Robert Rollinger: Empire and Borderlands at Interplay—A Structural Approach
This lecture is part 4 of 4 of the 2022 Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series, delivered by Robert Rollinger on the theme, “The Achaemenid Persian World Empire.”
Abstract
Empire and Borderlands at Interplay: A Structural Approach (First Millennium BCE – First Millennium CE)
The Achaemenid Empire represents a major evolutionary step in the longue durée of Afro-Asian state formations. The fourth lecture aims at illustrating the indebtedness of the Achaemenid polity to ancient Near Eastern and Afro-Asian precedents, while exploring its unicity in light of the interplay between the imperial center and the borderlands.
About the Speaker
Robert Rollinger
University of Innsbruck
Robert Rollinger is Professor of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck. His main research areas are the history of the Ancient Near East and the Achaemenid Empire, contacts between the Aegean World and the Ancient Near East, ancient historiography, and the comparative history of empires. Recent publications include Imperien in der Weltgeschichte. Epochenübergreifende und globalhistorische Vergleiche (co-edited; 2014), Mesopotamia in the Ancient World. Impact, Continuities, Parallels (co-edited; 2015), Alexander und die großen Ströme. Die Flussüberquerungen im Lichte altorientalischer Pioniertechniken (2013), Short-term Empires in World History (co-edited; 2020), A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 volumes (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World) (co-edited; 2021), Empires to be Remembered (Studies in Universal and Cultural History) (co- edited; 2022) or Decline, Erosion and Implosion of Empires (Studies in Universal and Cultural History) (co-edited; 2022).