The Rise and Fall of the Roman and Early Chinese Empires
Two thousand years ago, the Old World of civilization underwent its first imperial age. The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty of imperial China coexisted with Parthia and Kushan, spanning the mid-latitude of Eurasia and northern Africa. The four empires maintained certain world order and stimulated the rise of transcontinental trade later known as the Silk Road. However, the Roman Empire and Han China never established direct relationship because of the great distance and rival powers between them. Individual histories for each abounded, but until recently, few attempts existed to compare the two.
Two thousand years ago, the Old World of civilization underwent its first imperial age. The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty of imperial China coexisted with Parthia and Kushan, spanning the mid-latitude of Eurasia and northern Africa. The four empires maintained certain world order and stimulated the rise of transcontinental trade later known as the Silk Road. However, the Roman Empire and Han China never established direct relationship because of the great distance and rival powers between them. Individual histories for each abounded, but until recently, few attempts existed to compare the two.
It would be frivolous for historians to speculate what would happen if Eurasia were smaller and the Romans found beyond their eastern frontier not Parthia but China. Yet as the New World expands the political horizon, new technologies contract effective political distances even more. In view of contemporary global power balance, comparison takes on new significance. At the formative periods of the western and eastern styles of exercising imperial power, the ancient empires left rich and influential legacies. China pulled through numerous fragmentations and invasions, and remains a unified nation. The Roman Empire did not recover from its fall, but its will to power and many ideas have become "cultural genes" of western culture. The United States is sometimes called a "New Rome". In the global village, the heirs to the ancient empires must interact closely, and for that, to know each other, including their traditional roots. What were the characteristics, the respective strengths and weaknesses of the ancient superpowers of the east and west?
|
Read the following sections and answer the questions that follow the readings