquity; and six thematically connected case studies of particularly
salient aspects of this process.
