Pioneer Kingdoms of Macedon and Qin - A Triumph of the Periphery

The Pioneer Kingdoms of Macedon and Qin critically compares the cultures of Ancient Greece and Early China in the first millennium BC through following the histories of two of its peripheral cases: Argead Macedon and Qin. Emerging from being fringe states to producing Alexander the Great and the First Emperor of China, then rapidly collapsing, these polities had a unique parallel historical experience, though vastly separated by the political developments brought on by the unique features of Greek and Zhou culture within which they operated. Jordan Thomas Christopher undertakes a holistic comparison of these states from their earliest origins through to the reigns of Alexander the Great and the First Emperor, which receive an extended and multi-layered analysis. He thereby highlights the particularities of Greek and Zhou cultures that often go underappreciated as causal factors in history.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Pioneer kingdoms: the histories of Macedon and Qin; 2. Basileus and Wang: (in)disputable mastery; 3. Court and country: elites and the military; 4. Man and machine: Philip, Alexander and Ying Zheng; Epilogue: 'Great Men,' contextualized and compared.

About the author

JORDAN THOMAS CHRISTOPHER is a Lecturer in the Department of Classics and Archaeology at Loyola Marymount University.

Product details

• Authors: Jordan Thomas Christopher, Jordan Thomas (Loyola Marymount Unive Christopher
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 05.06.2025
• EAN: 9781009534895
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0953489-5
• No. of pages: 300
• Series: Antiquity in Global Context
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; HISTORY / Ancient / General, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, Macedonia, Ancient History, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, c 1000 BCE to start of CE period