Conceiving the Empire: China and Rome Compared

The essays in Conceiving the Empire explore the mental images, ideas, and symbolical representations of 'empire' which developed in the two most powerful political entities of antiquity: China and Rome. While the central focus is on historiography, other related fields are also explored: geography and cartography, epigraphy, art and architecture, and, more generally, political thought and the history of ideas. Written by a collaborative team of experts in Sinology and Classical Studies, the volume focuses the attention of the emerging discipline of East-West cross-cultural studies on an essential feature of the ancient Mediterranean and Chinese worlds: the emergence of 'empire' and the enduring influence of the 'imperial' order.