Empire to Commonwealth Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity / Garth Fowden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fowden, Garth.

Contributor:

Princeton University Press., Publisher.

Series:

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Princeton Paperbacks

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 205 p. ) ill., map ;

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [post 2006], 1993.

Summary:

In this bold approach to late antiquity, Garth Fowden shows how, from the second-century peak of Rome's prosperity to the ninth-century onset of the Islamic Empire's decline, powerful beliefs in One God were used to justify and strengthen "world empires." But tensions between orthodoxy and heresy that were inherent in monotheism broke the unitary empires of Byzantium and Baghdad into the looser, more pluralistic commonwealths of Eastern Christendom and Islam. With rare breadth of vision, Fowden traces this transition from empire to commonwealth, and in the process exposes the sources of major cultural contours that still play a determining role in Europe and southwest Asia.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of illustrations

Abbreviations

Note on transliteration and references

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The world's two eyes: Iran, Rome, and the pursuit of world empire

2. Polytheist Rome: Toward cultural universalism within empire

3. The Fertile Crescent: Cultural universalism between and beyond empires

4. Constantine: Christian empire and crusade

5. The First Byzantine Commonwealth: Interactions of political and cultural universalism

6. Islam: World empire, then commonwealth

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-200) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781400844241

140084424X

9780691069890

0691069891

OCLC:

1227051840