Notes on Contributors

Johann P. Arnason took his doctoral degree at the University of Frankfurt and later taught sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, where he is now Emeritus Professor. He is also Visiting Professor at the Charles University in Prague. His research has focused on historical sociology, with growing emphasis on the comparative analysis of civilizations. Recent publications include Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions (2003); Axial Civilizations and World History (co-edited, 2005); Eurasian Transformations, 10th to 13th Centuries: Crystallizations, Divergences, Renaissances (co-edited, 2005), and Domains and Divisions of European History (co-edited, 2010).

Peter Fibiger Bang holds a PhD from Cambridge and is an Associate Professor of Roman History in the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. His research has focused on the political economy of the Roman Empire, new comparative perspectives on the Greco-Roman world, state-formation, and the character of patrimonial power in tributary empires. In 2005–9 he was chair of a European research network dedicated to historical comparisons of the Roman, Mughal, and Ottoman empires. Besides edited volumes and articles, his publications include The Roman Bazaar: A Comparative Study of Trade and Markets in a Tributary Empire (2008). He is currently working on The Oxford Handbook of the Ancient State (co-edited, forthcoming).

Matthias Becher is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Bonn. He took his PhD at the University of Konstanz (1990) and his Habilitation at the University of Paderborn (1995). One of his main areas of research is the history of the Frankish kingdoms. He is author of Eid und Herrschaft. Untersuchungen zum Herrscherethos Karls des Großen (1993); Rex, Dux und Gens. Untersuchungen zur Entstehung des sächsischen Herzogtums im 9. und 10. Jahrhundert (1996); Karl der Große (1999; English translation, Charlemagne, 2003); and Merowinger und Karolinger (2009).

David A. Cohen, an historian of medieval Spain, has his degrees from Yale University and teaches history at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Egon Flaig has a PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin and Habilitation from the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. He is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Rostock. His main scholarly interests include the constitution of social norms in ancient societies, procedures to take collective decisions and the emergence of majority rule (on which he is currently completing a monograph), semiotic and ritual dimensions of ancient politics, slavery in comparative perspective, equality and inequality in political thought, and theocratic and anthroponomic foundations of political order. Some of his publications that are relevant to the present subject are Den Kaiser herausfordern. Die Usurpation im Römischen Reich (1992); “Entscheidung und Konsens. Zu den Feldern der politischen Kommunikation zwischen Aristokratie und Plebs,” in M. Jehne (ed.), Demokratie in Rom? Die Rolle des Volkes in der Politik der römischen Republik, 77–127 (1995); and Ritualisierte Politik. Zeichen, Gesten und Herrschaft im Alten Rom (2003).

Garth Fowden is a Research Professor at the Center for Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Research Foundation, Athens. His principal interest is in the intellectual history of the Graeco-Arabic world. He has published The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (1986; corr. repr. with new pref., 1993); Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity (1993); Qusayr ‘Amra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria (2004); and chapters in the new edition of The Cambridge Ancient History, vols. XII and XIII.

John Haldon is Professor of History at Princeton University. He studied in the UK, Greece, and Germany, and currently is a Senior Fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies in Washington, DC. His research focuses on the history of the early and middle Byzantine Empire, in particular the period from the seventh to the eleventh centuries; on state systems and structures across the European and Islamic worlds from late ancient to early modern times; and on the production, distribution, and consumption of resources in the late ancient and medieval world, especially in the context of warfare. His publications include Byzantium in the Seventh Century (1990/1997); Three Treatises on Byzantine Imperial Military Expeditions (1990); The State and the Tributary Mode of Production (1993); Warfare, State, and Society in Byzantium (1999); Byzantium: A History (2000); and The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History (2006).

J. E. Lendon has a PhD from Yale University and is Professor of History in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. He held a Junior Fellowship at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC, and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship in Germany. His interests focus on Greek and Roman foreign affairs and warfare. He is author of Empire of Honor: The Art of Government in the Roman World (1997) and Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity (2005, trans. into Italian and Spanish).

Mario Liverani is Professor of the History of the Ancient Near East at the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” He is honorary member of the American Oriental Society, member of the “Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei,” and of the “Academia Europaea,” and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Copenhagen and Madrid (Autonoma). He has excavated in Syria, Turkey, and Libya. His main research interests include the Assyrian Empire, Mesopotamian historiography, the Levant in the Amarna letters, and the ancient “oriental” city. Recent monographs include International Relations in the Ancient Near East (2001); Myth and Politics in Ancient Near Eastern Historiography (2004); Israel’s History and the History of Israel (2005); and Uruk: The First City (2006).

Michael Loewe received his PhD from the University of London. He was University Lecturer in Chinese Studies and Fellow of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge until his retirement in 1990. He has held various visiting professorships and is, among other distinctions, Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His publications include Divination, Mythology, and Monarchy in Han China (1994); A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Han, and Xin Dynasties (2000), with a Companion: The Men Who Governed Han China (2004); and The Government of the Qin and Han Empires 221 BCE –220 CE (2006). Among his several edited volumes is vol. I of The Cambridge History of China (1986).

Scott McDonough is an Assistant Professor of History at the William Paterson University of New Jersey. He received his PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (2005). His research interests lie in the social, institutional, and religious history of late ancient West Asia, especially pre-Islamic Iran. Recent articles include “A Second Constantine? The Sasanian King Yazdgard I in Christian History and Historiography” and “A Question of Faith? Persecution and Political Centralization in the Sasanian Empire of Yazdgard II (438–457 CE).” He is currently completing a monograph: “We Pray for Our Glorious King”: Power, Piety, and Patronage in Sasanian Iran, 220–651 CE.

Kurt A. Raaflaub received his PhD from the University of Basel. He is David Herlihy University Professor and Professor of Classics and History Emeritus at Brown University, where he was also Director of the Program in Ancient Studies. His research interests focus on the social, political, and intellectual history of archaic Greece and the Roman republic, war and peace in the ancient world, and the comparative history of the ancient world. Recent publications include The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (2004, winner of the American Historical Association’s James Henry Breasted Prize); War and Peace in the Ancient World (edited, 2007); Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece (co-author, 2007); A Companion to Archaic Greece (co-edited, 2009); Epic and History (co-edited, 2010).

Chase F. Robinson was Professor of Islamic History in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University and is now Provost and Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center, the City University of New York. He received his PhD from Harvard University. His main research areas are early Islamic history and historiography. His recent publications include Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest: The Transformation of Northern Mesopotamia (2000); A Medieval Islamic City Reconsidered: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Samarra (edited, 2001); Islamic Historiography (2003); ‘Abd al-Malik (2005).

Guy G. Stroumsa has a PhD from Harvard University and is Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University, and Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His current main research interests lie in the shaping of the Abrahamic religions in late antiquity and in the oriental traditions of wisdom in late antiquity. Recent publications include The End of Sacrifice: The Religious Transformations of Late Antiquity (2009), and A New Science: The Discovery of Religion in the Age of Reason (2010).

Peter Wagner received his PhD from the Freie Universität of Berlin. He has recently been appointed ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona. His main research interests are in social and political theory and in comparative historical sociology. In the latter area, he has had a particular interest in the long-run historical trajectories of societies. His recent book publications include Modernity as Experience and Interpretation (2008) and Varieties of World-Making: Beyond Globalization (co-edited, 2007).

Adam Ziolkowski was educated at the University of Warsaw, where he also got his PhD and Habilitation and is now Professor of Ancient History. His research interests include early Rome, the social and economic history of the republic, the topography of the city of Rome in antiquity, Roman imperialism, and early Christianity. He is the author, among other works, of Sacra Via Twenty Years After (2004) and Storia di Roma (2000).