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“During the fourth century of the Common Era, both great Eurasian empires were threatened with permanent dissolution. The empires founded by Augustus in 74 C.E. and Shih huang-ti in 221 B.C.E. each faced invasion by peoples termed ‘barbarians’ and had, as a result, suffered significant reductions in imperial size, wealth, and even legitimacy….” Yang Chien and Justinian the Great both did pretty well at winning back territory, but Justinian’s successors couldn’t keep it, losing Egypt, Syria, the Balkans, North Africa, and Mesopotamia. Europe and China turned out very differently. “While the T’ang emperors ruled all of China, the Roman Emperor… ruled over little more than Greece and the city of Constantinople. The modern world would be dominated by the technological and military ambitions of the European nations that replaced the Roman superstate.” (page 4)
