Sino-Roman World-Conquering Thearchs

Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-sixty-second issue:

“Divine Support and World Conquest in the Stele Inscriptions of Qin Shi Huangdi and the Res Gestae of Augustus,” by Dan Zhao. https://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp362_qin_shi_huangdi_augustus_propaganda.pdf ABSTRACT This paper comparatively examines the propaganda of the first emperors of China and Rome, Qin Shi Huangdi and Augustus. Focusing on the interplay between divine support and claims of world conquest and utilising the Qin stelae and the Res Gestae Divi Augusti as case studies, this paper will argue that both early imperial Chinese and Roman propaganda shared extremely similar rationales and methods. Divine support and military victories were intimately linked and mutually dependent. As such, the emperors' claims to unprecedented levels of divine support also impelled them to claim successful world conquest, lest the very ideological foundations of their regimes be called into question.

—– Keywords: Qin Shi Huangdi; Qin stelae; Augustus; Res Gestae; ancient propaganda; Sino-Roman comparative studies

All issues of Sino-Platonic Papers are available in full for no charge. To view our catalog, visit http://www.sino-platonic.org/

 

Selected readings

• "Hu Shih and God: thearchs across Eurasia" (12/28/24)
• "The transcendent, cosmic language of the Book of Changes" (12/28/24)
• "Latin oration at Harvard" (5/9/24)
• "Alexandrian Motifs in Chinese Texts", by E. Bruce Brooks, Sino-Platonic Papers, 96 (June, 1999), 1-14.
• "Cratylus Sinensis—Reading Plato with Dong Zhongshu on ‘Correctness’ in Naming", by Martin Svensson Ekström, forthcoming in Sino-Platonic Papers.