Ancient States and Infrastructural Power: Europe, Asia, and America

Front Cover
Clifford Ando, Seth Richardson
University of Pennsylvania Press, Jul 5, 2017 - History - 309 pages

While ancient states are often characterized in terms of the powers that they claimed to possess, the contributors to this book argue that they were in fact fundamentally weak, both in the exercise of force outside of war and in the infrastructural and regulatory powers that such force would, in theory, defend. In Ancient States and Infrastructural Power a distinguished group of scholars examines the ways in which early states built their territorial, legal, and political powers before they had the capabilities to enforce them.

The volume brings Greek and Roman historians together with specialists on early Mesopotamia, late antique Persia, ancient China, Visigothic Iberia, and the Inca empire to compare various models of state power across regional and disciplinary divisions. How did the polis become the body that regulates property rights? Why did Chinese and Persian states maintain aristocracies that sometimes challenged their autocracies? How did Babylon and Rome promote the state as the custodian of moral goods? In worlds without clear borders, how did societies from Rome to Byzantium come to share legal and social identities rooted in concepts of territory? From the Inca empire to Visigothic Iberia, why did tributary practices reinforce territorial ideas about membership?

Contributors address how states first claimed and developed the ability to delineate territory, promote laws, and establish political identity; and they investigate how the powers that states appropriated came to be seen as their natural and normal domain.

Contributors: Clifford Ando, R. Alan Covey, Damián Fernández, Anthony Kaldellis, Emily Mackil, Richard Payne, Seth Richardson, Wang Haicheng, John Weisweiler.

 

Selected pages

Contents

States and State Power in Antiquity
1
A LowPower
17
Property Claims and State Formation in the Archaic
63
Western Zhou Despotism
91
Territoriality
115
Populist Despotism and Infrastructural Power
149
Autocracy
179
Kinship and the Performance of Inca Despotic
218
Statehood Taxation and State Infrastructural
243
Did the Byzantine Empire Have Ecumenical
272
List of Contributors
301
Copyright

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Ancient States and Infrastructural Power: Europe, Asia, and America
Clifford Ando,Seth Richardson
Limited preview - 2017

Common terms and phrases

administrative ancient Ando Archaeology Archaic aristocratic armies authority autonomous Azerbaijan Babylon bronze Byzantine Cambridge University Press central Charpin Christian cities citizens civil claims colonies communities context countryside court Covey cultural Cuzco Derbend despotic power documents domain early economic ecumenical edited elites emperor Ērānšahr fifth century fiscal Gagarin Gorgan Gortyn Greek Hammurabi highlands History ideology imperial Inca infrastructural power inscription institutions Iran Iranian khipu Khuzestan king’s kings of kings kinship land landowners landscapes Larsa late antique late Roman Mann Mann’s Mesopotamia military modern monarchy noble norms officials oikoumene Old Babylonian Oxford period political populations Postgate practice provincial regions relations Richardson role Roman Empire Rome royal rule rulers Sasanian settlements Shang Shapur social society sovereignty space state’s structures suggests tax collection taxation territory texts tion Tiwanaku tributary urban Visigothic kingdom Western Zhou Yazdgird

Bibliographic information

TitleAncient States and Infrastructural Power: Europe, Asia, and America
Empire and After
EditorsClifford Ando, Seth Richardson
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherUniversity of Pennsylvania Press, 2017
ISBN0812249313, 9780812249316
Length309 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Ancient / General
History / Historiography
Social Science / General
  
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