Author Archives: Alex Stark

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Revised: New Meteoric Rise Rankings) (7) Arab – Umayyad Caliphate

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Early Islamic conquests under Muhammad, 622–632 AD (dark brown); Rashidun caliphate, 632–661 AD (light brown); Umayyad caliphate, 661–750 AD (yellow brown) – Wikipedia “Caliphate” public domain image

 

(7) ARAB – UMAYYAD CALIPHATE (661-750 / 756-1031)

 

The Arab conquests were a nigh-unstoppable historical explosion, once previously divided tribes in a historical backwater had been united under Mohammed – conquering one of history’s largest pre-modern empires (indeed the seventh or eighth largest in all history) in about a century or so, a blitzkrieg by horse, sail…and camel!

Mohammed had essentially conquered the Arabian peninsula, but his death left his successors – the three great Arab caliphates – only at the start of extending his empire to even wider conquests.

Now it might be said that I am somewhat inconsistent between empires in my entries, as I classify some, such as the Arab caliphates, as separate empires by different dynasties, while others I essentially classify as single empires despite their dynastic succession or fragmentation.

And the answer is, as usual, that I make my own rules and break them anyway – some empires have historical unity to them, if only in culture or theme, that appeals to me, while the different Arab caliphates appeal to me as distinct polities.

The Rashadun Caliphate, immediate successors to Mohammed, did most of the heavy lifting of empire as they broke out of the Arabian peninsula. Two formidable empires blocked their path, the Persian Empire and the eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, but the Arabs conquered the former and routed the latter back to Anatolia.

However, it was under their successors, the Umayyad Caliphate, that Arab empire reached its greatest extent, westwards from the north African shore to Europe itself – conquering Spain (well, not quite all, in a manner similar to the famous caveat to the Roman conquest of Gaul in Asterix comics) and famously invading France before being turned back at Tours by Charles Martel. Eastwards, they also extended beyond Persia through central Asia to the fringes of India and China – the latter of which presented even the Tang Empire some difficulty resisting their advance.

The Umayyads were mostly overthrown by the third Arab caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, who then presided over what is often regarded as the Golden Age of Islam from their capital in Baghdad – but for all that became increasingly vestigial in the empire they had inherited from the Umayyads as it fragmented into separate dynasties. The Abbasids did revive their political authority somewhat in Mesopotamia and Persia – only to be crushed along with Baghdad by the Mongols, although they continued to limp along in even more vestigial form in Egypt until the Ottomans replaced them as caliphate. Ha! That’s what you get for messing with my boys, the Umayyads!

Nor were the Umayyads done with history just yet – the Umayyads managed to pull a Taiwan, with an Umayyad prince in the role of Chiang Kai-Shek, fleeing into exile across the Mediterranean to Spain and continuing the Caliphate as the Emirate of Cordoba independent from the Abbasids, even with their own rival golden age of Islam in the fabled Al Andalus of Spain.

The Umayyads endured for almost three centuries before finally falling again in 1031 – but true to karmic form, once again cursed their successors with fragmentation, as Islamic Spain broke up into minor states and principalities, weakening it to Christian reconquest.

 

The Umayyads actually used a plain white flag!

 

DECLINE AND FALL

 

You have to rank the Ummayads high for tenacity in their decline and fall – even in defeat by the Abbasid Revolution, they pulled a Taiwan to rule in Spain, partying it up in Ibiza like an English tourist .

 

THE UMAYYAD CALIPHATE NEVER FELL

 

Well it obviously did, although perhaps not in its enduring influence in Spain, and even more so in the dreams of caliphate by Islamic political extremists in the twenty-first century.

 

METEORIC RISE

 

The Arab caliphates and their conquests – the early Islamic conquests as they are sometimes called – were one of the most meteoric rises in history, ultimately conquering one of the world’s largest empires in a little over a century.

That conquest sees it ranked at least in seventh or eighth place for largest empires in history with about 11 million square kilometers, but I’ve seen a greater extent asserted for the height of the Umayyad Caliphate of 13-15 million square kilometers, which would potentially rank it as high as fourth place. Also, while 622-750 AD is generally given as the period of early Islamic conquests, those conquests were effectively done by 720 AD, with only minor fluctuation in the last thirty years.

Accordingly, the empire of the Arab caliphates was won in not just one but three meteoric rises. The first was by Muhammad himself, essentially uniting the area of the Arabian Peninsula or about three million square kilometers, albeit thinly populated desert, in the ten years or so from 622 AD to 632 AD. His successors, the Rashidun Caliphate, essentially doubled that by conquests from the East Roman Empire and Persian Empire in next twenty to thirty years from 632 AD.

And this entry, the Umayyad Caliphate more than doubled that again, essentially in the thirty years from 690 AD to 720 AD.

 

THE SUN NEVER SETS

 

One of the top 10 largest empires in history – although the sun literally set on them, they can be ranked among the world empires of history.

 

EVIL EMPIRE

 

To be honest, I don’t know much about the brutality of Arab conquests or repression, although there seem to be a number of revolts against them, not least the Abbasid revolution itself.

But they do have to rank highly in evil empire stakes for one thing – the Arab slave trade, which was of a scale at least equal to, if not exceeding, the more notorious Atlantic slave trade by European empires – not as intense perhaps, but of a longer duration. As in only abolished (when it was formally abolished) in the twentieth century.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire (3) Nomadic Empires

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Buckle with a scene of boar hunting – horserider of probable Xiongnu origin 2nd–1st century BC, National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan (public domain image)

 

 

(3) NOMADIC EMPIRES

 

“History is mostly a matter of hoping those psychos on horseback don’t attack this summer, steal the grain and take the slaves” – Pax Romana Youtube channel

And occasionally they would stay and make empires.

As I noted in my entry in my Top 10 Empires for the Mongol Empire – the nomadic empire par excellence – the horse blitzkrieg was a recurring feature mounted (heh) by nomadic herding tribes, particularly by those from the steppes of central Asia, to such devastating effect against more sedentary or settled agricultural states throughout history.

“Nomadic empires, sometimes also called steppe empires, Central or Inner Asian empires, were the empires erected by the bow-wielding, horse-riding, nomadic people in the Eurasian Steppe, from classical antiquity (Scythia) to the early modern era (Dzungars). They are the most prominent example of non-sedentary polities”.

The nomadic empires exemplify what James C. Scott, in his Against the Grain, dubbed the Golden Age of the Barbarians – or what Walter Scheidel, in his Escape from Rome, dubbed the steppe effect. Or the vivid image by John Keegan in his A History of Warfare that nomadic herding tribes gained their tactical and strategic edge by essentially applying the same maneuvers in warfare as they did herding their animals. Essentially, Eurasian steppe horse nomads will always feature significantly in any general military or world history, punching above their weight (in population).

Although as Genghis Khan, the greatest nomadic emperor of them all, is reputed to have observed – it is one thing to conquer the world on horseback, it is another to dismount and rule it.

“Some nomadic empires consolidated by establishing a capital city inside a conquered sedentary state and then exploiting the existing bureaucrats and commercial resources of that non-nomadic society. In such a scenario, the originally nomadic dynasty may become culturally assimilated to the culture of the occupied nation before it is ultimately overthrown”.

One could compile a top ten nomadic empires, khanates or khaganates, and hordes – although let’s face it, the Mongols and Huns would be the big names at the top. But there’s also Cimmerians (no – not Conan), Scythians, Sarmatians, Kushans, Bulgars, Uyghurs and more.

Top Tens – Top 10 Empires (Revised: New Rankings for Meteoric Rise) (8) Ottoman Empire

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Map of Ottoman Empire in 1683 by Chamboz for Wikipedia “Ottoman Empire” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

 

(8) OTTOMAN EMPIRE (1299 – 1922)

 

The empire that conquered Constantinople and besieged Vienna – twice.

As the latter, the last non-European empire to invade and conquer significant parts of Europe (unless you count the Americans or Soviets), although Vienna was their high water mark – and as the former, the power that finally conquered (and saw itself as inheriting) the last of the Roman Empire.

Ironically, the Ottomans often resembled the Roman Empire it ultimately supplanted, firstly in its rise from one of numerous non-descript warring tribes on a peninsula, albeit the Anatolian rather than Italian peninsula (although as further irony, the Romans traced themselves from that peninsula as well, with their mythic origin from Troy). And secondly, in its tenacity in decline.

It is also intriguing how much of the origins of modern history might be traced to the looming presence of the Ottoman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean – such as the discovery of the New World from seeking to find alternate trade routes to Asia and so on.

The rise of the Ottoman Empire rivals the conquests by the Arab caliphates it ultimately replaced in predominance in the Middle East – and indeed replayed much of the same history. The Ottoman Empire may have lacked the range and speed of the Arab conquests, although it made up for that in the extent to which it invaded and conquered within Europe.

With its conquest of the Byzantine Empire (as well as Constantinople as its newly conquered capital) and control of the Mediterranean basin, the Ottoman Empire was a transcontinental empire at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa for six centuries.

Egypt was of course the jewel in the crown of their African empire – but it extended westwards from Libya to Morocco (and briefly into the Atlantic with the Canary Islands), becoming the bases of the fabled Barbary corsairs or pirates which even fought the United States, although these were only nominally under Ottoman control. The Ottomans also extended southwards to the Horn of Africa – and into naval wars in the Indian Ocean.

In Asia, they inherited the caliphate and its predominance in the Middle East, extending south through the Arabian peninsula, although held at bay by a resurgent Persia under their own Turkic Safavid dynasty.

And in Europe, they conquered the Balkans, extending to Crimea with the Crimean Khanate or Tatars, successors to the Mongol Golden Horde, as their vassal state, and also reached to the heart of Europe to besiege Vienna. Although apart from its defeats when besieging Vienna, it encountered significant holdouts or resistance elsewhere – Croatia, Dracula or Vlad the Impaler, Venice and the naval Battle of Lepanto.

It faced its waning tide of decline in the aftermath of its second defeat at Vienna, steadily losing its conquests in the Balkans even as it was propped up by Britain against Russia, resulting in it being styled as the “sick man of Europe” in the nineteenth century – somewhat overconfidently, as the Allies were to find out in WW1, although ultimately it collapsed in that war.

 

 

DECLINE & FALL

 

Ironically, the Ottomans might be compared favorably to the Romans they supplanted in their tenacity in decline. They did not endure for so many centuries as did the Romans – but then modern history moves a lot faster.

Of course, they were helped by European powers propping it up against each other, particularly Britain propping it up against Russia.

And against the apparent odds, they and their predominance in the Middle East endured until the First World War – and they might well have endured beyond that if they had remained aloof from that war and not chosen the losing side. Even in that war, they proved a resilient adversary, and even in defeat, they cast a long shadow – historian J.M. Roberts refers to most wars in the Middle East thereafter as the wars of Ottoman succession, up to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

 

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE NEVER FELL

 

On the other hand, their imperial core Turkey, to which they were shorn after the First World War, has also had a remarkable resurgence, rebounding almost immediately after its defeat from that war against further incursions, and newly emerging as a regional power in the Middle East, extending its influence and military presence through much of its former imperial territory

 

THE SUN NEVER SETS

 

Well, the sun did literally set on the Ottoman Empire in pure geographic terms – for example, it did not extend as far eastwards into Asia as its Arab caliphate predecessors. However, it can properly be ranked as a world empire in its influence, extending across three continents and reaching even further beyond that.

 

METEORIC RISE

 

No meteoric rise here.

In its first century, it steadily spread over the Anatolian peninsula of its origin as well as leaping across to the Balkans peninsula to spread there, but staying much the same on both peninsulas through its second century. It was its third century – the 1500s – that saw the Ottoman empire pick up the pace of expansion to meteoric, albeit more in Islamic Asia and Africa as it rose to caliphate as well as empire. However, as meteoric as that may have been, it obviously does not qualify as the rise of its empire.

 

EVIL EMPIRE

 

As I said, the Ottomans get a lot of historical hate from certain circles – but sadly, I do have to rank them highly in the evil empire stakes. To be honest, I don’t know quite how brutal they were in maintaining their conquests, but they were notorious for their patronage of piracy and slavery, particularly through the Barbary corsairs.

What earns them their high ranking in evil empire stakes is their actions against ethnic minorities in the empire’s dying days – notably the Armenians – that gave the definition to genocide in the twentieth century

 

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire (2) Maritime Empire

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Second taking of Chusan, China, 1 October 1841, during the First Opium War, painted by Edward H. Cree (public domain image)

 

 

(2) MARITIME EMPIRE

 

“A state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea or seaborne empire”, sometimes known by the fancy term of thalassocracy, with the European empires of modern history as maritime empires par excellence, the British Empire most of all.

Pro tip for European empires in modern history – you can have a maritime empire, or you can strive for continental domination, but you can’t do both. Just ask Spain, France and Germany.

The obvious counterpart of the territorial empire annexed or conquered on land contiguous with the imperial nation, the maritime empire conquers its subject territory or projects its imperial reach by naval power and transport, typically focused on trade routes and strategic ports.

Maritime empires are something of the exception to the rule – the rule that is, that most empires are territorial, sometimes known by the fancy term of tellurocracy. However, I’d say most empires have at least some maritime element, even those that are otherwise predominantly or mostly territorial – extending to some element of naval power and maritime trade or conquering some island territory along their coastlines. Even early Mesopotamian and Egyptian empires relied on river transport, although I’d say that’s pushing the definition of maritime empire too far.

Some empires are more maritime than others – with the empires in top rank of maritime empires as those in which their territory is entirely or almost entirely not contiguous with the imperial nation and typically at some oceanic distance. As I said, the modern European colonial empires are the archetypal examples of maritime empires, hence the British and Spanish empires are the archetypal maritime empires among my top ten empires.

Some empires are curious hybrids of territorial and maritime empires, such as my top empire, the Roman empire – despite our usual perceptions of it as the former with its famed legions and roads (as well as its contiguous appearance on a map), the Mediterranean was the lifeblood of its internal lines of communication. It almost literally had to slap its navy together in the First Punic War against the maritime empire of Carthage – and even then, designed it with the boarding ramp known as the corvus to transform sea battle into a form of land battle. However, that navy was instrumental in its conquest in the Mediterranean, even if it lacked the prestige of the legions or was deemed “un-Roman”. And of course, it relied on naval power and transport for its conquests and territory beyond continental Europe in Africa, Asia, and Britain.

You could argue that there’s an enduring opposition between maritime empires or sea power and territorial empires or land power in modern history, best symbolized by the opposition of the Anglophone naval powers to continental Eurasian powers.

I also have a pet theory that states whose primary military instrument is naval power, particularly those in islands or continents similarly protected by sea, lend themselves less to authoritarian despotism, particularly as they rely less on standing armies or mobilization on a large scale. Also, that their empires are more strategically selective or limited, at least initially, as they tend to be tied to coastal areas, ports, or naval bases – although sooner or later the temptation to conquer territory inland looms large.

The Greeks, particularly the Athenians, and the Phoenicians are the archetypal maritime empires of classical history, while the Italian city-states, notably the Genoese and Venetians, were the archetypal maritime empires of medieval and early modern history. For that matter, maritime empires are a recurring feature among city states, possibly because at sea they can punch above their weight on land.

And arguably the American empire is the archetypal maritime empire of contemporary history, despite its continental base. As its architect (and prophet) of sea power, Alfred Thayer Mahan, famed for his book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, would have asserted, given his belief that national greatness was inextricably associated with the sea.

Then there are the more exotic maritime empires or thalassocracies beyond Europe – Srivijaya based in Sumatra and similar states in modern Indonesia, the Chola dynasty in southern India, Brunei, and so on.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Revised: New Meteoric Rise Rankings) (9) China – Qing Empire

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The Qing dynasty at its greatest extent in 1760, with claimed territory not under its control in light green – based by Aldermanseven on Albert Herrmann’s map in the 1935 History and Commercial Atlas of China for Wikipedia “Qing Dynasty” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

 

(9) CHINA – QING EMPIRE (1644 – 1912)

 

The last Chinese empire, lasting into the twentieth century with perhaps the most spectacular decline and fall on the world stage in modern history.

Like India, China has seen the rise and fall of numerous empires over millennia that could well be the subject of their own top ten, although Chinese empires are probably better known to general history and more coherent imperial states than their Indian counterparts.

Similarly to India, there are a number of candidates for the top spot among Chinese empires – the Qin and Han empires were its definitive empires (giving their name to China itself and its predominant ethnicity respectively), while the Tang, Song and Ming empires all vie for status as classical Chinese empires or golden ages. The Ming empire is particularly reputed for being on the threshold of becoming a maritime empire with its fabled fleets and expeditions, before turning back to the usual landbound nature of Chinese empires.

The Yuan Empire – the dynasty of Kublai Khan and China’s Mongol conquerors – could also argue its claim for top spot, and depending on how you reckon it, may well qualify as China’s largest empire.

However, I award the top spot to the Qing Empire. Firstly, it is the Chinese empire of modern history, its last empire that survived until falling in the early twentieth century, as well as the empire that interacted most with European powers as they increasingly encroached upon it.

Secondly, my particular fascination with empires is with their decline and fall – and few things were as spectacular in modern history , or loom as large in the hindsight of a Chinese revolutionary regime succeeding it and adapting its imperial forms, as the decline and fall of the Qing Empire.

And by spectacular, I mean the grand spectacle playing out on the world stage of it desperately trying to fend off foreign powers it previously saw as barbarians or tributaries, but even more so fighting the endless rebellions within itself, until it was ultimately overwhelmed by the final one.

Of course, it didn’t start off that way – like every empire, it had its robust rise, essentially as a conquest of Ming China by one of those northern non-Chinese minorities that bubbled up occasionally to rule China, in this case the Manchus (for which Manchuria is named).

At its height in the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was the largest Chinese empire in history (depending on how you calculate the Mongol Yuan Empire) – and indeed fourth largest empire in history, as well as the most populous state and largest economy in the world.

And then came its decline and fall, in the so-called century of humiliation – usually reckoned to start with its defeat by Britain and France in the Opium Wars, which heralded ever more depredations by foreign powers, as well as ever more dangerous rebellions against the empire.

I’ve heard it said that the Qing Empire literally faced a peasant rebellion an average of every hour or so. I don’t know the truth of that assertion, which probably tallies up the hours in the numerous historical rebellions against the Qing, although I also suspect that many or most rebellions were too limited or localised to have any serious consequence.

Not so the Taiping Rebellion, in which a cult with a leader proclaiming himself the younger brother of Jesus and declaring his own Heavenly Kingdom, slogged it out with the Qing in the bloodiest civil war in history, with casualties to rival the First World War or even the Second World War.

Although it was in the Boxer Rebellion that China’s humiliation by foreign powers perhaps reached its nadir. That or its defeat by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War. It was one thing to lose to European powers – it was another to lose to another Asian state, a former Chinese tributary, that had been in a similar position to China vis-a-vis European powers only a generation or so previously

Qing China finally fell to rebellion or revolution in 1911, which abolished empires in China altogether (even if many of their features were to recur in their successors), with the last Qing emperor abdicating in 1912.

 

 

DECLINE & FALL

 

As the decline and fall of empires go, Qing China ranks up there with the most spectacular and tenacious of them, holding the line despite the odds – and when it did fall, at least it fell to internal revolution rather than conquest. Particularly as they did it on a shoestring – apparently they were never able to raise taxes above 2% of their economy.

“There are serious questions as to whether any government could’ve handled the gargantuan tasks the Qing faced, and they managed to survive a civil war that by all accounts should have destroyed them and would probably have taken down most lesser Chinese empires.”

Even then the Qing emperor at least managed to bounce back, although his empire did not – twice, albeit more by that adage of history repeating itself first as tragedy and then as farce. Firstly in 1917, when he was briefly crowned for a fortnight by a royalist warlord in the so-called Manchu Restoration, and secondly in 1932 as “emperor” of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo

It’s tempting to think what might have happened if the Qing could have pulled off the same trick as the defeated Nationalists and retreated to Taiwan – but unfortunately for the Qing, they had lost Taiwan to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War

If nothing else, they totally had a better flag than any of their successors.

 

THE QING EMPIRE NEVER FELL

 

On the other hand, the Qing Empire never fell. As the Soviet Union ironically replicated much of the nature and territorial claims of imperial Russia – with Stalin as the red Tsar – so too did Communist China with imperial China, particularly under Mao as red Emperor.

 

METEORIC RISE

 

If I count the Maurya Empire as having a meteoric rise, the Qing Empire had a more meteoric one.

As the Maurya Empire effectively was founded by conquering and replacing the former Nanda Empire, so too the Qing Empire rose to power by conquering and replacing the former Ming dynasty, in what is often dubbed the Ming-Qing transition (or Manchu conquest of China). Technically, that took 65 years, from 1618 when the Qing revolted as their own state in Manchuria, to 1683 when the remaining Ming holdouts fell to the Qing – but really, the heavy lifting of the Qing conquest of China was done in 18 years from 1644 to 1662.

 

THE SUN NEVER SETS

 

Although the Qing Empire was confined in physical extent to east Asia, it deserves its status as a world empire – its designation for itself as the Middle Kingdom or heart of the world not too far from the reality as a world unto itself, the world’s most populous state and largest economy

 

EVIL EMPIRE

 

While the modern view of Qing China tends to be closer to that of victim to Western powers, it can rank reasonably high as evil empire. Its original conquest of Ming China is estimated to have a death toll of at least 25 million. And it was seemingly indifferent to even higher death tolls to suppress the rebellions against it – although a casual indifference to loss of human life, even in the millions, was not unusual in either its predecessors or successors in China.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire (1) Territorial Empire

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Territorial empire rizz – the Qianlong Emperor in ceremonial armor on horseback, painted by Giuseppe Castiglione in 1739 (public domain image)

 

 

(1) TERRITORIAL EMPIRE

 

The most fundamental type of empire, as well as the primary one – both primary as in predominant in number but also as in first in time, with the very first imperial states in Mesopotamia being purely territorial empires.

Aren’t all empires territorial? That is, don’t all empires rule over territory or distinct land areas and populations outside its original border?

In short, yes. I’d say almost all empires have at least some territorial elements, with very few examples otherwise. However, some empires are more territorial than others, when territorial empires are defined as annexing or conquering contiguous or neighboring territory by land as opposed to sea.

Of my top ten empires, one is distinctively territorial – the Maurya empire. Four more might be added as overwhelmingly or predominantly territorial empires, in which naval power played little part. Probably the next most obvious is the Mongol empire, excluding its unsuccessful attempts by it for maritime conquest of Japan and Java – which perhaps illustrates just how territorial it was. The same might be said for the Qing empire, apart from its marginal annexation of Taiwan. Yes, it had a navy, which even became the largest in east Asia, but it sucked. Then there’s the Macedonian empire, except for the maritime transport for his army to cross the strait to Asia in the first place to start the conquests for which it is better known. If I’m counting the Macedonian empire as territorial, much the same goes for the Persian empire, although it relied much more on naval power in its imperial attempts on or relations with the Greeks.

Otherwise, the balance of my top ten empires is essentially more mixed in nature. Yes, even my top empire, the Roman Empire, as much as we usually visualize it as a territorial empire for its famed legions and roads or its contiguous appearance on a map. The Romans didn’t call the Mediterranean the Mare Nostrum for nothing, you know…

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Revised: New Meteoric Rise Rankings) (10) India – Maurya Empire

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India under Maurya rule c. 250 BCE (based on map p. 69 of Kulke, H.; Rothermund, D. (2004), A History of India, 4th, Routledge) by Avantiputra7 for “Maurya Empire” Wikipedia and licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 

 

(10) INDIA – MAURYA EMPIRE (321 – 185 BC)

 

The Maurya or Mauryan Empire ranks in top spot among Indian empires, mostly due to my fandom of its emperor Ashoka, held in semi-legendary regard as one of India’s (and history’s) greatest emperors, as well as the first state to rule almost the entire Indian subcontinent (except the southernmost part that consistently held out against other Indian empires except their own and the British).

The Indian subcontinent has seen the rise and fall of numerous empires that could well be the subject of their own top ten, even if most are little known outside Indian history – reflecting that they almost never extended beyond the subcontinent, at least in direct territorial extent. In fairness, the Indian subcontinent has always been virtually a world of its own, particularly as a proportion of world population and economy (the latter at least until the ascent of Europe).

There are a number of candidates for top spot among Indian empires. There’s the Gupta Empire, from the fourth to later sixth century (and therefore contemporary to the declining west Roman empire), often considered the golden age empire of classical Hindu India.

There’s the early modern Islamic Mughal (or Mogul or Moghul) Empire, which might well be considered the height of empire in pre-British India as well as that best known in general history, not least because it gave India its most iconic landmark, the Taj Mahal.

And of course there was the crown jewel of the British Empire that was the British Raj – although that is usually not ranked among Indian empires as such.

However, there can only be one empire for this entry and that is the Maurya empire, which one might consider the Roman Empire of India, or at least the equivalent of the rising imperial Roman republic with which it was a contemporary.

And its founder for which it was named, Chandragupta Maurya, ranks almost as highly in legendary esteem as Ashoka – or Rome’s Romulus for that matter – rising from humble origins from a cowherd and essentially to bandit leader to defeat the Nanda Empire (which had faced off none other than Alexander the Great) and forge his own empire instead.

Back to Ashoka, he extended the empire to its greatest extent before, as it is told, being sickened by the violence of the Kalinga War (against the Kalinga state on the Bay of Bengal), he converted to Buddhism and pacifism, thereafter ruling with legendary benevolence.

Although his empire extended only throughout the subcontinent, its influence extended well beyond that through his patronage of Buddhism and Buddhist missionaries, which arguably played the same role expanding that religion as Roman imperial state patronage did for Christianity.

One of Ashoka’s edicts proclaimed the territories “conquered by the Dhamma”, from the Buddhist term Dharma and reflecting the moral law or sphere of influence within Buddhism, to extend to the west through the Hellenistic kingdoms to Greece itself

The empire declined and fell within fifty years of his death, which shows you where pacifism gets you as an empire. In fairness, that was due as much to the subsequent line of succession, although it hasn’t stopped some historians alleging that Ashoka’s pacifism undermined the “military backbone” of the empire – while others assert that the extent or impact of his pacifism was “greatly exaggerated”.

 

 

Art of the Samath Lion Capital statue for Ashoka – the closest thing to a flag I could find for the Maurya Empire

 

DECLINE & FALL

 

Nothing to see here – it all fell apart quickly after Ashoka. That’s where pacifism gets you – I guess it’s a Darwinian world after all

 

THE MAURYA EMPIRE NEVER FELL

 

On the other hand, the Maurya Empire never fell – arguably having the most enduring influence of any Indian empire through its patronage of Buddhism.

 

METEORIC RISE

 

I rank the Maurya Empire as having a meteoric rise, but it’s hard to be sure as there are no contemporary records of the conquests and reach of empire by its founder, Chandragupta. On balance though, he seems to have conquered most of its full extent, in large part by conquering the former Nanda Empire, during his reign of 23 years or so from 320 BC to 297 BC. However, it reached its definitive greatest extent during the reign of his more famous grandson, Ashoka, from 268 BC to 232 BC, so it might well have been said to have risen over three generations (or about 88 years or so).

 

THE SUN NEVER SETS

 

The sun obviously set on the Maurya Empire, which was limited in physical extent, as almost all Indian Empires were, to the Indian subcontinent. However, I think it might properly be reckoned as a world empire, particularly in its “territory conquered by the Dhamma” or influence through Buddhism – a world religion on which the sun does not set.

 

EVIL EMPIRE

 

One of the few empires, at least under Ashoka’s legendary benevolence, that avoids the tag of evil empire, albeit arguably at the cost of its endurance.

In The Outline of History, H.G. Wells wrote “Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Ashoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star.”

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire

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Modern reconstruction of a Roman legion’s eagle or aquila standard, photographed by Matthias Kabel in Wikipedia “Aquila” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

 

 

TOP 10 TYPES OF EMPIRE

 

Given my interest in military history, it’s not surprising that I’ve also always found empires a fascinating subject of history, again from the fortunate perspective of being well removed from the sharp end of them. Empires are typically creatures of military conquest or power and rise and fall by war.

Hence, I’ve ranked my Top 10 Empires of history, but similarly to my Top 10 Wars, it doesn’t end there. No, indeed, just as I had my Top 10 Types of War, I also have my Top 10 Types of Empire, albeit the latter is not as distinctive or varied as the former in history. While empires do have broad types, or perhaps more precisely features, empires tend to be general practitioners rather than specialists and often are of overlapping types.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Revised with New Meteoric Rise Ranking!)

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“The Rhodes Colossus”, a cartoon by Edward Linley Sambourne published in Punch magazine in 1892

 

Given my interest in military history, it’s not surprising that I’ve also always found empires a fascinating subject of history, again from the fortunate perspective of being well removed from the sharp end of them. Empires are typically creatures of military conquest or power, and rise and fall by war.

Indeed, the two books that define my historical (and political) worldview are Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (yes – I know I’ve shortened the title for the latter) – so it’s not surprising that their subject matter, war and empires, also define my primary interests in history.

Not all empires are equal, however. Not even the same empire, as like the proverbial river of Heraclitus, you cannot step into the same empire twice.

Of course, that is perhaps implicit in their rise and fall, particularly when the fall of one empire is at the hands of the rise of another – such as when you have a tale of two empires, in a strikingly memorable phrase (for the 1945 Soviet offensive against Japan in Manchuria), one “at the absolute top of its game” and the other “dying and insane”.

So these are my Top 10 Empires of History. These are not ranked by how large, populous, rich, powerful or influential they are, but by my historical interest in them – although this tends to overlap with the former criteria. For example, of the ten largest historical empires by area at their greatest extent, all but two of them pop up in my Top 10 (with the other two in my special mentions).

Just some further notes, as with my Top 10 Wars, I have some ratings within each entry:

 

DECLINE & FALL

 

I have to admit that my particular interest in empires is not so much in their robust rise, but in their decline and fall. But again, not all empires are equal in their decline and fall. Some empires seem to collapse almost overnight, but others hold the line over incredible areas or incredible periods of time (or both), even rebounding or bouncing back. My interest is in the latter, so just how impressive or tenacious was each empire’s decline and fall?

 

THE EMPIRE NEVER FELL

 

On the other hand, rating the empires by their temporal span, particularly for that arguably never fell, or still haunt the world as ghosts or shadows.

 

METEORIC RISE

 

At the other end to the fall of empires is obviously their rise. Just as empires are not equal in their decline and fall, they are not equal in their rise. As its title indicates, this ranking rates empires by the meteoric nature of their rise, with the most meteoric being those empires that essentially rise to the full extent of their imperial power or close to it through a single founder or conqueror, as occurs uncannily often. It’s more nuanced than the “great man” theory of history but the rise of an empire often seems to hinge on the charismatic leadership, military skill, boldness, or good fortune of its founder. That often doesn’t bode well for the longevity of the empire after that – as often as not, that empire crumbles, falls apart, or fragments upon the death of its founder. Perhaps not surprisingly, the empires that have the more tenacious decline and fall of interest to me – or duration in general – tend to be those with a slow rise to power over generations or even centuries.

 

THE SUN NEVER SETS

 

Rating the wars by their geographic scale as world empire. It was famously said of one empire as descriptive of its extent that the sun never set on it. Actually it was said of at least one other empire before that, with precursors even before that, but never mind that now.

 

EVIL EMPIRE

 

Yes, yes – they’re all evil. But just how evil?

But seriously, no empire rises to or maintains its power by being nice. They do it by crushing their opponents or rebellious subjects – “they make a desolation and call it peace”. Hence rating how brutally or ruthlessly they did so – just how evil was each empire?

But also seriously, history usually does not repay moral judgements, particularly contemporary moral judgements. Almost every empire proclaims itself to be spreading civilisation or bringing some benefit to its subjects – and all but the most destructive have at least some merit in those claims. Empires were often the only means for any political unity above the tribal level, or indeed peace from inter-tribal warfare, although of course both were typically achieved by an imperial “tribe” or nation subjugating others, usually with great death or destruction, even if it subsequently absorbed or adopted the latter as citizens or soldiers of empire.

Also, prior to modern concepts of ethnic national self-determination, I tend to regard all polities as imperial in nature, at least in so far as they comprised any more than one ethnic group, and generally even in the case of more homogenous or tribal polities over their own members, in the absence of any concept of participatory representation.

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Books of the Odyssey

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The Odyssey as told in two images from the Nolan film trailer -he’s a good boy (fair use)

 

 

 

TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE ODYSSEY

 

Sing, Muse, of my Top 10 Books of the Odyssey.

 

After all, there are twenty-four of them, essentially the equivalent of modern chapters, hence more than enough for a top ten.

It gets more straightforward than that as the top four books are obvious. They’re the odyssey part of the Odyssey, often more formally titled the Wanderings of Odysseus. The otherworldly Odyssey. The mythic fantasy adventure Odyssey. What we think of when we think of the Odyssey.

In other words, the part for which most people come to or keep coming back to the Odyssey, or at least remember most about it, in the style of the trope Just Here For Godzilla in TV Tropes.

Except in the case of the Odyssey, Godzilla is the Cyclops, or the Sirens, or any or all of the mythic fantasy elements in Books 9-12, which recount the wanderings of Odysseus from Troy to Helios’ cattle. Interestingly, the contents of these books are the story within the story, told by Odysseus himself to the Phaeacians – which begs the question of how true it is, given Odysseus’s defining traits of deception and disguise.

But what books of the Odyssey do I rank in my top ten after Books 9-12? How do I rank Books 9-12 in my top four? And above all, which of Books 9-12 do I rank in top spot?

Well…

 

 

(1) BOOK 11 – KATABASIS (DESCENT TO THE UNDERWORLD)

 

All true heroes and poets go down into the underworld…

Yes, Book 11 is the single best book of the Odyssey, arguably its narrative and thematic crossroads that tie it all together. It is also the definitive core mythic heart of the Odyssey (within its most mythic part for the wanderings of Odysseus).

Yes, it may not be as action-packed as the other books for the wanderings of Odysseus, or lack the titillation of Circe and the Sirens. I mean, it’s essentially Odysseus just talking to dead people, but he went down to the underworld to do it. Have you gone down to the underworld – and more importantly, come back to tell the tale? I didn’t think so.

There’s a word for Book 11 – katabasis. A katabasis is a journey into the underworld, harrowing Hades as it were – “its original sense is usually associated with Greek mythology and classical mythology more broadly, where the protagonist visits the Greek underworld, also known as Hades”.

And yes, okay, Odysseus barely went into the underworld, a liminal katabasis as it were, certainly when compared with those of some other Greek heroes who went to the very heart of the underworld. I understand there is even some dispute whether he went to the highest part of the underworld, or simply “the lowest edge of the living world” bordering it.

And yes, yes, okay, there’s two words for Book 11 – katabasis and nekyia, the latter being necromancy and tending to involve a vision of the underworld rather than a visit to it. Although it’s not so much that the dead in general have any particular gift of prophecy in the Odyssey, but rather the shade of Tiresias which retains the gift of prophecy he had when he was alive. He just happens to be, you know, dead, so doesn’t do prophecy house calls any more.

However, it remains the first literary katabasis of classical mythology, inspiring in turn the katabasis of the Aeneid, which in turn inspired that of Dante’s Inferno (with the Aeneid’s author Virgil as guide to Dante).

Of course, everyone goes down into the underworld at some point – the trick is to come back.

 

 

(2) BOOK 12 – BETWEEN SCYLLA & CHARYBDIS (OR SIRENS & CATTLE)

 

Book 12 is where it all goes down – literally.

Book 12 is how and why he ends up alone with Calypso on her island or telling his wanderings to the Phaeacians, as literal flotsam and jetsam, sans his remaining ship and men.

Book 12 is the climax of his mythic wanderings – and the climactic destruction of his ship and men, because of their sacrilegious theft of the best cattle from the herds of Helios while Odysseus slept

Although forewarned about the dire consequence of their theft, they were starved for food from being marooned for a month on the island by bad weather – which is to say, by the gods. Odysseus himself was spared as he apparently did not eat the stolen cattle, despite his crew eating them for six days.

That’s not the only supernatural obstacle Odysseus faces in this book – just the final, fatal one for his crew. The book might be summarised as sailing between Scylla and Charybdis, both literally for those two monsters, and figuratively between opposing supernatural forces that threaten to pluck off some of his crew (like the Sirens) or to suck them down to total destruction with their ship (like the cattle of Helios). Although I suppose the Sirens might have well threatened the latter if Odysseus had not been forewarned about their song.

Interestingly, people seem to forget or omit that Odysseus faced Scylla and Charybdis twice – the first famously with his ship and crew, the second drifting on his own after the destruction of his ship and crew when the winds send him back through the two. Odysseus survives his makeshift raft being sucked down by Charybdis only by leaping to grab a tree on her rock and clinging to it until she spat the water with his raft back up again. From there, he drifted for nine days until he ended up on the Ogygia, the island of Calypso.

 

 

(3) BOOK 10 – THE WINDS, THE GIANTS AND THE WITCH

 

Everyone loves Circe.

Yes, she’s the witch part of this book. Sadly there’s no lion or wardrobe.

But seriously, she has been the subject of enduring fascination ever since her depiction in the Odyssey. In terms of Dungeons and Dragons schools of magic, she specialized in transmutation, hence her island of manimals and the pigs she makes from Odysseus’ crew, the former arguably a precursor to the Island of Doctor Moreau. Famously, she did a heel face turn from bad girl antagonist to Odysseus to good girl love interest. The Nolan film omitted the love interest part and the year spent on her island. The book ends with Circe directing Odysseus to the underworld (for his katabasis in Book 11).

The winds are of course a reference to the demi-god Aeolus, ruler of the winds. One of the most heartbreaking parts of the Odyssey is that Odysseus almost makes it home right at the start, courtesy of the divine (or semi-divine) help of Aeolus – until, as usual, his crew screw up. Aeolus literally bagged up all the winds other than the west wind to blow Odysseus home. Odysseus and his crew are literally within sight of home when Odysseus succumbs to sleep and his crew open up the bag of winds, thinking it to be gold. The winds take them all the way back to Aeolus – and Aeolus doesn’t give Odysseus a second chance, perceiving (correctly) that Odysseus is the subject of divinely ordained misfortune. The Nolan film omitted Aeolus.

The giants are the Laestrygonians – a tribe of man-eating giants that destroy all but Odysseus’ ship, or eleven out of twelve of his fleet, along with their crews. Only Odysseus ship survives, with all of his crew, because of his prudence in mooring it in a cove away from the island’s harbor. While the Nolan film retained them as giants, it clearly did so on the basis that the cyclops Polyphemus was man-eating giant enough and instead substituted them as armored figures, almost as emblematic of the encroaching Iron Age.

 

 

(4) BOOK 9 – CICONES, LOTUS-EATERS AND CYCLOPS

 

Yes – it’s the one with the Cyclops.

I might have ranked this book higher, perhaps even highest, reflecting that Odysseus’ encounter with the cyclops Polyphemus and his ruse of naming himself Nobody or Noman is probably the most famous episode from the Odyssey.

The fact that I ultimately preferred the underworld, Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, Helios’ cattle, Circe, Aeolus, and even those other cannibal giants, the Laestrygonians, just goes to show how epic the wanderings of Odysseus were.

Still, Polyphemus plays a fundamental part as the cause for the wanderings of Odysseus, in the curse upon Odysseus that he calls from his father Poseidon and essentially occurs – that Odysseus should not return home but if he did, that he should return alone having lost his men, in the ship of another, and to find his house full of woe.

Despite Odysseus’s hubris in taunting the cyclops with his true identity after escaping, the curse Polyphemus called down upon Odysseus seems inherently unfair – given Polyphemus own violation of sacred hospitality and the small matter of, you know, eating people. Sadly, the Nolan film does not adapt Odysseus’ ruse, or the subsequent taunt of his true identity.

However, Book 9 isn’t all about the cyclops. Prior to Polyphemus, Odysseus encounters the Cicones and the Lotus Eaters.

The Cicones are relatively mundane – Trojan allies that Odysseus and his men sack after leaving Troy, only to succumb to a counterattack while drunk at the plunder party and lose six men from each of his twelve ships. They’re not directly adapted in the Nolan film but are perhaps hinted at in the people being sacked by Odysseus and his men at the outset.

The Lotus Easters are more interesting, at least to me because of their adaptation into a poem by Tennyson that is something of a counterpoint to his poem Ulysses – and because they have lent themselves to a metaphor for “people who spend their time indulging in pleasure and luxury rather than dealing with practical concerns” ever since.

You wouldn’t think that people doped up to their eyeballs with lotus would pose such a threat but they do – albeit by assimilation into their state of narcotic intoxication and amnesia.

The Nolan film conflates the lotus-eaters with Odysseus himself on Calypso’s island – although I’m pretty sure she’s getting stuck into it too.

 

 

(5) BOOK 21 – CONTEST OF THE BOW (RETURN OF THE KING)

 

So what next after Books 9-12 of Odysseus’ mythic wanderings?

What else but Book 21 with the contest of the bow?

I mean, I don’t even have to say anything else as it has the most famous and iconic scene of the Odyssey outside of Odysseus’ wanderings – indeed, probably ranking up there with his wanderings or at least some of them.

It’s the penultimate scene of his triumphant homecoming – the ultimate scene is, of course, in my next entry.

You know the scene just from that description of it as the contest of the bow. Inspired by Athena, Penelope proposes that she will marry whichever suitor can string Odysseus’s bow and shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axe-heads. The suitors all fail. Odysseus, still disguised as a beggar, asks his turn and of course he does it.

And the book ends on a literally thunderous cliffhanger as Odysseus, no longer disguised as a beggar, faces off against the suitors with Telemachus by his side.

 

 

(6) BOOK 22 – FATE OF THE SUITORS (WRATH OF ODYSSEUS)

 

Yes king, slay!

Sometimes described as the slaying of the suitors, although personally I stand by that people missed the chance to mirror the wrath of Achilles from the first line of the Iliad and call it the wrath of Achilles.

While the Wanderings of Odysseus is the adventurous soul of the Odyssey – “I am become a name for always roaming with a hungry heart” – his Homecoming is its emotional core. Home is where the heart is – certainly Ithaca is where the heart of Odysseus is, as well as that of the Odyssey.

The Wanderings of Odysseus are his adventure; the Homecoming of Odysseus is his quest – the restoration of law or order over chaos, arguably of more thematic importance than even the adventurous odyssey.

And it is this book that is the ultimate scene of his triumphant homecoming, that ties it all together – after his revelation as Odysseus comes the revenge against the suitors.

It’s pretty epic as well – Odysseus against over a hundred suitors. Yes, Telemachus and two loyal servants join the fight (in the book as opposed to the Nolan film) but let’s face it – Odysseus does the heavy lifting, although Athena also appears in the battle (in her human disguise as Mentor) to give him a pep talk (and deflect spears thrown by the suitors).

However, one part of this book sits uneasily with modern readers – and modern viewers, hence its omission from modern adaptations such as the Nolan film – and that is Odysseus ordering his royal household maids to be slain for disloyalty. Telemachus comes off even worse than Odysseus, as at least Odysseus ordered a “clean death” by sword while Telemachus has them hanged instead.

 

 

(7) BOOK 5 – CALYPSO

 

After the opening build-up of the Telemachy in Books 1-4 – where’s Odysseus? – we finally see Odysseus and where he’s been for the last seven years, chilling as a beach bum and sleeping with hot sea nymph Calypso at nights on her island of Ogygia. Oh the humanity! I wish I was held “captive” by a sea nymph – who, by the way, offers him immortality if he stays with her.

In fairness, he does cry about it a lot, pining for his wife and home. Although it is funny that Odysseus spent eight of ten years “odysseying” shacked up with one nymph (Calypso) or another (Circe).

But no more! Athena finally does something to help Odysseus, interceding with Zeus to send Hermes to order Calypso to let Odysseus go. Unfortunately, Athena omitted to run his divine hall pass past Poseidon, who promptly sinks Odysseus’ raft. Odysseus is then saved by the sea goddess Ino and he safely reaches Phaeacia, albeit naked because that’s how true heroes roll.

Yes, it’s what I’d call the lesser wanderings of Odysseus – after the greater wanderings of Odysseus in Books 9-12 – but it’s still the wanderings of Odysseus. Also – nymphs!

 

(8) BOOK 6 – NAUSICAA

 

I have a soft spot for Nausicaa, princess of Phaeacia who comes to the aid of the thrice-shipwrecked Odysseus in this book, albeit with some divine guidance from Athena coming to her in a dream.

As I’ve observed elsewhere, at least in my Top 10 Girls of the Odyssey, it’s intriguing how much Odysseus depends on the kindness of women, divine or otherwise – Nausicaa and Athena here of course, but also Circe (albeit after a heel-face turn from antagonist), Calypso and Ino. Not to mention the enduring faithfulness and loyalty of Penelope.

Sadly, this book is skipped by Nolan’s film, which has Odysseus end up directly in Ithaca from Calypso’s island.

 

 

(9) BOOK 17 – ARGOS (WHO’S A GOOD BOY?)

 

Look, I’m not made of stone. I teared up when I saw the puppy in the Nolan film because I knew this scene was coming – Argos, the legendary best of good boys, who waited twenty years for his master Odysseus to come back home one last time before passing away.

 

It’s like the meme of Death taking away the dog:

“It is time to go”

“Was I a good boy?”

“No…I’m told you were the best”

 

Oh – and a bunch of other stuff happens, including both Telemachus and Odysseus returning to the palace, the latter disguised among the suitors as a beggar as his homecoming after twenty years.

But this entry is for Argos.

 

(10) BOOK 23 – ODYSSEUS & PENELOPE

 

As I said, I’m not made of stone. Yes, Odysseus has triumphed in the trials and tribulations of his homecoming, the contest of the bow and the battle with the suitors – but he faces one last test – Penelope herself.

Penelope hasn’t held the line for twenty years of his absence because she’s an idiot – on the contrary, she’s as wary and wily as Odysseus himself, so she gives him one last test to prove himself to her, invoking the secret knowledge of their marital bed known only to the two of them. Odysseus of course knows the secret and so at last they are reunited.

This might seem odd to those who have only seen the Nolan film as Penelope was present for the contest of the bow and the battle with the suitors – and, well, I prefer that climactic and emotive revelation. That turn of her head as Odysseus strings the bow – chef’s kiss. However, her final test to him makes sense in the original literary version as she was not present for those, having been whisked off to her chamber (and put to sleep by Athena) to keep her safe in the impending violence with the suitors.