Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
9 - Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2018
Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Chapter Nine discusses the collapse of three of the key empires that had maintained the Silk Roads network, as well as a simultaneous political and economic crisis in the fourth key empire, that of the Romans. It also considers the role of the Silk Roads in facilitating the spread of religion, notably Buddhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. There is no doubt that the extraordinary levels of commercial and cultural exchange that occurred along the land and sea routes of the Silk Roads network had innumerable positive effects on ancient Eurasian societies. The diffusion of new foods, technologies, religions, and ideas about art, fashion, geography and so much else rapidly transformed human culture. Yet it was this same interconnectedness during the First Silk Roads Era that also facilitated the rapid diffusion of disease pathogens that had a devastating impact on at least two of the agrarian civilizations that had sustained the network, directly contributing to the collapse of one of those great imperial states, and to the demise of the entire Silk Roads Network, which is the final topic considered in the chapter.
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- Information
- Empires of Ancient EurasiaThe First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE, pp. 238 - 275Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
References
Selected Further Reading
Brenchley, R., “The Travels of Paul,” at www.forumancientcoins.com/Articles/the_travels_of_paul.htm.Google Scholar
Buckley, P. E., The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Cyprian, De Mortalitate, trans. E. Wallis, 1885, Online at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 14.Google Scholar
Daryae, T., “Western and Central Eurasia,” in Benjamin, C., ed., Cambridge History of the World Vol IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 271–299.Google Scholar
Daryae, T., Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013Google Scholar
Fisher, G., Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Holcombe, C., “East Asia,” in Benjamin, C., ed., Cambridge History of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 407–434.Google Scholar
Howard-Johnson, J. “The Official History of Heraclius’ Persian Campaign,” in The Roman and Byzantine Army in the East, ed. Dabrowa, E., Krakow, 1994, pp. 5–87.Google Scholar
Lieu, S. N. C., Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China, 2nd. edn. Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1992.Google Scholar
Pearce, S., Spiro, A. and Buckley, P., eds., Culture and Power in the Reconstitution of the Chinese Realm 200–600. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Tomber, R., “Rome and Mesopotamia – Importers into India in the First Millennium AD,” Antiquity 81/314, (2007), pp. 972–988.Google Scholar
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