Rome and the comparative study of tributary empires

Medieval History Journal

Volumn 6, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 189-216

  Bang, P F ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN   (Denmark)

^b University of Cambridge   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149627842     PISSN: 09719458     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/097194580300600202     Document Type: Article

References (136)

1. The fundamental critical edition of the text is J. Gagé, Res Gestae Divi Augusti, 2nd edn, Paris, 1950
2. On the Persian empire, including the reliefs from Persepolis, see A. Kuhrt, 'The Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-c. 330 BCE): Continuities, Adaptations, Transformations', in S. Alcock et al. (eds), Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History, Cambridge, 2001: 93-124
3. On the representation of Roman history in European culture and imperialism, see several of the contributions in Catharine Edwards (ed.), Roman Presences: Receptions of Rome in European Culture, 1789-1945, Cambridge, 1999
4. and R. Hingley, Roman Officers and English Gentlemen: The Imperial Origins of Roman Archaeology, London and New York, 2000
5. H.S. Maine, Ancient Law, Gloucester, 1861
6. Village Communities in the East and West, London, 1871
7. For an analysis of Maine, see R. Inden, Imagining India, Oxford, 1990
8. Th. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. 5, Berlin, 1885 treats the provinces
9. Other than Th. Mommsen, Römische Staatsrecht, 3rd edn, vol. 2(2), Leipzig, 1887: 760
10. one could point to A. von Premerstein, Wom Werden und Wesen des Prinzipats, Munich, 1937: 22 and 116
11. and today, E. Lo Cascio, Il Princeps e il suo impero. Studi di storia amministrativa e finanziaria romana, Bari, 2000: 16
12. The idea that the emperor monopolised patronage and eradicated other aristocratic client-retinues must be dropped. See R. Saller, Personal Patronage under the Early Empire, Cambridge, 1982
13. Peter Hermann, Der römische Kaisereid, Göttingen, 1968 criticised von Premerstein's view of the emperor's role as patron. He seems to me to go too far, though he valuably draws attention to the difference between a personal patron and the emperor's much more elevated ideological position as universal benefactor
14. Paul Veyne, Bread and Circuses, London, 1990: 346, based on Hermann, is much too rigorous in his dismissive view of von Premerstein
15. Syme, Roman Revolution, Oxford, 1939: 523. Syme's position, however, was complex, nuanced and very closely related to von Premerstein's, cf. 321-23
16. Brunt and Moore, Res Gestae 82-84 are more blunt in their dismissal of von Premerstein
17. E.g., J. Bleicken, Augustus, Berlin, 1997
18. See also the two more recent collections of essays published in honour of Syme's great work where several contributions reassert the importance of the republican ceremonial in the new order of things; Fergus Millar and Erich Segal (eds). Caesar Augustus. Seven Aspects, Oxford, 1984
19. Kurt A. Raaflaub and Mark Toher (eds), Between Republic and Empire, Berkeley, 1990
20. K. Barkey and M. von Hagen (eds), After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building, Boulder and Oxford, 1997, on the theme of the decline of empires in the modern world
21. For a critical discussion of Marx and the Asian mode of production, see the long appendix dedicated to this in P. Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State, London, 1974
22. and L.T. Fawaz and C.A. Bayly (eds), Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, New York, 2002
23. For some more general points, see A. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge, 1990
24. E. Gellner, Plough, Sword and Book, Chicago, 1988
25. J. Goody, The East in the West, Cambridge, 1996
26. See for instance, the vigorous debate between A.G. Frank, ReOrient, Berkeley, 1998
27. and David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, London, 1998
28. R. Bin Wong, China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience, Ithaca, 1997
29. and K. Pomeranz, The Great Divergence, Princeton, 2000
30. Cf. E. Said, Orientalism, 1978
31. and F. Perlin, 'The Invisible City': Monetary, Administrative and Popular Infrastructure in Asia and Europe 1500-1900, Aldershot, 1993
32. Other examples include S. Faroqhi, 'In Search of Ottoman History', Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 18 (3 and 4), 1991: 211-41
33. and H. Pleket, 'Wirtschaft', in F. Vittinghoff (ed.), Europäische Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte in der Römischen Kaiserzeit, Stuttgart, 1990: 25-160
34. L. Fawaz and C.A. Bayly, Consequences of Modernity: 19
35. H. Berktay, Three Empires and the Societies they Governed: Iran, India and the Ottoman Empire', Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 18(3 and 4). 1991: 242-63
36. M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb, London, 1966
37. and The Apparatus of Empire, Delhi, 1985
38. S. Moosvi, The Economy of the Mughal Empire: A Statistical Study, Delhi and Oxford, 1987
39. M. Alam, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India, Delhi, 1986
40. See further the long introduction in M. Alam and S. Subrahmanyam (eds), The Mughal State, Delhi, 1998
41. M. Pearson, 'Shivaji and the Decline of the Mughal Empire', Journal of Asian Studies, vol. XXXV(2), 1976: 221-35
42. S. Blake, 'The Patrimonial-Bureaucratic Empire of the Mughals', Journal of Asian Studies, vol. XXXIX(1), 1979: 77-94
43. Shahjahanabad. The Sovereign City in Mughal India 1639-1739, Cambridge, 1991
44. S. Subrahmanyam, 'State Formation and Transformation in Early Modern India and Southeast Asia', Itinerario, 1988: 98
45. M. Alam and S. Subrahmanyam, Witnessing Transition: Views on the End of the Akbari Dispensation', in K.N. Panikkar, T.J. Byres and U. Patnaik (eds), The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib, New Delhi, 2000: 104-40
46. G. Barker and D.J. Mattingly (eds), The Unesco Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey, 2 volumes, Paris, 1996
47. S. Dietz et al. (eds), Africa Proconsularis: Regional Studies in the Segermes Valley of Northern Tunesia, vols 1-3, Aarhus, 1995-2000
48. On Syria, see the discussion in M. Pollard, Soldiers, Cities and Civilians in Roman Syria, Ann Arbor, 2000
49. P. Garnsey and C. Humfress, The Evolution of the Late Antique World, Cambridge, 2001, chapter 4
50. and Jill Harries, Law and Empire in Late Antiquity, Cambridge, 1999
51. Some central examples are Hirschfeld, Die Kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten, Berlin, 1905
52. H.G. Pflaum, Les procurateurs équestres sous le Haut-Empire romain, Paris, 1950
53. and Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres sous le Haut-Empire romain, Paris, 1960-61
54. and W. Eck, 'Beförderungskriterien innerhalb der senatorischen Laufbahn, dargestellt an der Zeit von Vespasian bis Hadrian', Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, vol. II(1), Berlin, 1974: 158-228
55. F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World, London, 1977
56. P.M. Leunissen, 'Conventions of Patronage in Senatorial Careers under the Principate', Chiron 23, 1993: 101-20 for a broad discussion, attempting to straddle the 'impossible' balance between patrimonial and bureaucratic
57. It is symptomatic that W. Eck chose to discuss Sailer's work in a corruption perspective, cf. W. Eck, 'Einsfluss korrupter Praktiken auf das senatorisch-ritterliche Beförderungswesen in der Hohen Kaiserzeit', W. Schuller (ed.), Korruption im Altertum, 1982
58. A more recent discussion is H. Devijver, 'Les relations sociales des chevaliers romains', in S. Demougin, H. Devijver and M-T Raepsaet-Charlier (eds), L'Ordre Équestre. Histoire d'une aristocratie, École Francaise de Rome, 1999: 237-69
59. The question first arose in a debate between Mommsen and Hirschfeld. Cf. Th. Mommsen, Die Römische Staatsrecht, vol. 2(2), Leipzig, 1887: 998-1025
60. and O. Hirschfeld, Die kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten, 2nd edn, Berlin, 1905: 1-52
61. Other central contributions include A.H.M. Jones, 'The Aerarium and the Fiscus', Journal of Roman Studies, 1950: 22-29
62. F. Millar, The Fiscus in the First Two Centuries', Journal of Roman Studies, 1963: 29-42
63. P.A. Brunt, 'The "Fiscus" and its Development', Journal of Roman Studies, 1966: 75-91
64. Elio Lo Cascio, 'Patrimonium, ratio privata, res privata' & 'Fiscus principis nostri (Sc. de Cn. Pisone patre, Il. 54-55)', in Il Princeps e Il Suo Impero, Bari, 2000: 97-150 and 163-76
65. Paul Veyne, Bread and Circuses (English tr. from French original of 1976), London, 1990: 324-34
66. and M. Alpers, Das Nachrepublikanische Finanzsystem, Berlin, 1995
67. Contra Alpers, 1995 (on the first century A.D.) who is unconvincing on this point. His insistence on a rigid separation of state and fiscus in the first century A.D. is not borne out by our sources. They rather convey an impression of porous walls between the two spheres
68. Cf. Lo Cascio, Fiscus principis nostri
69. Brunt, Fiscus and its Development: 85
70. Lo Cascio, Patrimonium, convincingly argues that the Patrimonium is indistinguishable from the fisc
71. Lo Cascio, Patrimonium, rightly insists that the fiscus was sui generis. In his Roman history, Cassius Dio at one point (53, 22, 1-4)) dismisses the distinction between the public and the emperor's private money as effectively irrelevant, cf. F. Millar, Emperor. 189-90
72. Some interesting treatments of the imperial household are provided by G. Boulvert, Esclaves et affranchis impérieaux sout le Haut-Empire romain, Rôle politique et administratif, Naples, 1970
73. Domestique et Fonctionaire sous le Haut-Empire romain. La condition de l'affranchi et de l'esclave du prince, Paris, 1974
74. and P.C. Weaver, Familia Caesaris, Cambridge, 1972
75. Two recent titles by Aloys Winterling (ed.), Zwischen Haus' und Staat, Munich, 1997
76. E.L. Jones, Growth Recurring, Oxford, 1988, chapters 6-8
77. and J.H. Kautsky, The Politics of Aristocratic Empires, Chapell Hill, 1982, chapter 2 are representative of this view
78. Maxime Rodinson, Islam et capitalisme, Paris, 1966 simply made capitalism an essential expression of Islam
79. See also F. Perlin, 'The Invisible City'
80. M.N. Pearson, 'Merchants and States', in J. Tracy (ed.), The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, Cambridge, 1991: 41-116
81. Finley, The Ancient Economy, 2nd edn, London, 1985, chapter 6
82. J. Andreau, 'La cité romaine dans ses rapports à l'echange et au monde de l'échange', in Andreau, Briant and Descat (eds), Économie Antique. Les echanges dans l'antiquité: le rôle de l'etat, Saint-Bertrand-de Comminges, 1994: 83-98
83. R. Bin Wong, China Transformed, Princeton, 1997, chapters 4-6
84. This, however, does not imply that merchants were completely unable to access political power, as it is often taken to do, cf. C.A. Bayly, 'South Asia and the "Great Divergence"', Itinerario, vol. 24: 83-103
85. and further Kum Kum Chatterjee, Merchants, Politics and Society in Early Modern India, Leiden, 1996
86. N. Steensgaard, Carracks, Caravans and Companies: The Structural Crisis in the European Asian Trade in the Early 17th Century, Copenhagen, 1972
87. and I. Wallerstein, The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century, New York, 1974
88. K. Pomeranz, The Great Divergence. 20-21 and 242-53
89. Andre Tchernia, Le vin de L'Italie romaine, Rome, 1986
90. and Greg Woolf, 'Regional Productions in Early Roman Gaul', in D. Mattingly and J. Salmon (eds), Economies beyond Agriculture in the Classical World, London and New York, 2001: 49-65
91. Rostovtzeff, Social end Economic History of the Roman Empire, 2nd rev. edn, P.M. Fraser (ed.), Oxford, 1957: 93-94 and 172-78
92. Pomeranz, Great Divergence. 248-51
93. See also S. Faroqhi for the absence of world-system organisation in the Ottoman world in chapter 17 of An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, vol. 2, Cambridge, 1994
94. K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750, Cambridge, 1985 for some initial thoughts on pre-modern trade
95. Further Wong, China Transformed
96. M. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Tübingen, 1972, part 2, chapter 9, 3 and 4
97. J. Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society, Cambridge, 1986
98. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft: 589-96. Weber's use of the German concept 'Stereotypierung' to denote institutionalisation does very usefully convey the characteristics of the process
99. Cf. C. Wickham, 'The Uniqueness of the East', Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 12, 1985: 167-96
100. R. Bin Wong, China Transformed, chapters 4-7 for some interesting observations on the character of state formation in the Chinese agrarian empire
101. In general, A. Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence, Cambridge, 1985, chapters 1-3
102. C.A. Bayly, 'Archaic and Modern Globalization in the Eurasian and African Arena', in A.G. Hopkins (ed.), Globalization in World History, London, 2002: 51
103. See also the discussion by E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism. Oxford, 1983, chapter 2
104. M. Beard, J. North and S. Price, Religions of Rome, Cambridge, 1998, vol. 1, 313-14 for the Roman emperor depicted as Egyptian pharaoh performing cult to local deities
105. The expression 'Olympic Panhellenic Zeus' appears in a decree found on the Athenian Acropolis set up by the city of Thyatira, cf. inscirption 50 in J.H. Oliver, Marcus Aurelius: Aspects of Civil and Cultural Policy in the East, Princeton, 1970
106. For a recent treatment of the Panhellenion, see M.T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the Cities of the Roman Empire, Princeton, 2000, chapter 7 with further bibliography
107. See in general, J. Lendon, Empire of Honour, Oxford, 1997, introduction for an excellent survey of the various 'kinds' of imperial power
108. J.F. Richards, The Mughal Empire, Cambridge, 1993: 23 and 40
109. J.F. Richards, 'Norms of Comportment among Imperial Mughal Officers', in B.D. Metcalf, Moral Conduct and Authority, Berkeley, 1983
110. and M. Kunt, The Sultan's Servants: The Transformation of Ottoman Provincial Government, 1550-1650, New York, 1983
111. Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence. 18-20 for an interesting modification of Weber's definition of the state, which emphasised the monopoly on the legitimate exercise of force. Most pre-modern states did not achieve this
112. The Roman empire did not any more than the Mughals or Ottomans, manage to 'disarm' her subjects; compare P.A. Brunt, 'Did Imperial Rome Disarm her Subjects?', Phoenix, vol. 29, 1975: 260-70 with descriptions in e.g.
113. C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars, Oxford, 1983
114. A. Hintze, The Mughal Empire and Its Decline, Aldershot, 1997
115. and S. Faroqhi, Towns and Townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia, Cambridge, 1984
116. K. Hopkins, Death and Renewal: Sociological Studies in Roman History, vol. 2, Cambridge, 1983, chapter 3 is the best analysis of the imperial senate under the Principate
117. On the role of the empire in reproducing the imperial elite in prebendal systems, see, e.g., M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb
118. Some broad treatments of this process include F. Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of the Possible, London, 1981
119. K.N. Chaudhuri, Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750, Cambridge, 1990
120. M. Livi-Bacci, A Concise History of World Population, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1997. See also Hodgson in the following note
121. M. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, Chicago, 1974, vol. 2: 1-11, 329-35
122. E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London, 1994, vol. 4: 117-28
123. Karl Gunnar Persson, Pre-industrial Growth, Cambridge, 1989 for a treatment of the adverse effects on the economy of such 'shocks'
124. See further P. Millett, 'Productive to Some Purpose? The Problem of Ancient Economic Growth', in D. Mattingly and John Salmon, Economies beyond Agriculture in the Classical World, London, 2001: 17-48
125. On this, see Gary Yong, Rome's Eastern Trade, London and New York, 2001
126. F. De Romanis, Cassia, Cinnamono, Ossidiana, Rome, 1996
127. and F. De Romanis and A. Tchernia (eds), Crossings: Early Mediterranean Contacts with India, New Delhi, 1997
128. On ancient/Roman urbanism, see M.I. Finley, The Ancient City: From Fustel de Coulanges to Max Weber and Beyond', Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 19, 1977: 305-27
129. K.H. Hopkins, 'Economic Growth and Towns in Classical Antiquity', in Ph. Abrams and E.A. Wrigley (eds), Towns in Societies: Essays in Economic History and Historical Sociology, Cambridge, 1978: 35-77
130. and G. Woolf, 'The Roman Urbanization of the East', in S. Alcock (ed.), The Early Roman Empire in the East, Oxford, 1997: 1-14. Further, Jongman's contribution to this volume
131. Compare the relevant chapters of H. Inalcik et al., An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, vols 1-2, Cambridge, 1994
132. with S. Mitchell, Anatolia: Land, Men and Gods in Asia Minor, vol. 1, 1993
133. On the habitual selling of property, urban as well as rural, by the Roman upper classes, see Rawson, 'The Ciceronian Aristocracy and Its Properties', in M.I. Finley (ed.), Studies in Roman Property, Cambridge, 1976: 85-102
134. In comparison, one might point to the discussion of, e.g., I. Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 2nd edn, Delhi, 1999, chapters 4 and 5
135. Compare the treatment by Hopkins, Death and Renewal, chapter 3 with the results of M. Athar Ali, Mughal Nobility, chapter 1 and further, Apparatus of Empire
136. Amira K. Bennison, 'Muslim Universalism and Western Globalization', in A.G. Hopkins (ed.), Globalization in World History, London, 2002: 76