HIST 328
Medieval Empires
Last Offered Spring 2006
Division II
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Today the nation-state is the accepted form of political organization across the globe. But in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, it was large, multi-ethnic empires rather than nations that dominated the map of the known world. This course explores the nature of empire and imperial rule in the late antique and medieval world through several case studies: the late Roman empire of Constantine the Great, the Byzantine empire of Justinian, the Frankish empire of Charlemagne, the Islamic caliphate of Harun al Rashid, and the German Reich of Otto the Great. In examining these premodern world empires, we will investigate the nature of imperial politics, government, ideology, warfare, cultural life, and economic organization, as well as the causes for the rise and fall of empires.