简介：
    Two thousand years ago, up to one-half of the human species was contained within two political systems, the Roman empire in western Eurasia (centered on the Mediterranean Sea) and the Han empire in eastern Eurasia (centered on the great North China Plain). Both empires were broadly comparable in terms of size and population, and even largely coextensive in chronological terms (221 BCE to 220 CE for the Qin/Han empire, c. 200 BCE to 395 CE for the unified Roman empire). At the most basic level of resolution, the circumstances of their creation are not very different. In the East, the Shang and Western Zhou periods created a shared cultural framework for the Warring States, with the gradual consolidation of numerous small polities into a handful of large kingdoms which were finally united by the westernmost marcher state of Qin. In the Mediterranean, we can observe comparable political fragmentation and gradual expansion of a unifying civilization, Greek in this case, followed by the gradual formation of a handful of major warring states (the Hellenistic kingdoms in the east, Rome-Italy, Syracuse and Carthage in the west), and likewise eventual unification by the westernmost marcher state, the Roman-led Italian confederation. Subsequent destabilization occurred again in strikingly similar ways: both empires came to be divided into two halves, one that contained the original core but was more exposed to the main barbarian periphery (the west in the Roman case, the north in China), and a traditionalist half in the east (Rome) and south (China).

    These processes of initial convergence and subsequent divergence in Eurasian state formation have never been the object of systematic comparative analysis. This volume, which brings together experts in the history of the ancient Mediterranean and early China, makes a first step in this direction, by presenting a series of comparative case studies on clearly defined aspects of state formation in early eastern and western Eurasia, focusing on the process of initial developmental convergence. It includes a general introduction that makes the case for a comparative approach; a broad sketch of the character of state formation in western and eastern Eurasia during the final millennium of antiquity; and six thematically connected case studies of particularly salient aspects of this process.

关键词：
    great convergence, banliang coins, wuzhu coins, Roman Empire, Western Han, Wang Mang

书评：
    "The book is an admmirable demonstration of the great potential that lies in comparative analysis of the Greco-Roman world and Ancient China. It is hoped that this book will form the basis for more, exciting, comparative research, which will surely broaden the horizons of Ancient history beyond its current compartmentalization and excessive departmentalization."

--Bryn Mawr Classical Review

作者简介：
    Walter Scheidel is Professor of Classics and History, Stanford University.

目录：
    Acknowledgments
    List of maps, figures, and tables
    Notes on contributors
    Chronology
    Maps
    Introduction , Walter Scheidel
    1. From the "Great Convergence" to the "First Great Divergence:" Roman and Qin Han State Formation and its Aftermath , Walter Scheidel
    2. War, State Formation, and the Evolution of Military Institutions in Ancient China and Rome , Nathan Rosenstein
    3. Law and Punishment in the Formation of Empire , Karen Turner
    4. Eunuchs, Women, and Imperial Courts , Maria Dettenhofer
    5. Commanding and Consuming the World: Empire, Tribute, and Trade in Roman and Chinese History , Peter Fibiger Bang
    6. Gift Circulation and Charity in the Han and Roman Empires , Mark Edward Lewis
    7. The Monetary Systems of the Han and Roman Empires , Walter Scheidel
    Bibliography
    Index

    分类: Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Asian history; European history
    ISBN-10: 0195336909
    ISBN-13: 978-0195336900
    书名:Rome and China
    副书名:Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires
    丛书名:Oxford Studies in Early Empires
    作者:Scheidel, Walter
    装帧:Hardback
    出版社:Oxford University Press, USA
    页数:256
    出版日期:February 5, 2009
    语言：English

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http://books.google.com/books?id=Fz8I3INERwsC&dq=Rome+and+China:+Comparative+Perspectives+on+Ancient+World+Empires&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=h2-z6kobah&sig=hhp4G3V5p2mR683OMtbB9fivR0Y&hl=en&ei=RwkfS4ysIdegkQWWwuHbCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

http://www.stanford.edu/~scheidel/acme.htm