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Questions for Chapter Four - Eurasian Empires

Q. #1 - What is an Empire?  How did Rome grow from a single city to the center of a huge empire?

A. #1
Empires are states and political systems that exercise total power.  They are typically vast and has a one ruler.  Within empires the people consist of different cultures yet there is only one political system. 

Rome began as a small and impoverished city-state central of Italy in the eighth century.  Roman aristocrats threw off the monarchy and established a republic in which the wealth class dominated.   Written code law was derived and enforced which gave lower class people opportunity to shape public policy.  The birth of this new political system and values launched the Romans empire building enterprise which gave way to strengthening their territory and the forming of large armies. 

Q. #2 -  How did the Persian and Greek civilizations differ in their overall structure, political organization and values?

A. #2
The Persians constructed an imperial system that drew upon previous empires such as the Babylonian and Assyrian empires which was governed by an absolute and unapproachable monarch. This empire was centered on an elaborate cult of kingship where the king could only be approached through an elaborate ritual.  Their administrative system was effective a consisted of a system of imperial spies called "the eyes and ears of the King".  Bureaucracy was evident with administrators, tax collectors, record keepers, and translators which provided a model for all subsequent regimes.

The Greeks drew on a legacy of the first civilization and was much smaller than the Persian empire.  A more modest expression was embraced with their culture having more in common in the areas of language, and worshiping of the same Gods.  Their settlement differed from the Persians in forms of distant places rather than conquest and empire. The Greeks believed in "Citizenship" - free people running the affairs of the state with a voting policy enforced. The Greeks were more open to social construction than absolute monarchism of the Persians.