Rome and China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires (Oxford Studies in Early Empires)

257 Pages·2009·1.04 MB·English

by  Walter Scheidel

ROME AND CHINA
OXFORD STUDIES IN EARLY EMPIRES
Series Editors
Nicola Di Cosmo, Mark Edward Lewis, and Walter Scheidel
The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium
Edited by Ian Morris and Walter Scheidel
Rome and China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires
Edited by Walter Scheidel
Rome and China
Comparative Perspectives on
Ancient World Empires
Edited by
Walter Scheidel
1
2009
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rome and China : comparative perspectives on ancient world empires /
edited by Walter Scheidel.
p. cm.—(Oxford studies in early empires)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-533690-0
1. History, Ancient—Historiography. 2. History—Methodology. 3. Rome—History—
Republic, 265–30 b.c. 4. Rome—History—Empire, 30 b.c.–284a.d. 5. China—History—
Han dynasty, 202 b.c.–220a.d. 6. Imperialism—History I. Scheidel, Walter, 1966–
D56.R65 2009
931'.04—dc22 2008020445
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Acknowledgments
F
ive of the seven chapters in this volume grew out of contributions to
the international conference “Institutions of Empire: Comparative Perspectives
on Ancient Chinese and Mediterranean History” that was held at Stanford Uni-
versity on May 13–14, 2005, under the auspices of the “Stanford Ancient Chinese
and Mediterranean Empires Comparative History Project.” It is a great pleasure
to thank our generous Stanford sponsors, above all the Social Science History
Institute and its director, Steve Haber, as well as the Department of Classics
and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. I would also like to
acknowledge the support of my co-organizers Mark Lewis and Joe Manning. Lai
Ming-Chiu, Luuk de Ligt, Joe Manning, David Schaberg, Robin Yates, and Zhao
Dingxin presented papers that are not included in this collection but greatly
enriched our discussion. Finally, thanks are due to Stefan Vranka of Oxford Uni-
versity Press for his interest in this project, to Brian Hurley for his assistance, and
to Gwen Colvin for her work on this volume.
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Contents
Contributors ix
Chronology xi
Introduction 3
Walter Scheidel
1 From the “Great Convergence” to the “First Great Divergence”:
Roman and Qin-Han State Formation and Its Aftermath 11
Walter Scheidel
2 War, State Formation, and the Evolution of Military Institutions
in Ancient China and Rome 24
Nathan Rosenstein
3 Law and Punishment in the Formation of Empire 52
Karen Turner
4 Eunuchs, Women, and Imperial Courts 83
Maria H. Dettenhofer
5 Commanding and Consuming the World: Empire, Tribute, and Trade
in Roman and Chinese History 100
Peter Fibiger Bang
viii Contents
6 Gift Circulation and Charity in the Han and Roman Empires 121
Mark Edward Lewis
7 The Monetary Systems of the Han and Roman Empires 137
Walter Scheidel
Bibliography 209
Index 229
Contributors
Peter Fibiger Bang is Associate Professor of History at the University of Copen-
hagen. His research focuses on the comparative economic history and political
economy of early empires. He is the author of Roman Bazaar: A Comparative
Study of Trade and Markets in a Tributary Empire (2008) and is working on a
comparative study of the Roman state and patrimonial government. He has also
published a number of articles on the comparative history of early empires and
is the coeditor of the forthcoming Empires in Contention (with Chris Bayly) and
The Oxford Handbook of the Ancient State (with Walter Scheidel). He chairs the
management committee of the European research network “Tributary Empires
Compared” that coordinates comparative study of the Roman, Mughal, and
Ottoman empires.
Maria H. Dettenhofer is Professor of Ancient History at the University
of Munich. Her research focuses on Roman political and court history, gender,
and the comparative history of Rome and Han China. She is the author of Per-
dita Iuventus: Zwischen den Generationen von Caesar und Augustus (1992) and
Herrschaft und Widerstand im augusteischen Principat: Die Konkurrenz zwischen
res publica und domus Augusta (2000) and the editor of Reine Männersache:
Frauen in Männerdomänen der antiken Welt (1994).
Mark Edward Lewis is Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in Chinese Culture at Stan-
ford University. He specializes in the history of ancient China and is the author
of Sanctioned Violence in Early China (1990), Writing and Authority in Early
China (1999), The Construction of Space in Early China (2006), and The Flood
Myths of Early China (2006). He has recently completed a series of three books
on the history of early Chinese empires, The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han
(2007), Between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties (in press), and a
forthcoming sequel on the Tang period.
Nathan Rosenstein is Professor of History at Ohio State University. He
specializes in Roman military, political, and social history, and is the author of
Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and