An anomaly in European history, the Roman Empire here emerges as part of a global, Afro-Eurasian history of universal empires.

How do we fit the Roman Empire into world history? Too often the empire has simply been conceived of in terms of the West. But Rome was too big to be squeezed into a purely European model; her empire bestrode three continents. Peter Fibiger Bang develops a radical new world history framework for the Roman Empire, presenting it as part of an Afro-Eurasian arena of grand empires that dominated the shape of history before the forces of globalization and industrialization made the world centre on Europe from the eighteenth century onwards. It was a world before East and West. The book traces surprising cultural connections and societal similarities between Rome and the other vast empires of Afro-Eurasia. Whether we look at war-making, slavery, empire formation, literary culture or intercontinental trade and rebellion, Rome is best approached in its Afro-Eurasian context.