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Notes on Contributors. <p>Series Editor's Preface.</p> <p>1 Introduction (<i>Johann P. Arnason</i>).</p> <p><b>Part I Expansion and Transformation.</b></p> <p>2 From City-State to Empire: Rome in Comparative Perspective (<i>Kurt A. Raaflaub</i>).</p> <p>3 The Transition from Republic to Principate: Loss of Legitimacy, Revolution, and Acceptance (<i>Egon Flaig</i>).</p> <p>4 Strong and Weak Regimes: Comparing the Roman Principate and the Medieval Crown of Aragon (<i>D. A. Cohen and J. E. Lendon</i>).</p> <p><b>Part II Late Antiquity: Division, Transformation, and Continuity.</b></p> <p>5 The Background to the Third-Century Crisis of the Roman Empire (<i>Adam Ziolkowski</i>).</p> <p>6 The End of Sacrifice: Religious Mutations of Late Antiquity (<i>Guy G. Stroumsa</i>).</p> <p>7 Contextualizing Late Antiquity: The First Millennium (<i>Garth Fowden</i>).</p> <p><b>Part III Destinies of the Roman Legacy.</b></p> <p>8 The Franks: Rome’s Heirs in the West (<i>Matthias Becher</i>).</p> <p>9 The End of Rome? The Transformation of the Eastern Empire in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries CE (<i>John Haldon</i>).</p> <p>10 The First Islamic Empire (<i>Chase F. Robinson</i>).</p> <p><b>Part IV Comparative Perspectives.</b></p> <p>11 From City-State to Empire: The Case of Assyria (<i>Mario Liverani</i>).</p> <p>12 China’s Early Empires: The Authority and Means of Government (<i>Michael Loewe</i>).</p> <p>13 The Legs of the Throne: Kings, Elites, and Subjects in Sasanian Iran (<i>Scott McDonough</i>).</p> <p>14 The King of Kings: Universal Hegemony, Imperial Power, and a New Comparative History of Rome (<i>Peter Fibiger Bang</i>).</p> <p><b>Part V Conceptual and Theoretical Reflections.</b></p> <p>15 The Roman Phenomenon: State, Empire, and Civilization (<i>Johann P. Arnason</i>).</p> <p>16 Roman–European Continuities: Conceptual and Historical Questions (<i>Peter Wagner</i>).</p> <p>General Index.</p> <p>Index of Sources (selective).</p>

"Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty." (Choice, 1 November 2011)

<b>Johann P. Arnason</b> is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and Visiting Professor at the Charles University in Prague. His recent publications include <i>Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions</i> (2003); <i>Axial Civilizations and World History</i> (co-ed., 2005); <i>Eurasian Transformations, 10th to 13th Centuries: Crystallizations, Divergences, Renaissances</i> (co-ed., 2005), and <i>Domains and Divisions of European History</i> (co-ed., 2010)<br /> <br /> <b>Kurt A. Raaflaub</b> 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. Recent publications include <i>The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece</i> (2004, winner of the American Historical Association’s James Henry Breasted Prize), <i>War and Peace in the Ancient World</i> (ed., 2007); <i>Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece</i> (co-author, 2007); <i>A Companion to Archaic Greece</i> (co-ed., 2009); and <i>Epic and History</i> (co-ed., 2010).

“A challengingly unfamiliar examination of the Roman Empire in context – forwards, backwards, sideways and through the looking glass – by an intriguing assemblage of scholars. A remarkable and thought-provoking collection.” <p>“<i>The Roman Empire in Context</i> is a stimulating collection of essays of comparative history, ranging widely over time and space and informed conceptually by an engagement with theoretical literature on government and Empire.”</p> <p>“This is a wide ranging volume that achieves a genuinely comparative perspective. The editors have been uniquely successful in bringing together papers that complement each other across time and space. This is a book that should interest anyone with a serious interest in how we might learn from the experience of those who have gone before us.” </p>

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