ABSTRACT
Territorial expansion causes differentiation into a metropole and a periphery, and an increase in ethnic and cultural heterogeneity, which remain distinguishing features of an empire even when its territorial expansion ceases, or it loses its hegemonic status. The "diminished" sub-types of empires are especially useful in the analysis of empire dynamics. Over time, a specific polity can at times come very close to being an ideal-type empire, and at others diverge from it. However, there is another method for constructing empire typologies: by supplementing the intensions of a basic empire concept or of its diminished sub-types with new attributes that differentiate empires, stepping down the ladder of generality. The empire typology offered by the famous contemporary expert in the history of the Central Asian steppe's nomadic peoples, American historian and anthropologist Thomas J. Barfield, is especially interesting and valuable.
