The Roving Other: Shepherds, Ungovernable Spaces, and Imperial Authority in First-Millennium Mesopotamia

Much of the literature on pastoralists and empire concerns mobile tribes and often focuses on imperial schemes of resettlement, or tribal thwarting of state initiatives. This submission argues that in mid-first-millennium BCE Babylonia, large bureaucratic temples stood between the imperial state and Babylonia’s mobile class of shepherds. This article then explores this dynamic further, focusing on the use of administrative information as a point of imperial contestation, examining issues of local control and clashing hierarchies as the shepherds served an imperial obligation in the Mesopotamian hinterland, and finally argues that the pastoral dynamic presented here is of a piece with the larger political role of the temple in Babylonian life—both urban, familiar, and central and at the same time distant, other-like, and enigmatic.

Virtue, Ambition, and the Balanced Constitution

The turmoil in Europe in the early sixteenth century revealed some of the weaknesses of princely power and imperial authority; it was clear that the much-needed reform and rebalancing could not be enacted solely from above. This chapter focuses on works which called for the promotion of civic virtue and the strengthening of institutions, especially in a time of rapid social, economic, and political upheaval. In Venice, Gasparo Contarini set out an idealized model of mixed government while in the Holy Roman Empire magistrates and officials were encouraged to uphold the common good—often a common good shaped by Protestant thinking. However, the case of Miguel Servetus in Geneva sparked further discussion of the role of the magistrate in upholding religious truth and generated new arguments for toleration. Meanwhile, many writers looked to ancient Greece and Rome for inspiration and advice, and new research by men like Carlo Sigonio revealed that Rome’s political system had itself been affected by social and economic change. In England Sir Thomas Smith drew on some of this research to advocate a broadly based citizenry in which wealth, lineage, and merit were all seen as important qualifications for office-holding.

The Hippodrome of Constantinople

The Hippodrome of Constantinople was constructed in the fourth century AD, by the Roman Emperor Constantine I, in his new capital. Throughout Byzantine history the Hippodrome served as a ceremonial, sportive and recreational center of the city; in the early period, it was used mainly as an arena for very popular, competitive, and occasionally violent chariot races, while the Middle Ages witnessed the imperial ceremonies coming to the fore gradually, although the races continued. The ceremonial and recreational role of the Hippodrome somehow continued during the Ottoman period. Being the oldest structure in the city, the Hippodrome has witnessed exciting chariot races, ceremonies glorifying victorious emperors as well as the charioteers, and the riots that shook the imperial authority. Today, looking to the remnants of the Hippodrome, one can imagine the glorious past of the site.

‘We read Hamlet together’

Inspired by Said’s methodology of contrapuntal reading, this article examines Edward Said’s reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1604) in his memoir, Out of Place (1999) to shed light on his experiences of exile and displacement. We contend that Hamlet gives voice to Said’s incestuous desire and his inability, like that of Hamlet, to live up to the standards required of him by his dominating father who, like Hamlet’s father, is a ghostly figure that dominates Said’s life even after his death. We argue that while Said points out that Shakespeare is an extension of imperial authority, his readings of Hamlet with his mother destabilises the colonising force of Shakespeare and displaces Western hegemony over performance and interpretations.

Imperial Authority, Locality, and Gender: The Political Dynamics of Poetry Anthology Compilation in Qing and Early Republican China (1767–1919)

This article examines two groups of poetry anthologies created in honor of specific locales. The first group, from the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century, contains works predominately by men hailing from a specific locale. The second group, from the nineteenth to early twentieth century, comprises poetry anthologies exclusively devoted to women also from specific localities. By tracing connections among the various anthologies, this article aims to identify the defining cultural and political factors in their creation and to reveal the political dynamics of literary production on various levels: 1) the prestigious or canonical collections which acted as models or even counter-models; 2) the continuum and tension between “our dynasty” (the empire) and “our locality”; 3) the promotion of female authors at both the dynastic and local levels; 4) the participation by some early-twentieth century anthologists in the National Learning Movement. These findings demonstrate the importance of studying the creation of poetry anthologies in China’s recent past toward understanding the politics of literary production or cultural initiatives.

A new bath complex in Late Roman Dyrrachium (Albania)

This note considers a Late Roman bath building recently discovered in Durrës, Albania (ancient Dyrrachium), near the presumed Roman city center. This discovery is particularly interesting given our limited knowledge of the urban layout and of bathhouses during this important phase of the city. Despite the limited scope of the excavations, the layout of the complex, as well as certain architectural characteristics, suggests the use of design principles based on Imperial baths. The exclusive use of bricks is significant for this area in Late Antiquity. The imposing monumentality of the structures is comparable to baths in cities with Imperial authority. In the absence of stratified layers linked to this structure, moldmade marks on the bricks and decorative features from the marble facing provide a chronological window between the last quarter of the 4th c. and around the middle of the 5th c. CE for its construction.

Decline, Renewal, and the Invention of Christian Progress

The emperor Diocletian stabilized the Roman Empire in the 280s and early 290s by creating the tetrarchy, a system of shared imperial authority in which four emperors each operated in a different region of the empire. Panegyrists celebrated Diocletian, Maximian, and their colleague Constantius I for restoring Roman prosperity and peace. By the early 300s, imperial attention shifted to maintaining the new order. This change prompted a series of strong imperial interventions in Roman life that culminated with the Great Persecution of Christians. It ended just before the emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. Christian authors like Eusebius and Lactantius celebrated this event, but Constantine nevertheless framed his new religious policies not as a break with the past but as a restoration of the worship of the one original God away from which Roman polytheism had drifted.