While historians, sociologists, and political scientists have long recognized the importance of the Roman Empire, surprisingly little serious comparative analysis is available on this period in world history. The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives addresses this neglected area of study.

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

“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.” “The Roman Empire in Context 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.” “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.”