Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity

Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity offers an integrated picture of Rome China Iran and the Steppes during a formative period of world history. In the half millennium between 250 and 750 CE settled empires underwent deep structural changes while various nomadic peoples of the steppes (Huns Avars Turks and others) experienced significant interactions and movements that changed their societies cultures and economies.This was a transformational eraa time when Roman Persian and Chinese monarchs were mutually aware of court practices and when Christians and Buddhists criss-crossed the Eurasian lands together with merchants and armies. It was a time of greater circulation of ideas as well as material goods. This volume provides a conceptual frame for locating these developments in the same space and time. Without arguing for uniformity it illuminates the interconnections and networks that tied countless local cultural expressions to far-reaching inter-regional ones.