角川まんが学習シリーズ 世界の歴史 3 秦・漢とローマ──古代の大帝国 紀元前二〇〇~紀元後四〇〇年

角川まんが学習シリーズ 世界の歴史 #3

by 羽田 正

ユーラシア各地で、皇帝が広大な領域と多様な人々を統治する「帝国」が誕生した時代です。特に、東の漢と西のローマは、古代における帝国の代表で、安定した社会と秩序が長く維持されました。この二つの帝国の影響は、現代の東アジアとヨーロッパの政治の仕組みや社会の構造にまで及んでいます。また、この時期には、西アジアで生まれたキリスト教が発展し、ローマ帝国との結び付きを強めました。

Tankobon Hardcover

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series. History is easy to understand when people are acting it out for you.

The endless warring kingdoms in China is extremely frustrating—a few greedy narcissists time and again screw things up for the silent majority. And this is where the cyclical theory of history comes from. Because almost from the get go its “Not this sh*t again.” But we do learn a lot about Confucius and his philosophy.

The saddest part of this volume for me was the story of the Roman brothers’ efforts to reform the Roman Republic, by trying to grant more rights and allocate some property to the people, but being thwarted every time by the wealthy aristocrats and senators. The brothers’ reforms towards a more egalitarian society were the last hope for preservation of the Roman Republic, but again and again the rich aristocrats put their money ahead of the best interests of their country.

Sound familiar?

Maybe the Chinese were right, History really is cyclical… On to Volume 4.