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ROME AND CHINA
 OXFORD STUDIES IN EARLY EMPIRES

Series Editors
Nicola Di Cosmo, Mark Edward Lewis, and Walter Scheidel

The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium

Edited by Ian Morris and Walter Scheidel

Rome and China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires

Edited by Walter Scheidel
 Rome and China
Comparative Perspectives on
Ancient World Empires

Edited by
Walter Scheidel

1 2009
1
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
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Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.

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www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rome and China : comparative perspectives on ancient world empires /
edited by Walter Scheidel.
p. cm.—(Oxford studies in early empires)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-533690-0
1. History, Ancient—Historiography. 2. History—Methodology. 3. Rome—History—
Republic, 265–30 b.c. 4. Rome—History—Empire, 30 b.c.–284 a.d. 5. China—History—
Han dynasty, 202 b.c.–220 a.d. 6. Imperialism—History I. Scheidel, Walter, 1966–
D56.R65 2009
931'.04—dc22 2008020445

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
 Acknowledgments

F ive of the seven chapters in this volume grew out of contributions to

the international conference “Institutions of Empire: Comparative Perspectives
on Ancient Chinese and Mediterranean History” that was held at Stanford Uni-
versity on May 13–14, 2005, under the auspices of the “Stanford Ancient Chinese
and Mediterranean Empires Comparative History Project.” It is a great pleasure
to thank our generous Stanford sponsors, above all the Social Science History
Institute and its director, Steve Haber, as well as the Department of Classics
and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. I would also like to
acknowledge the support of my co-organizers Mark Lewis and Joe Manning. Lai
Ming-Chiu, Luuk de Ligt, Joe Manning, David Schaberg, Robin Yates, and Zhao
Dingxin presented papers that are not included in this collection but greatly
enriched our discussion. Finally, thanks are due to Stefan Vranka of Oxford Uni-
versity Press for his interest in this project, to Brian Hurley for his assistance, and
to Gwen Colvin for her work on this volume.
This page intentionally left blank
 Contents

Contributors ix
Chronology xi

Introduction 3
Walter Scheidel

1 From the “Great Convergence” to the “First Great Divergence”:

Roman and Qin-Han State Formation and Its Aftermath 11
Walter Scheidel

2 War, State Formation, and the Evolution of Military Institutions

in Ancient China and Rome 24
Nathan Rosenstein

3 Law and Punishment in the Formation of Empire 52

Karen Turner

4 Eunuchs, Women, and Imperial Courts 83

Maria H. Dettenhofer

5 Commanding and Consuming the World: Empire, Tribute, and Trade

in Roman and Chinese History 100
Peter Fibiger Bang
viii Contents

6 Gift Circulation and Charity in the Han and Roman Empires 121
Mark Edward Lewis

7 The Monetary Systems of the Han and Roman Empires 137

Walter Scheidel

Bibliography 209
Index 229
 Contributors

Peter Fibiger Bang is Associate Professor of History at the University of Copen-

hagen. His research focuses on the comparative economic history and political
economy of early empires. He is the author of Roman Bazaar: A Comparative
Study of Trade and Markets in a Tributary Empire (2008) and is working on a
comparative study of the Roman state and patrimonial government. He has also
published a number of articles on the comparative history of early empires and
is the coeditor of the forthcoming Empires in Contention (with Chris Bayly) and
The Oxford Handbook of the Ancient State (with Walter Scheidel). He chairs the
management committee of the European research network “Tributary Empires
Compared” that coordinates comparative study of the Roman, Mughal, and
Ottoman empires.
Maria H. Dettenhofer is Professor of Ancient History at the University
of Munich. Her research focuses on Roman political and court history, gender,
and the comparative history of Rome and Han China. She is the author of Per-
dita Iuventus: Zwischen den Generationen von Caesar und Augustus (1992) and
Herrschaft und Widerstand im augusteischen Principat: Die Konkurrenz zwischen
res publica und domus Augusta (2000) and the editor of Reine Männersache:
Frauen in Männerdomänen der antiken Welt (1994).
Mark Edward Lewis is Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in Chinese Culture at Stan-
ford University. He specializes in the history of ancient China and is the author
of Sanctioned Violence in Early China (1990), Writing and Authority in Early
China (1999), The Construction of Space in Early China (2006), and The Flood
Myths of Early China (2006). He has recently completed a series of three books
on the history of early Chinese empires, The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han
(2007), Between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties (in press), and a
forthcoming sequel on the Tang period.
Nathan Rosenstein is Professor of History at Ohio State University. He
specializes in Roman military, political, and social history, and is the author of
Imperatores Victi: Military Defeat and Aristocratic Competition in the Middle and
x Contributors

Late Republic (1990) and Rome at War: Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle
Republic (2004), and coeditor of War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval
Worlds (1999, with Kurt Raaflaub) and A Companion to the Roman Republic
(2006, with Robert Morstein-Marx).
Walter Scheidel is Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, History at
Stanford University. His research focuses on ancient social and economic history,
premodern historical demography, and comparative and transdisciplinary world
history. He has authored or (co)edited nine other books, including Measuring
Sex, Age, and Death in the Roman Empire (1996), Death on the Nile: Disease and
the Demography of Roman Egypt (2001), Debating Roman Demography (2001),
The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (2007, with Ian
Morris and Richard Saller), and The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power
from Assyria to Byzantium (2008, with Ian Morris). He is currently editing The
Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, The Oxford Handbook of Roman
Studies (with Alessandro Barchiesi), and The Oxford Handbook of the Ancient
State (with Peter Bang), and working on monographs on ancient empires and
ancient demography.
Karen Turner is the Rev. John Brooks Chair in the Humanities and Profes-
sor of History at the College of the Holy Cross. Her work focuses on comparative
law, Chinese legal history, Vietnamese history, law and human rights in Asia, and
women and war. Her publications include Even the Women Must Fight: Memories
of War from North Vietnam (1998) and The Limits of the Rule of Law in China
(2000), as well as numerous articles on comparative legal history, women and
war, and women veterans in Vietnam. She produced and directed the documen-
tary film Hidden Warriors: Voices from the Ho Chi Minh Trail and is currently
working on a book on the origins of law in China.
Chronology

China

c.1600–c.1045 b.c.e. Shang Dynasty

c.1045–771 b.c.e. Western Zhou Dynasty
897 b.c.e. Enfeoffment of Qin Ying (conventional date)
770–256 b.c.e. Eastern Zhou Dynasty
770–481 b.c.e. Spring and Autumn Period
770 b.c.e. Ennoblement of Qin Xiang
551–479 b.c.e. Life of Kong Fuzi (Confucius)
(conventional dates)
403–221 b.c.e. Warring States Period
361–338 b.c.e. Reforms of Shang Yang in Qin
316 b.c.e. Qin conquest of Sichuan
247–210 b.c.e. Reign of King Zheng of Qin (221–210 b.c.e. as
Qin Shi Huangdi)
230–221 b.c.e. Qin conquest of the other Warring States
221–206 b.c.e. Qin Dynasty
206 b.c.e.–9 c.e. Western Han Dynasty
141–87 b.c.e. Reign of Han Wudi
9–25 c.e. Xin Dynasty (reign of Wang Mang until 23 c.e.)
25–220 c.e. Eastern Han Dynasty
220–589 c.e. Period of Disunion (Six Dynasties Period)
220–265 c.e. Three Kingdoms Period
265–316 c.e. Western Jin Dynasty
304–439 c.e. Sixteen Kingdoms Period
386–534 c.e. Northern Wei Dynasty
535–581 c.e. Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties
581–618 c.e. Sui Dynasty
589 c.e. Sui conquest of southern China
xii Chronology

618–907 c.e. Tang Dynasty

907–960 c.e. Five Kingdoms Period
960–1276 c.e. Song Dynasty
960–1126 c.e. Northern Song Period
1127–1276 c.e. Southern Song Period
1271–1368 c.e. Yuan Dynasty (Mongols)
1368–1644 c.e. Ming Dynasty
1644–1911 c.e. Qing Dynasty (Manchu)

Rome

753 b.c.e. Foundation of Rome (conventional date)

753–510 b.c.e. Roman regal period (conventional dates)
c.650–600 b.c.e. Emergence of Latin city-state culture
509–27 b.c.e. Roman Republic (conventional dates)
396 b.c.e. Conquest of Veii (conventional date)
338 b.c.e. Full control over Latium
326–272 b.c.e. Wars of conquest in peninsular Italy
264–146 b.c.e. Wars against Carthage
215–168 b.c.e. Wars against Macedon
192–188 b.c.e. War against the Seleucid Empire
206–133 b.c.e. Conquest of Iberian Peninsula
133–30 b.c.e. Period of civil wars
91–89 b.c.e. Social War against Italian allies
88–64 C.E. Wars against Pontus and Armenia
58–51 b.c.e. Conquest of Gaul
48–44 b.c.e. Dictatorship of Julius Caesar
43–32 b.c.e. Second Triumvirate
27 b.c.e. Formal restoration of the Republic
27 b.c.e.–235 c.e. Principate (early imperial monarchy)
27 b.c.e.–14 c.e. Reign of Augustus
235–284 c.e. Period of the Soldier Emperors
284–305 c.e. Reign of Diocletian
284–602/641 c.e. Later Roman Empire
306–337 c.e. Reign of Constantine
313 c.e. Formal toleration and beginning of state
support for Christianity
325 c.e. Council of Nicaea
330 c.e. Establishment of Constantinople
391 c.e. Ban of pagan temples and sacrifices
395 c.e. Final separation of the eastern and western
halves of the empire
 Chronology xiii

410 c.e. Sack of Rome by the Goths

476/480 c.e. Termination of the Western Roman Empire
527–565 c.e. Reign of Justinian
534–554 c.e. East Roman wars of reconquest in the western
Mediterranean
602–628 c.e. War against the Sasanid Empire (Persia)
634–718 c.e. Arab invasions
800 c.e. Charlemagne crowned Roman Emperor
962 c.e. Otto I crowned Roman Emperor
1204 c.e. Crusader conquest of Constantinople
1453 c.e. Turkish conquest of Constantinople
1806 c.e. Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of
German Nation
1870 c.e. End of the Papal State
Map 1. The Roman Empire (c. 200 c.e.)
Map 2. The Han Empire (c. 2 c.e.)
This page intentionally left blank
ROME AND CHINA
This page intentionally left blank
 Introduction
Walter Scheidel

T
he “History of the Later Han Dynasty” reports the customs of Da
Qin, or “Greater China,” a distant realm near the western ends of the earth. Its
inhabitants were tall and shaved their heads, wore embroidered clothes, and
planted silkworm mulberry trees. Their ruler occupied five palaces whose col-
umns were made of crystal glass. Wary of natural disasters that would require him
to step down and be replaced by someone else, he was known to honor this con-
vention without complaint. That these features bear no discernible resemblance
to the Roman Empire as we know it may well have something to do with the fact
that access to this remote place was inconveniently blocked by “many lions and
ferocious tigers which intercept and harm travelers: if the party does not include
over a hundred men furnished with arms, they are invariably devoured.”1 Roman
observers faced a similar predicament: for them, the easternmost reaches of Asia
were “not easy of access; few men come from there, and seldom.” This made it
difficult to visit the Seres or “Silk-People,” atheists who lived for more than two
hundred years, occupied themselves with scraping silk from trees, were fierce
and warlike as well as gentle and peaceful, sported blue eyes and flaxen hair, and
never talked to strangers.2

1. Hou Hanshu 88d, translated by Leslie and Gardiner 1996: 47–52. (The work itself dates from the fifth cen-
tury c.e. but processes information from the first three centuries c.e.) The final observation seems to pertain to
the route to Da Qin rather than the country itself: ibid. 52, n.89. For the probable meaning of the term “Da Qin,”
see ibid. 232. Leslie and Gardiner 1996 is now the most comprehensive collection and detailed discussion of the
relevant sources, superseding Hirth 1885.
2. Difficult access: Circumnavigation of the Erythrean Sea 64 (first century c.e.); atheists: Kelsos in Origenes,
Against Kelsos 7.62–3 (second century c.e.); longevity: Strabo, Geography 15.37 (first century c.e.); silk trees: Pliny
the Elder, Natural History 6.53 (first century c.e.; Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.26.6–9, from the second century
c.e., is the earliest extant source to ascribe silk production to an animal source, a “silk insect”); fierce and warlike:
Avienus, Description of the World 935 (fourth century c.e.); gentle and peaceful: Pliny 6.54; physical appearance (for
which cf. Liebermann 1957) and silence: ibid. 6.88. For collections of relevant references, see esp. Coedès 1910; Dihle
1984; Leslie and Gardiner 1996: 121–27. Dihle 203–4 rightly stresses the topical nature of many of these alleged attri-
butes. Faint traces of factual information about the Chinese state may not have become available in the west until the
seventh century c.e.: see Theophylactus Simocatta, Histories 7.9.2.2–11, with Boodberg 1938: 223–43.


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