First single-authored and accessibly written book that sets out comparisons and contrasts between the ways that the empires of ancient Rome and China faced their problems and sought to solve them.

"Written by the eminent sinologist Michael Loewe, this book gives an overview of the considerations and practices of two major world empires that together ruled one-half of the earth's population in the first centuries BCE: ancient Rome and Han China. Approaching the historical material with a comparative perspective, Loewe examines the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and failures, which can be seen in the organisation and government of these two political systems"--