Empire to Commonwealth
eBook - PDF

Empire to Commonwealth

Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity

  1. 232 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Empire to Commonwealth

Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity

About this book

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.

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Yes, you can access Empire to Commonwealth by Garth Fowden in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & European Medieval History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover page
  2. Half-title page
  3. Title page
  4. Copyright page
  5. Dedication page
  6. Contents
  7. List of illustrations
  8. Abbreviations
  9. Note on transliteration and references
  10. Preface
  11. Acknowledgments
  12. Introduction
  13. 1. The world's two eyes: Iran, Rome, and the pursuit of world empire
  14. 2. Polytheist Rome: Toward cultural universalism within empire
  15. 3. The Fertile Crescent: Cultural universalism between and beyond empires
  16. 4. Constantine: Christian empire and crusade
  17. 5. The First Byzantine Commonwealth: Interactions of political and cultural universalism
  18. 6. Islam: World empire, then commonwealth
  19. Epilogue
  20. Bibliography
  21. Index