Explores the creative potential of juxtaposing the cultural foundations of the Mediterranean world and ancient China. Embarking from the observation that Greek, Roman, and Han-Chinese societies were governed by comparable features, the contributors to this volume explain the dynamic interplay between political rulers and the ruled masses.
Situated on opposite flanks of Eurasia, ancient Mediterranean and Han-Chinese societies had a hazy understanding of each other's existence. But they had no grounded knowledge about one another, nor was there any form of direct interaction. In other words, their historical trajectories were independent. In recent years, however, many similarities between both cultures have been detected, which has energized the field of comparative history. The present volume adds to the debate a creative method of juxtaposing historical societies. Each contribution covers both ancient China and the Mediterranean in an accessible manner. Embarking from the observation that Greek, Roman, and Han-Chinese societies were governed by comparable features, the contributors to this volume explain the dynamic interplay between political rulers and the ruled masses in their culture specific manifestation as demos (Greece), populus (Rome) and min (China).
Recenzijas
'The essays highlight similarities between the manifestations of these topics and adduce specific circumstances that may explain the differences. Recommended.' S. M. Burstein, Choice Magazines ' a commendable example for those who will venture into comparative studies and will be of great interest to sinologists, classicists, and comparativists alike.' Mengzhen Yue, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Papildus informācija
A comparative study of the ancient Mediterranean and Han China, seen through the lens of political culture.
|
|
|
vii | |
|
|
|
viii | |
|
|
|
ix | |
|
|
|
x | |
| Preface |
|
xiii | |
| Chronology of the Ancient Mediterranean |
|
xvi | |
| Chronology of Ancient China |
|
xvii | |
|
Maps of Ancient China, Greece, and Rome |
|
|
xviii | |
| Introduction: The Many Faces of "the People" in the Ancient World: Sfiuos" --- populus --- min |
|
1 | (24) |
|
|
|
|
|
PART I AUTHORITY AND LIFESTYLES OF DISTINCTION |
|
|
|
1 Of Gold and Purple: Nobles in Western Han China and Republican Rome |
|
|
25 | (45) |
|
|
|
2 A Tale of Two Stones: Social Memory in Roman Greece and Han China |
|
|
70 | (32) |
|
|
|
|
|
3 Private Associations and Urban Experience in the Han and Roman Empires |
|
|
102 | (31) |
|
|
|
PART II THE PEOPLE AS AGENTS AND ADDRESSEES |
|
|
|
4 Rhetoric, Oratory and People in Ancient Rome and Early China |
|
|
133 | (23) |
|
|
|
5 Female Commoners and the Law in Early Imperial China: Evidence from Recently Recovered Documents with Some Comparisons with Classical Rome |
|
|
156 | (37) |
|
|
|
6 Registers of "the People" in Greece, Rome, and China |
|
|
193 | (32) |
|
|
|
7 Food Distribution for the People: Welfare, Food, and Feasts in Qin/Han China and in Rome |
|
|
225 | (44) |
|
|
|
PART III INVERSIONS OF THE PEOPLE: EMPERORS AND TYRANTS |
|
|
|
8 Augustus, the Roman Plebs and the Dictatorship: 22 BCE and Beyond |
|
|
269 | (31) |
|
|
|
9 Liberation as Burlesque: The Death of the Tyrant |
|
|
300 | (28) |
|
Garret Pagenstecher Olberding |
|
|
10 Historical Necessity or Biographical Singularity? Some Aspects in the Biographies of C. Iulius Caesar and Qin Shi Huangdi |
|
|
328 | (41) |
|
|
|
11 Employing Knowledge: A Case Study in Calendar Reforms in the Early Han and Roman Empires |
|
|
369 | (30) |
|
|
|
PART IV IDENTITIES AND "OTHERS" |
|
|
|
12 The Invention of the "Barbarian" and Ethnic Identity in Early Greece and China |
|
|
399 | (21) |
|
|
|
13 Ethnic Identity and the "Barbarian" in Classical Greece and Early China: Its Origins and Distinctive Features |
|
|
420 | (23) |
|
|
| Glossary |
|
443 | (7) |
| Index |
|
450 | |
Hans Beck is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Münster and Adjunct Professor at McGill University, Montréal. He has published widely in the field of ancient Mediterranean history, including Consuls and Res Publica (edited with Antonio Duplį, Martin Jehne and Francisco Pina Polo, Cambridge, 2011) and Federalism in Greek Antiquity (edited with Peter Funke, Cambridge, 2015). His recent work on localism in the pre-modern world, including Localism and the Ancient Greek City-State (2020), has garnered significant global attention. He has won the Anneliese Maier Award of the German Humboldt Foundation and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is a Co-Director, with Griet Vankeerberghen, of Global Antiquities, a research network dedicated to the study of ancient Greece, Rome, and China. Griet Vankeerberghen is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Classical Studies of McGill University, Montréal. She has published on several Western Han texts and their social, political and material contexts, including the Huainanzi, Shiji, and the Four Lost Classics. She co-edited Chang'an 26 BCE: An Augustan Age in China with Michael Nylan (2015). She is currently engaged in a research project on the nobles of Western Han, sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a Co-Director, with Hans Beck, of Global Antiquities, a research network dedicated to the study of ancient Greece, Rome, and China.
