This workshop follows the previous day’s lecture, “In Search of a Global Antiquity,” with a case study in comparative ancient history. It focuses on the problem of rulership and its representation, both visual and symbolic, in two of the major empires of ancient Eurasia, the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty China. Contrasting the omnipresence in the public sphere of visual representations of Roman emperors with the near-invisibility of their Han counterparts, the workshop explores the implications of this striking contrast for our understanding of political culture and statecraft in these two imperial systems. The workshop will also address the prospects and pitfalls of comparative history and the challenges of undertaking such work in unfamiliar fields.
Carlos Noreña is Director of the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology and Director of the new Berkeley Global Antiquity Project at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published widely in Roman history, literary and material cultures in the Roman empire, the topography of Rome, historical geography, and comparative empires.