All major continental empires proclaimed their desire to rule 'the entire world', investing considerable human and material resources in expanding their territory. Each, however, eventually had to stop expansion and come to terms with a shift to defensive strategy. This volume explores the factors that facilitated Eurasian empires' expansion and contraction: from ideology to ec...(展开全部)

彼得·布朗（Peter Brown），普林斯顿大学荣休历史学教授。“古代晚期研究领域的发明者”，权威的奥古斯丁专家，晚期罗马帝国宗教史研究最杰出的历史学家之一。特别关注晚期罗马帝国和早期中世纪欧洲的宗教文化，以及宗教与社会之间的关系。著有The Rise of Western Christendom ；The Body and Society ： Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity ；The World of Late Antiquity ：AD 150-750 等。

The great empires of the vast Eurasian continent have captured the imagination of many. Awe-inspiring names such as ancient Rome, Han and Tang China, Persia, Assyria, the Huns, the Kushans and the Franks have been the subject of countless scholarly books and works of literature. However, very rarely, if at all, have these vast pre-industrial empires been studied holistically fr...(展开全部)

How did empires rule different peoples across vast expanses of space and time? And how did small numbers of imperial bureaucrats govern large numbers of subordinated peoples? Empires and Bureaucracy in World History seeks answers to these fundamental problems in imperial studies by exploring the power and limits of bureaucracy. The book is pioneering in bringing together histor...(展开全部)

In this, his final book, Erich Auerbach writes, "My purpose is always to write history." Tracing the transformations of classical Latin rhetoric from late antiquity to the modern era, he explores major concerns raised in his Mimesis: the historical and social contexts in which writings were received, and issues of aesthetics, semantics, stylistics, and sociology that anticipa...(展开全部)

In this, his final book, Erich Auerbach writes, "My purpose is always to write history." Tracing the transformations of classical Latin rhetoric from late antiquity to the modern era, he explores major concerns raised in his Mimesis: the historical and social contexts in which writings were received, and issues of aesthetics, semantics, stylistics, and sociology that anticipa...(展开全部)

Two thousand years ago, the Qin/Han and Roman empires were the largest political entities of the ancient world, developing simultaneously yet independently at opposite ends of Eurasia. Although their territories constituted only a small percentage of the global land mass, these two Eurasian polities controlled up to half of the world population and endured longer than most pre-...(展开全部)

沃尔特·沙伊德尔（Walter Scheidel），美国斯坦福大学人文学科迪卡森讲席教授、古典学和历史学教授，古罗马研究领域当前最重要、最活跃的学者之一。所涉领域主要包括古代社会和经济史，前现代历史人口学以及世界历史的比较和跨学科研究。其作品已被翻译成中文出版的有《罗马与中国：比较视野下的古代世界帝国》《不平等社会：从石器时代到21 世纪，人类如何应对不平等》。

【作者简介】 彼得·布朗（Peter Brown），普林斯顿大学历史学荣休教授。他毕业于牛津大学，并曾于伦敦大学和加州大学伯克利分校任教。他对古代晚期这一研究领域做出了杰出贡献。他的著作尤其关注罗马帝国晚期和中世纪早期欧洲的宗教文化，以及宗教与社会的关系，作品包括：《希波的奥古斯丁》 《古代晚期的世界》《圣徒崇拜》《身体与社会》《西方基督教的崛起》《罗马帝国后期的贫困与领导》。 【译者简介】 王班班，德国海德堡大学“物质文本文化”研究中心助理研究员、古代史与碑铭学系博士研究生，主要研究领域为希腊碑铭学，译有《罗马：一个帝国的故事》。