ABSTRACT
When we had nothing faster at our service than the horse, how did we manage to rule over physically vast realms and culturally diverse populations? How did the government of ancient empires work? This chapter moves back from west to east, from Rome to Persia to China. The story of Rome is always fascinating thanks to its republican constitution and then its violent transition to a monarchical imperial model. While Roman rule could be heavy-handed militarily, in peaceful times it was surprisingly lightly governed and tolerant. The Achaemenian Persian empire was also renowned for toleration of diverse religions and cultures, although in later Sassanian times less so. There is less reliable literary evidence from those times on the conduct of Persian government, but we can at least observe its basic structures. We then look at the Former Han dynasty of China, the era when its enduring bureaucratic imperial model was becoming firmly established, and when competing ideas about good policy and rulership were robustly debated.
