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Empires still attract increased attention, both in the scholarly world and from an interested public audience. However, the term empire has remained ambiguous and there is still a vigorous debate on how to use and apply the term in various historical contexts and periods. The 13 contributions of this volume attempt to establish a more precise characterization of the notion of empire by focusing on the specific phenomenon of Short-Term Empires from different perspectives. They encompass a broad chronological and territorial range that deal with the topic from Central Asia to Great Britain, from the 5th c. BCE to the 19th. c. CE. By employing a cross-cultural and comparative approach, the papers of this volume enrich and stimulate the ongoing debate about empires in world history and their fundamental determinants.
List of contents
Empire a never-ending story.- Owls and Triremes: The Rise and Fall of the 5th c. Athenian (short-term) Empire.- The Perils and Limits of Empire: Alexander III in India.- Philip III Arrhidaios and Alexander s Generals.- The Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom: a short-term Empire?.- The Empire of Tigran the Great of Armenia (1st c. BCE).- Sextus Pompeius, imperator and rebel: Power and rule in the res publica of the 1st c. BCE.- Zenobia s State: a short-term Empire in a long-term Empire?.- The Reign of the Macriani: An Embryonic Empire ?.-Kingdoms of the Empire.- A Place in N mr z: the Imperial Saffarids in the Late 9th c. CE.- The Angevin Empire 1154 1214 a short-term Empire?.- Ahmad ah Durrani: Empire-Founder or Unwitting Emperor-Maker?.- The Manghit Khanate of Bukhara.- Index.
About the author
Robert Rollinger
is Professor of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck. His main research areas are the history of the Ancient Near East and the Achaemenid Empire, contacts between the Aegean World and the Ancient Near East, ancient historiography, and the comparative history of empires.
Florian Posselt
is doing his PhD in the field of Ancient History and Classical Studies at the Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck. His thesis addresses the origin of the ancient continental division into Europe, Asia and Africa. His research thematizes mental mapping and spatial perception in Antiquity, cultural contacts between the Ancient Near Eastern and the Classical World, Ancient Near Eastern royal inscriptions, Greek historiography and the history of research of Ancient Geography.
Hilmar Klinkott
is Professor of Ancient History at the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel. His main research areas are the history of the Achaemenid Empire, in particular the political and cultural exchange with the Eastern Mediterranean, the Hellenistic monarchies and Republican Rome.
Kai Ruffing
is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Kassel. His main research interests are the economic and social history of the ancient world, the contacts between the Mediterranean world and the ancient Near East, the ancient historiography and the history of the reception of the ancient world.
Summary
Empires still attract increased attention, both in the scholarly world and from an interested public audience. However, the term ʻempireʼ has remained ambiguous and there is still a vigorous debate on how to use and apply the term in various historical contexts and periods. The 13 contributions of this volume attempt to establish a more precise characterization of the notion of ‘empire’ by focusing on the specific phenomenon of ‘Short-Term Empires’ from different perspectives. They encompass a broad chronological and territorial range that deal with the topic from Central Asia to Great Britain, from the 5
th
c. BCE to the 19
th
. c. CE. By employing a cross-cultural and comparative approach, the papers of this volume enrich and stimulate the ongoing debate about empires in world history and their fundamental determinants.
