Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity

by Garth Fowden

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691015453
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/19/1994
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Garth Fowden is Research Associate at the Center for Greek and Roman Antiquity of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens, and the author of The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge/Princeton).

Table of Contents

List of illustrations
Abbreviations
Note on transliteration and references
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction	3
1	The world's two eyes: Iran, Rome, and the pursuit of world empire	12
The geographical focus	12
Iran, the Greeks, and Polytheist Rome	19
Sasanian universalism	24
2	Polytheist Rome: Toward cultural universalism within empire	37
Seeds of polytheist universalism	37
Alexandria	44
Rome	45
The third century	50
Julian and Helios-Mithras	52
Universalism and Rome's identity	57
3	The Fertile Crescent: Cultural universalism between and beyond empires	61
The Sabians of Harran	62
Judaism	65
Manichaeism	72
Christianity	76
4	Constantine: Christian empire and crusade	80
Antecedents of Christian Rome	80
Constantine's strategy	85
Empire and Church	86
Mission	90
Iran	93
5	The First Byzantine Commonwealth: Interactions of political and cultural universalism	100
The geographical focus	101
Iberia and Armenia	104
Southern Arabia and Ethiopia	109
Nubia	116
The Arabs	119
Christians of Iran and beyond	121
The politico-cultural entity	124
6	Islam: World empire, then commonwealth	138
The building of world empire	138
Empire and religion	152
The Islamic Commonwealth	160
Epilogue	169
Bibliography	177
Index	201

Editorial Reviews

"A tight, powerful volume that, among other things, makes some fairly revolutionary comparisons between the Islamic empire and Rome."

The Voice Literary Supplement

"An intelligent essay. . . . [It] should open new cooperation between scholars of late antiquity and early Christianity, and scholars of early Islam."

Choice

This is a short book on a big subject: it is nothing less than an essay in large-scale historical interpretation. . . . a courageous and stimulating book. . . .

Journal of Roman Studies - R. A. Markus

Fowden offers much that is new, interesting, and certainly correct in a manner that is generally appealing. The interaction of different cultures in the Ancient Near East is currently a popular area of research. Fowden has offered a valuable contribution to this field.

Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews - John Vanderspoel

This is a short book on a big subject: it is nothing less than an essay in large-scale historical interpretation. . . . a courageous and stimulating book. . . .

Journal of Roman Studies - R.A. Markus

This is a short book on a big subject: it is nothing less than an essay in large-scale historical interpretation. . . . a courageous and stimulating book. . . .
— R. A. Markus

Journal of Roman Studies

Fowden offers much that is new, interesting, and certainly correct in a manner that is generally appealing. The interaction of different cultures in the Ancient Near East is currently a popular area of research. Fowden has offered a valuable contribution to this field.
— John Vanderspoel

Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews

Fowden offers much that is new, interesting, and certainly correct in a manner that is generally appealing. The interaction of different cultures in the Ancient Near East is currently a popular area of research. Fowden has offered a valuable contribution to this field.
— John Vanderspoel

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Fowden offers much that is new, interesting, and certainly correct in a manner that is generally appealing. The interaction of different cultures in the Ancient Near East is currently a popular area of research. Fowden has offered a valuable contribution to this field."—-John Vanderspoel, Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews

"This is a short book on a big subject: it is nothing less than an essay in large-scale historical interpretation. . . . a courageous and stimulating book."—-R. A. Markus, Journal of Roman Studies

From the Publisher