Daily Archives: October 26, 2026

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Empire & Imperialism (Special Mention) (16) Roman Imperial Metric

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Napoleon in coronation robes – painting by Framcois Gerard (public domain)

 

 

(16) ROMAN IMPERIAL METRIC

 

But is it a Roman Empire?

Yes, that’s a gag, prompted by my Top 10 Roman Empires, which was also something of a gag.

But seriously, the Roman Empire endured as an imperial metric or template for subsequent empires, particularly in its former territory in Europe or Mediterranean basin – and particularly for those empires, as featured in my special mentions for my Top 10 Roman Empires, that claimed succession from the Roman Empire.

“The continuation, succession, and revival of the Roman Empire is a running theme of the history of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. It reflects the lasting memories of power and prestige associated with the Roman Empire. Several polities have claimed immediate continuity with the Roman Empire, using its name or a variation thereof as their own exclusive or non-exclusive self-description. As centuries went by and more political ruptures occurred, the idea of institutional continuity became increasingly debatable”.

So yes, there’s a recurring Roman imperial metric among empires, either comparing themselves (or being compared) to the classical Roman empire or claiming succession from it – however tenuously, as for example with the Spanish Empire (both in comparison and succession) or the British Empire (in comparison). While that is generally for European or Mediterranean empires, that metric is sometimes extended to other empires, albeit usually European in origin – as for example with the Russian Empire or the United States.

There’s arguably an even wider Roman imperial metric – its metric or template of decline and fall, that “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating to the breath of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world”.

Just as many looked to the Roman Empire as their state or imperial model, with kingdoms or states purporting to succeed or revive it in one form or another thereafter, even more look to its decline and fall. Even now, the decline and fall of the Roman Empire informs much modern discourse about state failure – from Edward Gibbon onwards, “we have been obsessed with the fall: it has been valued as an archetype for every perceived decline, and, hence, as a symbol for our own fears”.

The fashionable contemporary Roman imperial metric, particularly in decline and fall, is with the United States – as Adrian Goldsworthy noted in the introduction to his book “How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower”, where he dismisses it as cliché, one which he entertainingly relates that he is routinely accosted at dinner parties when he informs someone of his historical speciality.

There’s also another Roman imperial metric that seems to pop up in actual comparative history – that between the Roman Empire and Imperial China, whether the Han Dynasty that was contemporary with the classical Roman Empire or the continuity of China as imperial polity in general.

The Roman imperial metric in comparison with China was notably drawn by Walter Scheidel in his book “Escape from Rome” – where he distinguished the unique Roman achievement of its imperial unity in Europe and of the Mediterranean, not replicated before or since (not even by the Byzantine or eastern Roman Empire), from the more continuous and enduring imperial polity in China, albeit in successive dynasties.

And that’s a good thing. In short, the thesis of this book is that the fall of Rome led to the Great Divergence – that divergence of “political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs that allowed Europe to surge ahead while other parts of the world lagged behind”. Essentially, that’s because of “competitive fragmentation”, both within states and perhaps more fundamentally between them, with “the enduring failure of empire-building” and no single state ever able to rise to Rome’s imperial predominance in Europe. The main contrast is with China as polar opposite, with its consistent unitary imperial states, with the other Eurasian civilizations between them geographically also falling between them on this political scale of Rome vs China.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Empires (Special Mention: Revised) (16) Africa – Ethiopian Empire

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The Ethiopian Empire in 1952 by Amde Michael – Wikipedia “Ethiopian Empire” licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

 

(16) AFRICA – ETHIOPIAN EMPIRE 

 

“By the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Elect of God”

Iron like a Lion in Zion!

Special mention shout-out for the empires of sub-Saharan Africa – of which there are a plethora from which to choose.

The Ethiopian Empire may not seem an obvious first choice – with the Mali Empire, under Mansu Musa, reputed to be the richest man in history, and the Songhai Empire, vying for the wealthiest and largest empires in Africa respectively.

However, the Ethiopian Empire was the longest lasting empire in Africa, enduring seven centuries from the Middle Ages in 1270(!) to the Cold War, with its messianic emperor Haile Selassie one of the last reigning emperors in history, deposed in 1974(!!) by communist revolution. Ethiopia was one of the last countries in the world to have the title for emperor as its head of state, along with Iran and Japan (as well as another empire we’ll mention later in these special mentions) – which left Japan as the only such nation after the 1970s.

Well longest-lasting apart from its enigmatic predecessor, the kingdom of Aksum, which is said to have lasted eight centuries from 100 AD to 900 AD and was styled as one of the great powers of antiquity.

Back to the Ethiopian Empire, sometimes styled as Abyssinia, it has a history that is almost literally the stuff of legend and literally the stuff of religion – starting with its imperial dynasty known as the Solomonic Dynasty, claiming descent from the last Aksumuite king and ultimately the Biblical duo of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba themselves, tracing Sheba to Ethiopia.

With that Biblical pedigree, it remained staunchly committed to its ancient form of Christianity, despite being surrounded by hostile forces in the Horn of Africa, often identified as the source of the European legend of the mysterious non-European Christian monarch Prester John.

It’s odd to think of Ethiopian crusades against Islamic armies to become the dominant power of the Horn of Africa but that’s effectively what happened – and not too far in time from European crusades.

It’s also odd to think of Ethiopia in decline after that then warding off Islamic invasions, firstly with the help of the Portuguese – and then on their own against the Ottomans. It lost its Red Sea coast to the Ottomans – but then had its golden age, before falling into its own version of a shogunate.

It’s again odd to think of the Ethiopian Empire as an imperial participant in the Scramble for Africa but it was – an expansionist power like the Zulus earlier, expanding into the modern borders of Ethiopia and defeating a rival European power, the Italians pushing down from Eritrea in the Battle of Adwa in 1896, but making it stick unlike the Zulus and preserving their independence, the only African nation to do so (apart from Liberia).

Of course, the Italians famously took another swing at it under Mussolini and won in a strange throwback to the Scramble for Africa, occupying Ethiopia until being defeated there by the British in the Second World War, which saw Emperor Haile Selassie return from exile.

Finally, it’s odd to see its last emperor – the same Haile Selassie – again become the stuff of legend and religion, as he was hailed as a literally messianic figure, the returned Messiah of the Bible, by the Rastafarian religious movement and reggae, hence the quotes opening this entry. To play on an old gag, they saw the God-Emperor of Mankind – and he was black.

Until of course the less poetically named Derg, essentially a military junta, decided he was not the Messiah but just a very naughty boy – and chose the religion of Marxist-Leninism instead.