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A universal monarchy is a concept and political situation in which one monarchy is deemed to have either sole rule or a special supremacy over all other states (or at least all the states in a geopolitical area).
The concept has arisen in Ancient Egypt, Asia, Europe, and Inca Empire. It may have appeared, particularly in pre-modern times, that the dominant superpower in a region seemed to rule over the entire world, but in practice, there has never been a universal monarchy.
Some philosophers in the Middle Ages, such as Nicole OresmeMastnak, Tomaž. Crusading peace: Christendom, the Muslim world, and Western political order University of California Press, (2002), p 329. and Erasmus,Persson, Hans-Åke and Stråth, Bo. Reflections on Europe: defining a political order in time and space. Peter Lang. (2007), pp. 51–52 were critical of the concept, whereas the Orientalism Guillaume Postel was more favourable of the concept.Kuntz, Marion Leathers, Guillaume Postel, prophet of the restitution of all things: his life and thought, Springer, (1981), p. 171 Universal monarchy is frequently associated with Dante's De Monarchia; although he used the term "universal monarchy" one time, what he actually argued for was a universal empire. Protestants generally rejected the concept, identifying it with Catholicism.Simms, Brendan & Riotte, Torsten (Editors), The Hanoverian dimension in British History, 1714–1837, Cambridge University Press, (2007), pp. 168–169. Immanuel Kant anticipated that a universal monarchy would suffer from either a "soulless despotism"Kant, I., Perpetual Peace, translated by Lewis White Beck (1795; Indianapolis, 1957), p. 31 or "frequent civil strife" occasioned by partisan attempts to break away.Rawls, J., (1993), The Law of Peoples, in Critical Inquiry, no. 20, p. 46, accessed on 12 April 2025 Kant did, however, acknowledge that some form of "federative union" might be viable. John Rawls mentions David Hume, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Edward Gibbon as other authors opposed to the idea of a universal monarchy.
The Pharaoh was believed to be the Son of the Sun and to rule all things under the sun. The ascent of a pharaoh was associated with the sunrise. The same verb translated as "dawned" was used for the ascent of king and the rising of the sun.James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt. Historical Documents from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, London: Forgotten Books, 1988, vol II, p 24. On Abydos Stelae, Thutmose I claimed: "I made the boundaries of Egypt as far as the sun encircles ... Shining like Ra ... forever." Ancient Records of Egypt, 2/98, p 40. The sun symbolized universality both in space and time. The Story of Sinuke expresses both: May all the gods "give you eternity without limits, infinity without bonds! May the fear of you resound in lowlands and highlands, for you have subdued all that the sun encircles." Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Reading, ed. Miriam Lichtheim, London: University of California Press, vol I, p 230.
The genre of Regnal list was introduced into the Egyptian tradition during the reign of Unas of the Fifth Dynasty (2385–2355 BC). The ideological purpose of the genre was to stress the pharaoh's royal universality as the only legitimate king stretching back in an unbroken succession to the time of gods.Amelie Kuhrt, The Ancient Near East c. 3000 – 330 BC, London & New York: Routledge, 1995, vol I, p 31. The contemporary Mesopotamian civilization had a much weaker tradition of universal monarchy, but it also developed a king list to legitimize their royalty as universal monarchs. Mesopotamian kings did not claim to rule all that the sun encircles, but they did claim to be "King of the Four Corners" of the world and "King of the Inhabited World".P. Michalowski, "Memory and deed: The historiography of the political expansion of the Akkad state", Akkad: The First World Empire: Structure, Ideology, Traditions, ed. Mario Liverani, Padua: Palgrave, 1993, pp. 88–89.
According to the Sumerian King List, kingship descended from heaven twice, before and after the Flood myth; in the second attempt, it was received into the city of Kish. When Kish eventually declined in power, the status "King of Kish" obtained the meaning of King of the Universe without geographic sense. The term was used by dominant Mesopotamian monarchs from Sargon of Akkad (c. 2334–2279 BC) to the Seleucid Empire king Antiochus I Soter (281–261 BC).
The idea of a sole sovereign emperor would re-emerge in the West with Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire.Bryce, James The Holy Roman Empire p. 209 The idea of the Holy Roman Empire possessing special sovereignty as a universal monarchy was respected by its surrounding powers and subject states, even while the empire was weakened by severe fragmentation.Brissaud, Jean A History of French Public Law John Murray (1915) p. 77 Frederick III's iconic phrase "All the world is subject to Austria" is an expression of the idea that all states are subject to one monarchy. The medieval hierocrats argued that the Pope was a universal monarch, rather than the emperor.
Charles V's empire encompassing much of western Europe and the Americas "was the nearest the post-classical world would come to seeing a truly worldwide monarchy, and hence the closest approximation to universal imperium."Armitage, David The Ideological Origins of the British Empire Cambridge University Press (2000) p. 32 It was envisaged by its supporters as a world empire that could be religiously inclusive.Ocker, Christopher; Printy, Michael; Starenko, Peter (Editors) Politics and Reformations: Communities, Politics, Nations, and Empires Brill Academic Publishers (2007), 495.
The idea of a universal monarchy based on predominance rather than actual total rule would later become synonymous with France attempting to establish hegemony over western Europe.Simms, Brendan & Riotte, Torsten (Editors) The Hanoverian dimension in British History, 1714–1837 Cambridge University Press (2007) p. 168 Louis XIV, stylized as the "Sun King" around which all the other monarchs were subordinate satellites, exemplified the universal monarch. In 1755, during the reign of his successor Louis XV, Duke Adrien Maurice de Noailles, a member of the Council of State and formerly a key foreign policy advisor to the king, warned of a British challenge for "the first rank in Europe" through the domination of Atlantic commerce. Noailles wrote, "However chimerical the project of universal monarchy might be, that of a universal influence by means of wealth would cease to be a chimera if a nation succeeded in making itself sole mistress of the trade of America."
Monarchy was strong in Russian Empire. The Russian monarchy was Orthodox, Autocracy, and possessed a vast contiguous empire throughout Europe and Asia, making it similar in some ways to Byzantine rule.Gavrov, Sergey [2] Modernization of the Empire. Social and Cultural Aspects of Modernization Processes in Russia URSS (2004) p. 50 [3]
The British monarchy was "Protestant, commercial, maritime and free"see Armitage, David The Ideological Origins of the British Empire Cambridge University Press (2000) and was not composed of contiguous territory, drawing comparisons to the Spanish Empire. Both were "empires on which the sun never sets." But where Catholicism provided ideological unity for the Spanish Empire, British Protestant diversity would lead to "disunity rather than unity".Armitage, David The Ideological Origins of the British Empire Cambridge University Press (2000) p. 66 An Imperial Federation was later promoted by Joseph Chamberlain to provide unity through economic control.
Napoleon came close to creating a universal monarchy with his continental system and Napoleonic Code, but he failed to conquer all of Europe. Following the Battle of Jena when Napoleon overwhelmed Prussia, it seemed to Fichte that the universal monarchy was inevitable and close at hand. He found a "necessary tendency in every civilized state" to expand and traced this tendency to antiquity. An "invisible" historical spirit, he posed, runs through all epochs and urges states onward toward that goal. "As the States become stronger in themselves... the tendency towards a Universal Monarchy over the whole Christian World necessarily comes to light."Fichte, "Characteristics of the Present Age," 1806, Theory and Practice of the Balance of Power, 1486-1914: Selected European Writings, (ed. Moorhead Wright, London: Rowman & Littlefield, 1975), pp. 87–89.
The last attempt to create a European universal monarchy was that attempted by Imperial Germany in World War I. "If Germany is victorious", thought Woodrow Wilson in 1917, "the German Kaiser would have been suzerain over most of Europe".Fischer, Fritz. Germany's Aims in the First World War. (1967)Niall, Ferguson, Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (1999).
Published after World War I, The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler proposes a theory of global "Caesarism" (an authoritarian, populist, and autocratic form of government inspired by Julius Caesar's reign). Spengler writes that the formation of the "battling society of nations" marks the beginning of every civilization. This society ends by contest "for the heritage of the whole world." The strongest race wins and seizes the management of the world. At the same time, an "accelerating demolition of ancient political forms leaves the path clear to Caesarism." Spengler argues that Caesarism is an inevitable product of such an age. Democracy struggles against the rise of Caesarism, but inevitably, the latter will prevail. The transition from "Napoleonism to Caesarism" is an evolutionary stage universal to every culture that takes about two centuries. Spengler applied his theory to three "ages": he argues that the cycle began in China circa 600 BC, in the Mediterranean circa 450 BC, and in the modern world circa 1700. The culmination of Caesarism occurred in China with the First Emperor, and in the Mediterranean with Sulla and Pompey. In the modern world - Spengler predicted - it was still forthcoming, but global Caesarism was likely to appear in "one century"; the Spenglerian century ended in 2022.Spengler, Oswald (1922). The Decline of the West: Perspectives on World-History
Imperial China was regarded by its citizens as a universal monarchy, and all other monarchs were regarded as tributaries. This is reflected in the Chinese name for the state which survives to this day, Zhongguo, meaning "Middle/Central Kingdom". Even during the centuries-long period of independent states (771–221 BC), the Zhou-period concept of universal monarchy remained unchallenged, and no significant movements for national identity or independence developed:
The inscription of the First Emperor of China said: "Wherever life is found, all acknowledge his suzerainty."Chris Peers, Warlords of China, 700 BC to AD 1662, London: Oxford, 1998, p 95. This Sinocentric paradigm survived until the 19th century. When George III of Great Britain proposed establishing trading contacts, the Chinese declined, because "the Celestial Empire, ruling all within the four seas ... does not have the slightest need of your country's manufactures." They added that George III must act in conformity with their wishes, strengthen his loyalty and swear perpetual obedience.Cited in Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, New York: Perseus Books, 1997, pp. 14–15.
The Chinese concept of universal monarchy was taken up by the Mongol Empire,Marshall, Robert Storm from the East: from Genghis Khan to Khubilai Khan University of California Press (1993) p. 156Sicker, Martin The Islamic world in ascendancy: from the Arab conquests to the siege of Vienna Greenwood Press (2000) p. 107 who under Genghis Khan were able to enforce the concept more widely than China. The Chinese Son of Heaven also contributed to a counterpart in Japan, and in some aspects, the Japanese made their monarchy more universal. The Chinese emperor was bound to the Mandate of Heaven, but no such mandate existed for the Tenno. Descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu in the immemorial past, one Dynasty is supposed to rule Japan forever. The Chinese ended their dynastic cycle in 1911; the Japanese Dynasty continues until the present day and is the oldest active dynasty in the world, albeit Douglas MacArthur un-deified it in 1945.
The Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain concept of the Chakravartin exemplifies the ideal of a universal monarch.Bhandarkar, D. R. Lectures on the Ancient History of India from 650–325 B.C. University of Calcutta (1919) pp. 85–86Beér, Robert The encyclopedia of Tibetan symbols and motifs Serindia Publications 2nd Revised edition(2004) pp. 160–161
In Shia Islam, the concept of the Imamate is comparable to the Sunni Caliphate, but it is not identical. The Shia Imam is considered to be both the spiritual and the secular leader of the Ummah; therefore, the Imam holds authority over policy and administration, and is the ismah final arbiter in the interpretation of Sharia and aqidah. Like the Sunni Caliph, the Shia Imam's authority as a monarch is considered universal. The Imamate is tied to the Ahl al-Bayt; dynasties that claim the Imamate also claim descent from Muhammad via Ali and Fatimah, and pass the title of Imam down from father to son, with different Shia denominations following different lineages. For example, the Twelver Shia Muslims follow the line of the Twelve Imams, of whom the last has supposedly been in occultation since the 9th century CE; in contrast, the Nizari Shia Muslims follow a different and still-living line of Imams, of whom the Aga Khan V is the current head.
For example, in ancient Egypt, the Great Hymn to the Aten dated during the reign of Akhenaten of the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1353–1336 BC) reads: The "tongues of peoples differ in speech, their characters likewise; their skins are distinct, for Aten distinguished the peoples." But Aten is said to care for all of them: "In all lands of the world, you set every man in his place, you supply their need, everyone has his food..." Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol 1, p 98. A book titled Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal Rulers... and Cultural Integration in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean concludes: "The cosmopolitanisms which emerged in the concerned regions in the Axial Age were products of universal monarchies."Lavan, p 12.
Amy Chua emphasized cosmopolitanism and tolerance as imperial cement in her comparative research of hyperpowers. Most of the hyperpowers she selected happen to be universal monarchies.Chua, Amy (2007). Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall. (New York: Doubleday), p XXV-XXVII. Her ex-compatriot, Sunny Auyang, also finds several good cases for the thesis that the expansion and endurance of empire is a function of its cosmopolitan openness and tolerance.Auyang, Sunny Y. (2014). The Dragon and the Eagle: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese and Roman Empires
The Persian universal monarchs tolerated the cultures, languages, and religions of the subordinated peoples and supported local religious institutions.Myles Lavan, Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal Rulers, Local Elites, and Cultural Integration in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, p 18. The gateway complex to the royal acropolis was called "The Gate of All Nations."Gojko Barjamovic (2012). "Propaganda and practice in Assyrian and Persian imperial culture." Universal Empire: A Comparative Approach to Imperial Culture and Representation in Eurasian History. (Eds. Peter Fibiger Bang & Dariusz Kołodziejczyk. Cambridge University Press), p. 47. Local elites were integrated into the imperial administration.Brien, Pierre (2002). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. (tr. Daniels, Peter T. Indiana: Eisenbrauns) p 79. The founder of the Empire, Cyrus the Great, expressed cosmopolitanism on a scale unknown in previous Assyrian and Babylonian empires.Masroori, C. (1999). "Cyrus II and the political utility of religious toleration". Religious Toleration: "The Variety of Rites" from Cyrus to Defoe. (Ed. Laursen, J. C. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312222338). pp. 13-15. He ceased their policy of mass deportations and allowed deported peoples to return to their lands and restore their temples. His Cyrus Cylinder only mentions peoples deported from eastern regions of the Babylonian Empire, but the policy was not limited to them. Jews also returned from the Babylonian captivity to their land and restored their Second Temple. The attitude of the Hebrew Prophets changed from hatred of previous empires (such as Assyria and Babylon) to glorification of the Persians, titling Cyrus the Great as "The God's Messiah."Moshe Weinfeld (1986). "The protest against imperialism in ancient Israelite prophecy." The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations
Mauryan Emperor Ashoka did not favour Buddhism at the expense of other religions, nor differentiated among social and ethnic groups.Patrick Olivelle (2024). "Imperial ideology and religious pluralism in the Asokan inscriptional corpus." Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
Alexander the Great introduced a multi-ethnic Ecumene principle of rule that extended beyond pan-Hellenism. He planned to found the capital of his empire in Babylon to promote a collaborative governance of the realm, placing Persians on par with his own people.Gruen, Erich S. (2011). Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), p 75. All three of his official wives were non-Greek, and he encouraged intermarriages among his subordinates as well. Nearly one hundred such international marriages were reportedly celebrated at Susa.Gruen, Erich S. (2011). Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), pp. 69-71.
Following the rise of Alexander to universal monarch, Stoicism became the dominant school of Hellenistic philosophy. The Stoics articulated a form of Greek citizenship that united people who had been, until then, separated by polis borders. Its founder, Zeno of Citium (c. 334 – c. 262 BC), advised that inhabitants of all poleis should form "one way of life and one order."Lavan 2016, p 7. Stoics were radically cosmopolitan by contemporary standards. They did not differentiate between the Greeks and barbariansMason Hammond (1951). City-State and World State in Greek and Roman Political Theory until Augustus
Cosmopolitanism also flourished under the universal monarchy of Tibet. Buddhism was introduced into China under the Han dynasty. The Tang dynasty saw the influx of thousands of foreigners who came to live in Chinese commercial hub cities. Expatriates spilled in from all over Asia and beyond, with a bounty of people from Persia, Arabia, India, Korea, and Southeast and Central Asia. Chinese cities became bustling epicenters of commerce and trade, abundant in foreign residents and the plethora of cultural riches that they brought with them.Lewis, Mark Edward (2009). China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. (Harvard University Press), p 163. A census taken in 742 AD showed that the foreign proportion of the registered population had massively increased from nearly a quarter in the early seventh century to nearly half by the mid seventh century, with an estimated 200,000 foreigners in residence in Canton alone. Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism were practiced undisturbed in China, as well as in Japan, where the three coexisted with Shinto.
The Mongols were famous for their religious pluralism and tolerance for diverse religious and philosophical beliefs. They practiced multicultural politics based on the recognition that the peoples under their rule would have their own laws, religions, and customs. The Mongol administration was multi-ethnic and multi-religious.Biran, Michal (2024). "Religions in the Mongol Empire revisited: Exchanges, conversion, consequences." Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
The view of Dante has been popular in world history. Universal monarchies dominate the lists of periods of regional peace and Pax imperia. The Roman universal monarchy is known for Pax Romana and Ara Pacis Augustae; the Chinese for Pax Sinica and Twelve Metal Colossi. Such testaments of founding universal monarchs as Cyrus Cylinder, Edicts of Ashoka, Steles of Qin Shi huang and Res Gestae glorify peace or non-violence.
Pacifist creeds, such as Buddhism, Stoicism and Christianity, were products of universal monarchies. The Han dynasty favored Confucianism and Daoism over the Chinese equivalent of realpolitik,Kallinikos, Panagiotis (2023). "Political Realism in the Chinese Warring States Period and the European Renaissance: Han Fei and Machiavelli." Conatus: Journal of Philosophy. Vol. 8 (1): p. 127. Legalism. The creeds advanced by universal monarchs have many pacifist elements in common. Compliance is preferable over resistance, self-depreciation over pride, and self-denial over self-assertion. In the face of injustice, humility is best. Asceticism strives to become a prime virtue.Wesson, Robert G. (1967). The Imperial Order. (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 402. Having smashed all their rivals, universal monarchs preached peace, advanced pacifist creeds, and on one occasion (Ashoka) expressed a regret: "It is considered very painful and deplorable by the Beloved of the Gods" to attain the universal rule by mass slaughter, confessed Ashoka.Patrick Olivelle (2024). "Imperial ideology and religious pluralism in the Asokan inscriptional corpus." Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
In the earliest in history universal monarchy, Egypt, “when the gods inclined to peace,” they decided to “established their son... to be ruler of every land.” Ancient Records of Egypt. Historical Documents from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest. (ed. Breasted, James Henry 1988. London), vol 4/398—400: p 198-200. Having become universal, Egyptian kings expressed less militarism and more pacifism. The royal names in the Second Dynasty (c. 2890 – 2663 BC) abandoned the element of fighting — Horus the fighter, Horus the strong, or arm-raising Horus —and introduced pacifist names — Horus: the two powers are at peace (Hotepsekhemwy) and Horus and Seth: the two powers have arisen; the two lords are at peace in him (Khasekhemwy).Toby Wilkinson (1999). Early Dynastic Egypt. (London: Routledge), p 202.Toby Wilkinson (2000). “What a King is this: Narmer and the concept of the ruler.” The Journal of Egyptian Archeology, vol 86: p 25. The concepts of pacifying and calming the Two Lands of Egypt and of the imperial periphery “craving for peace” and "bearing peace” may be found passim in all forms of ancient Egyptian literature. Ancient Records of Egypt. Historical Documents from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest. (ed. Breasted, James Henry 1988. London), vol 2/I51: p 64; 1032: p 424; vol 3/148, p 148; 408: p 179-180; 414: p 182; 498, p 213; vol 4/43: p 24; 151, p 64.Mario Liverani (1990). Prestige and Interest: International Relations in the Near East ca. 1600-1100 BC. (Padova: Palgrave), p 145.Redford, Donald B. (1995). Pharaonic King Lists, Annals and Day Books: A Contribution to the Study of Egyptian Sense of History. (Ontario: Beaben), p 146.
The Neo-Assyrian visual program broadcast forceful annexation. This changes under the Persian level of universality. Besides the Behistun Inscription, the Achaemenid art is devoid of scenes of might and aggression. It does not depict particular historical moments or events but rather features of timeless, universal monarchy. The Achaemenid carvings reflect the visual program of Persepolis illustrating "the cooperative, harmonious and voluntary support of the empire by its constituents."Ehrenberg, Erica (2012). "Dieu et mon droit: Kingship in late Babylonian and early Persian times,"
In China, the first universal monarch of the post-Warring States period "confiscated the weapons of the world, collected them together... and at smelt them into bells and bell-racks, as well as twelve bronze statues."Sima Qian, 6:239. Complementing the destruction of arms was the empire-wide leveling of city walls and other obstructions of military importance. Mount Chieh-shih inscription from 215 BC described the historic mission of the First Emperor: “He has been the first to achieve a single great peace. He has demolished the inner and outer walls of cities."Twitchett, Denis Crispin & Michael Loewe (1986). The Cambridge History of China. Qin and Han Empires, 221 BC – AD 220. (Cambridge University Press), vol 1, p 56. The whole world, explained the First Emperor, had suffered from endless wars and battles, because there were numerous independent kings. "They celebrated a great bacchanal... Thanks to my ancestors, the Empire has been pacified for the first time." The "black-haired live at peace, with no use for the weapons and armor." The world has attained "harmony and peace." Restore independent kings, however, and war returns.Sima Qian, 6:239, 243, 247, 252, 254, 255, 261, 271, 280-283. Seventy scholars praised the achievement: Now "everything within the seas has been pacified... and all men are at peace and suffer none of the disasters of warfare."Derk Bodde (1967). China's First Unifier: A Study in the Qin Dynasty as Seen in the Life of Li Ssu, 280?-208 BC. (Hong Kong University Press), p 80-81.
Ammianus Marcellinus (circa 330-400 AD) in one of the earliest external accounts on the Seres (Chinese) described: “The Seres themselves live a peaceful life, forever unacquainted with arms and warfare; and since to gentle and quite folk ease is pleasurable, they are troublesome to none of their neighbors.”Ammianus Marcellinus, 23:6:64–68. ( Complete Works, tr. John Rolfe, London: Loeb, 1971). No heroic epic is known from the universal monarchies of Egypt and China, no Egyptian equivalent of the Epic of Gilgames, nor Chinese of Mahabharata. The absence of Chinese heroic epic was noted by Hegel ( Lectures on Aesthetics) and ever since.Karl Jaspers (1953). The Origin and Goal of History. (New Haven: Yale University Press), p 17.Maurice Bowra (1962). Heroic Poetry. (London: Macmillan), p 13-14.Curtius, Ernst Robert (1967). European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. (Princeton), p 167.Chan, Mari (1978). "Heroic poems and European epic." Comparative Literature, vol 26 (2): p 142-145.Saussy, Huan (2020). "The Absent epic: China and the politics of narrative."
Instead of poetic drama with epic heroes, the Chinese tradition from the beginning presents historicist prose with sage kings, wise ministers, and loyal functionaries. Besides the complete absence of heroic epics, the whole mythic genre is "exceedingly fragmentary." Some Sinologists detect "mythic references" or "transmuted mythic material" from immemorial past but already in the earliest extensive written sources all the "mythopoetic urge" is "suppressed" and the tradition is "extraordinarily different in spirit" from the early classics in India, Mesopotamia and Greece. The "whole atmosphere is somehow rendered un-mythic." The editors worked to elaborate an orderly, normative world. Benjamin I. Schwartz partly explains the difference by different political orders, the Chinese universal monarchy vs civilizations of city-states.Schwartz, Benjamin I. (Spring 1975). "Wisdom, revelation, and doubt: Perspectives on the First Millennium B.C." Daedalus. Vol. 104 (2): pp. 57-60.
Herodotus notes that the Egyptians "are not accustomed to pay any honors to heroes." History
The Chinese expression Ping Tianxia, meaning "to pacify All under Heaven," was pacifist euphemism for conquest.Yuri Pines & Moreno Garcia, Juan Carlos, (2020). "Maat and Tianxia: Building world orders in ancient Egypt and China," Journal of Egyptian History, vol 13: p 245, http://yuri-pines-sinology.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Moreno-Pines-Maat-and-Tianxia-final.pdf Since 221 BC, each reunification of China was defined as "pacification." In 207 BC, Qin was "completely exterminated. Five years later, the world was pacified by Han.”Sima Qian, 6:275-276. Similarly, the Romans derived from the noun pax (peace) the verb pacare (to pacify) to avoid saying conquest.Weinstock, Stefan (1971). Divus Julius. (Oxford University Press), p 267. The Romans fought to “pacify” GreeceLivy, 36:42:3. and Spain.Velleius Paterculus, 2:40:2—41:1.
The rise of the Roman universal monarchy was celebrated with the Ara Pacis Augustae, Altar of Peace, instead of the traditional triumphal arch.Hannestad, Niels (1988). Roman Art and Imperial Policy. (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag), p 68. The final scene on Vergil's Shield of Aeneas, which shows representatives of the conquered oikumene within the walls of Rome, is at the same time an image of a city at peace.Philip Hardie (1986). Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium. (Oxford University Press), p 359. The major prophecy of the Aeneid (6:853) charts the expansion of Roman military power through military conquests to fill the universe and establish a completely new era of peace: “This will be your genius—to impose the way of peace.”Philip Hardie (1986). Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium. (Oxford University Press), p 364.
The Roman Legate, Quintus Petillius Cerialis, preached peace to the Gauls: “Struggle for power and feuds ravaged Gallia until you accepted our laws... War of all against all—that is what waiting for you if—gods save—the Romans would be expelled from Gallia. . . So love peace and guard it.”Tacitus, Histories, 4:74. To “keep our arms constantly in hand” was regarded by the Romans as “the only way to preserve peace.”Dio Cassius, 38:5—9. The Sassanian King, Chosroes I (531-579 AD), wrote in a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice (539–602): "There are two eyes to which Divinity confined the task of illuminating the world: these are the powerful monarchy of the Romans and the wisely governed Commonwealth of the Persians. By these two great empires the barbarous and war-loving nations are kept in check; and mankind given better and safer government throughout."Martin Wight (1977). System of States. (Leicester: Leicester University Press), p 24.
The Pax Romana was lamented by Dante millennium after it had disappeared. The contemporary plurality of warring governments crazed him: “But the condition of the world since the day when the nail of greed tore that seamless garment of is something we can all read about, if only we did not have to see it, too!” ( De Monarchia, 1:16). The contemporary conditions, indeed, were getting worse, as the European governments went more warring. In 1637, Jesuit Giulio Alenio reported that he was often asked by his Chinese friends: "If there are so many kings, how can you avoid wars?" It was a good question in the middle of the frightful Thirty Years' War.Charles Tilly (1990). Coercion, Capital and European States. (Cambridge University Press), p 128.
A more pacifist nature of universal monarchies appears from the difference between the two main monarchies in Americas. The Inca monarchy was universal while the Aztec regional and warring with other monarchies of its world. Inca were defeated by the Spaniards within "scarcely three hours," by a force outnumbered 1 to 45 and without a single Spaniard killed. The Aztec defeat stands in sharp contrast despite the same disadvantage in military technology. The last independent Aztec tlatoani, Cuauhtémoc, held a fierce defense of Tenochtitlan for 80 days, forced Hernán Cortés to mobilize tens of thousands of Indian allies, and impressed him with valor.Prescott, William H. (1843). History of the Conquest of Mexico. (New York: Harper), vol 3, p 206.
The Egyptian and Inca kings were "god incarnate."Wilson, John et al (1967). "Authority and law in ancient Egypt." The Decline of Empires
The Japanese, having established their universal monarchy, borrowed these features from China. Since the beginning in the Third century AD, the Japanese monarch never revealed himself to people. While walking outside the Palace, he was covered by curtains. For this, he too was associated with the Hebrew God.Месщеряков, Александер Н. (2004). Японский Император и Русский Царь. (Москва: Наталис), p 95-98. But the Japanese outperformed the Chinese in several aspects. A founder of Chinese dynasty could be a mortal man of very simple social origins and Chinese dynasties needed the Mandate of Heaven. Otherwise they could be, and were, replaced. The Chinese tradition counts 36 Dynasties.Месщеряков, Александер Н. (2004). Японский Император и Русский Царь. (Москва: Наталис), p 186. The Japanese Dynasty, by contrast, has been permanent and is said to be of divine origins, the founder being the direct descendant of goddess Amaterasu. The Chinese ended their dynastic cycle in 1911, while the Japanese Dynasty continues as the oldest active dynasty in the world, though un-deified by Douglas MacArthur in 1945.
In India, the function of the East Asian Heaven performed Dhamma (cosmic eternal law). The Chinese and Japanese universal monarchs were inferior to Heaven. They were its Sons and the Chinese required its mandate to rule. The Chakravarti, by contrast, did not display any inferiority related to Dhamma. He "turned the wheel" of Dhamma which otherwise would not be enacted. Hence is the literal meaning of Chakravarti, a "wheel turner," adopted by the first univresal monarch in India, Asoka, and hence onward meaning "universal monarch."
The Egyptian royal tombs – pyramids – is perhaps the best expression of the level of veneration. 700,000 workers worked on the Epang Palace and the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang (Sima Qian I:148, 155), containing Terracotta Army. The foundation platform of Epang sized 1270 × 426 m. Some estimates make the mausoleum the largest burial complex of a single ruler ever to have been constructed anywhere in the world.Shelah, Gideon (2014). "Collapse or transformation? Anthropological and archeological perspectives on the fall of Qin," Birth of an Empire: The State of Qin Revisited, (eds. Yuri Pines et al, Berkeley: University of California Press), p 129. With the rise of Tenno, impressive Kofun covered their land and gave name to the Kofun period, meaning the era of burial mounds.
A divinity threshold was crossed the moment of universal conquest. Following the Qin universal conquest in 221 BC, the First Emperor of the universal realm was titled "Huang" meaning 'august', and "Di", meaning 'Divine'. Sima Qian explicitly states the causal link between the universal conquest and divinity. Records of the Grand Historian, 5:218; 6:245, 275, (tr. Burton Watson, New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, pp 123, 141, 162. The Inca ruler, with the establishment of his universal monarchy, changed his royal "Capac" title, somewhat equivalent of "Duke," for the divine name by which he was thereafter known to history, "Viracocha Inca."Burr Cartwfight Brundage, Empire of the Inca, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963, p 78.
Following another universal conquest, Alexander the Great broke with much of the Macedonian royal tradition, where kings were mortal like the rest of humansLily Ross Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Emperor, Connecticut: University of Michigan Press, 1931, p 4.Duncan Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, Leiden & New York: Brill, 1993, p 6. and traditionally elected by the assembled people to be chief among equals. He also broke with the Greek model of Hegemon, leader of the pan-Hellenic league, practised by his father Philip. Instead, he modeled his rule on the Kings of Persia and Egypt alien to the Greek tradition.Mason Hammond (1951). City-State and World State in Greek and Roman Political Theory until Augustus
The most striking link between universal conquest and rise of a divine monarchy is Rome. Rome is the only case in world history of universal empire established by a non-monarchical state.Wesson, Robert G. (1967). The Imperial Order. (Berkeley: University of California Press), p 54. The Roman Republic was born in a violent rejection of monarchy.Madden, Thomas F. (2008). Empires of Trust: How Rome Built—and America Is Building—a New World. (New York: Dutton Adult), p 37. The Roman ideal of libertas rivals that of the modern West.Christian Meier (1982). Caesar: A Biography. (Tr. McLintock, D. New York: Basic Books), p 10, 36. Its acceptance was never disputed in the republican Rome. The opposite of libertas was regnum - in proper sense, absolute monarchyWirszubski, Chaim (1968). Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome during the Late Republic and Early Principate. (Cambridge University Press), p 5. which could not be tolerated under any condition.(Cicero, Ad Atticum, VII: 20:2; Philip II: 117; Ad Brutum, XXV; Dio Cassius, LII:9:6, 13:6).Matthias Gelzer (1968). Caesar: Politician and Statesman. (Tr. Needman, P. Oxford University Press), p 322-333.Mouritsen, Henrick (2001). Plebs and Politics in the Late Roman Republic. (London: Cambridge University Press), p 12.
Despite all, when Rome conquered the Mediterranean world, the Republic turned into universal monarchy common for other universal empires. Julius Caesar, having crossed the Rubicon toward the universal monarchy, became "Divus" and traced his origins to Venus.Stefan Weinstock, Divus Julius Oxford University Press, 1971, p 267. Another word for "Divine" is Augustus. In 23 BC, Augustus received “greater proconsular command unlimited in time" ( imperium proconsulare maius infinitum). With him, the ancient triumphant Republic and the unshakable ideal of libertas gave up to an absolute divine monarchy and the cult of emperor, “the degradation of the high tradition of human freedom.”(Philo, The Embassy to Gaius, XVI:116). Henceforth, universal monarchs defined the history of the Roman world. Their images and monuments filled the public space of their cities, their words were heard in silent awe by their subjects, their names provided the framework for the measurement of time.Potter, David (1994). Prophets and Emperors: Human and Divine Authority from Augustus to Theodosius. (London: Harvard University Press), p 137.
Augustus' image reminds that of Jesus. The Calendar Inscription of Priene (9 BC) uses the term "gospel" referring to him and describes him as "Savior" and "God manifest." Augustus "had wiped away our sins"Horace, Odes (Horace), 4:15, (London: Loeb Library, 1956). shortly before Jesus did it again.
Universal monarchy had at least three independent origins - in the Near East, China and Peru. Their "essential alikeness" in extreme absolutism and divinity despite their isolation from each other, according to Robert G. Wesson, suggests a common structural cause. It is instructive to find such common features, "even to an exaggerated degree, in the Inca empire... which drew nothing from the empires of the Old World." Wesson supposed that this cause is the "overgreat" state ruling over tremendous areas and multitudes.Wesson, Robert G. (1967). The Imperial Order. (Berkeley: University of California Press), p 36.
Akhenaten undertook the earliest know Atenism, albeit short-lived.Donald Redford, "The Sun-disc in Akhenaten program: Its worship and antecedents," Journal of American Research Center in Egypt, 13: (1976), pp. 47–61.Aidan Dodson, Amarna Sunrise. Egypt from Golden Age to Age of Heresy, New York: University of Cairo Press, 2014, p 204. The Great Hymn to the Aten is the earliest record in world history to proclaim God as "sole" beside whom there is "none". Beginning with Sargon II, Assyrian scribes began to write the name of Ashur with the ideogram for "whole heaven."Jack M. Sasson, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, New York: Scribner, 1995, vol 3. p. 1830. According to Simo Parpola, the Neo-Assyrian empire developed a complete monotheism. The earliest recorded in history Son of God "sent for the salvation of mankind" was the king of Assyria.Simo Parpola, "Monotheism in Ancient Assyria," One God Or Many? Concepts of Divinity in the Ancient World, ed. Barbara Nevling Porter, Los Angeles: CDL Publishers, 2000, vol 1, pp. 165-166, 206. http://www.aina.org/articles/miaa.pdf
The Assyrian case is crucial regarding Judaism — the only ancient monotheism which is not a product of universal monarchy. Notably, the Jewish religion became monotheist in the Babylonian captivity.Robert Karl Gnuse, No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel, Sheffield Academic Press, 1997, p 225. One hypothesis maintains that the Jewish priests adopted the local monotheism and replaced Ashur with Yahweh. The Assyrian monotheist concept of "(all) the gods" was translated into Hebrew as Elohim, literally "(all) the gods." This explains the puzzle of Psalm 46:4–5 with God dwelling in his City on the river. There is no river in Jerusalem. The City of Assur was on the river.Parola 2000. "Yahweh's emergence as a major player on the divine scene mirrored those of... Marduk and Assur." The former, as Yahweh, had a temple without an image to express his monotheist nature.Michael Hundley, "The Making of Monotheism," Huffington Post
Synchronously with Judaism, the Persian universal monarchy elaborated Zoroastrianism considered by most as monotheistic.James William Boyd, "Is Zoroastrianism dualistic or monotheistic?" Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 47/4: (1979), pp. 557–588. It has been supposed that Darius elevated Ahuramazda to monotheist status to associate the sole king with the sole god.Ehrenberg, Erica (2012). "Dieu et mon droit: Kingship in late Babylonian and early Persian times," Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond
Alternatively, other universal monarchies preserved polytheism but following the rise of a universal monarchy a kind of Monism or Immanence substance took on itself qualities of the monotheist god, such as the Stoic logos, HeavenSmith, D. Howard. (September 1957). "Divine kingship in ancient China." Numen, vol 4 (3): p 173, 188, 190. in China and Japan or Dhamma in Buddhism.Patrick Olivelle (2024). "Imperial ideology and religious pluralism in the Asokan inscriptional corpus." Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
Buddhism spread under the universal monarchy of Ashoka. Whoever sees me, says Buddha, sees Dhamma; whoever sees Dhamma, sees me. While Christians see Jesus as God-become-human, Buddhists see the Buddha as human-become-Dhamma.Harvey, Peter (2012). An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. (Cambridge University Press, ), p 28–29. Heaven and Dhamma propelled East Asian and Indian respectively monarchs to their universal triumphs.Rüpke, Jörg & Biran, Michal & Pines, Yuri (2024). Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
The Axial Age, characterized by universal kingship, saw what is called "transcendental breakthrough" named as the only common underlying impulse in all these "axial" movements.Schwartz, Benjamin I. (Spring, 1975). "The Age of Transcendence." Daedalus: Wisdom, Revelation, and Doubt: Perspectives on the First Millennium B.C.
Explaining the Axial Age, Wittrock links universal monarchy with cosmopolitanism, world religions and divine rulers. The Axial Age, he says, created universal monarchies that encompassed peoples across vast distances and beyond a circle of kin. Synchronously with these new forms of political order emerged new religious ecumenes characterized by new world religions and a new kind of supreme ruler embodying divine features. The new Axial religions and their ecumenes greatly strengthened the legitimacy of universal monarchies.Wittrock Björn (2015). "The Axial Age in world history." The Cambridge World History: A World with States, Empires and Networks, 1200 BCE–900 CE. Vol. 4: pp. 105-106. In the case of China, Wittrock adds that its theological breakthrough by centuries pre-dates the Axial Age and coincides in time with the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046-771 BC) when Heaven obtained monist qualities and developed its Mandate.Wittrock Björn (2015). "The Axial Age in world history." The Cambridge World History: A World with States, Empires and Networks, 1200 BCE–900 CE. Vol. 4: pp. 114-115.
Eventually, two most popular monotheist legacies of universal monarchies became Christianity and Islam. One God, one Emperor, one empire, proclaimed Eusebius (AD 290–330).Pines, Yuri & Biran, Michal & Rüpke, Jörg (2011) The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared
Following the conquests of Genghis Khan, an "imperial" version of Tengrism evolved with a monotheist Tengri.Meserve, R. (2000). Religions in the Central Asian environment. History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century
With the dissolution of universal monarchies, cosmopolitanism and pacifism give way to nationalism and militarism. By contrast, monotheism does not dissolve back to polytheism. One legacy of the universal monarchies is over half of humanity remaining monotheists.
Universal monarchies lacked linear, Teleology, or Progressivism vision of history of the Western kind.Prasenjit Duara (2014). "Empires and imperialism." A Companion to Global Historical Thought. (Eds. Prasenjit Duara et al. John Wiley & Sons), p. 388. For them, the ideal state is not in an utopian future but a historic past and no further progress was even theoretically possible. All what was needed ever since the rise of universal monarchy was to maintain it, and if lost, restore it as soon as possible. Thus history acquired cyclical pattern with long phases of universal monarchy interrupted by evanescent falls.Redford 1986, p. 132.Pines 2000, pp. 319, 324.Derk Bodde, China's First Unifier: A Study of the Qin Dynasty as Seen in the Life of Li Ssu, 280 – 208 BC, University of Hong Kong Press, 1967, p 2. The Egyptians, according to Herodotus, look only to the past and not the future. Their great reverence for age and the ancestral manifest a determined and changeless tradition of stability and rest.Ward, Ann (2008). Herodotus and the Philosophy of Empire. (Waco: Baylor University Press), p. 24. While Plato constructed his good order through a process of dialectic ratiocination, Confusius did it by studying history. In the Analects, Confucius remarks that "he transmits and does not create."
Sinologist Benjamin I. Schwartz supposed how this concept evolved in China. In the Chinese classical tradition, All under Heaven had the Tao but lost. Before it was lost, all had been ideal. The Tao that is here affirmed is neither a legendary golden age, nor garden of Eden following the Creation. It is a fully articulated, crystallized socio-political order that had presumably been realized in a particular historical period. Both the pre-Confucian texts and Confucius himself seem to assume that this period is the universal monarchies of Xia dynasty, Shang dynasty and Chou dynasty (until 771 BC). The actual order of the early Chou could be far from ideal but the image projected by Confucius and his predecessors was not entirely an ideal construct. The universal rule had established a relatively peaceful and lawful order and its memories could provide the nucleus for ideal construction. Comparing China with other civilizations, Schwartz finds the Chinese relative order longer-lasting than the precarious orders of pre-Axial Mesopotamia, Greece, Israel, and India, but explicitly excludes from his generalization Egypt, another case of persistent universal monarchy with a similar view on history.Schwartz, Benjamin I. (Spring 1975). "Wisdom, revelation, and doubt: Perspectives on the First Millennium B.C." Daedalus. Vol. 104 (2): pp. 60-62.
What Schwartz supposed for China, Robert G. Wesson applied to universal monarchies in general. In the anarchy that follows its breakup, he says, universal monarchy is remembered as ideal and the vision of fixed authority governing mankind is more entrancing than ever. Its crimes are forgotten; in retrospect it seems an age of order and tranquillity which must be restored to the land divided against itself.Wesson, Robert G. (1967). The Imperial Order. (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 386-397. Herodotus was puzzled by the Egyptian mentality of universal monarchy. After a brief interlude when they enjoyed freedom, they reverted to monarchy again because they could not endure without submitting themselves to despotic rule for any length of time.Gruen, Erich S. (2011). Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), p 78-79.
German Sociologist Friedrich Tenbruck, criticizing the Western idea of progress, emphasized that China and Egypt remained at one particular stage of development for millennia. This stage was universal monarchy. The development of Egypt and China came to a halt once their empires "reached the limits of their natural habitat," that is, became universal.Friedrich Tenbruck, (1994). Translated by J. Bleicher. "Internal History of Society or Universal History?" Theory, Culture, Society, (11): p. 87.
Periods when monarchies were more universal – Shang dynasty, Zhou dynasty, Han dynasty and Tang dynasty dynasties in China, Maurya Empire, Gupta Empire and Mughal Empire dynasties in India, the Heian period, the Augustan and Antonine Rome – were remembered by posterity as "Golden Ages." Edward Gibbon described the Antonine age as best in human history.The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, (London 1776), vol 1, ch 3. When civilization establishes a universal monarchy, generalized Carroll Quigley, it enters upon a "golden age." At least this is what the posteriority remember.Quigley, Carroll (1979). The Evolution of Civilizations - an Introduction to Historical Analysis
Golden ages in multipolar civilizations, by contrast, such as Hesiod's "Race of Gold," Satya Yuga, "Gullaldr" of Gylfaginning, usually parallel the Biblical Garden of Eden as a legendary period following the creation of the world with affairs going from bad to worse ever since and not expected to improve before the Apocalypse or, its Hindu version, Kali Yuga. In the Graeko-Roman world, the Augustan poets, the first generation of the Roman universal monarchy, were the first to transfer the "golden" period from the time of gods to the present.Baldry, Harold Caparne (January - April 1952). "Who invented the Golden Age?" The Classical Quarterly, vol 2 (1/2): p 83-92. Aelius Aristides decided that Golden Age was wrong in his timing and identified Hesiod's golden age with the age of Rome. The idea appears also in Virgil's Eclogues.Katell Berthelot (2020). “Philo on the Impermanence of Empires,” The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions. (Eds. Price, Jonathan J. & Berthelot, Katell, Cambridge University Press), p 118. The legacy of the Roman golden concept is still strongly with us. Transferred from the legendary to the historical, it has become a commonplace to describe as "golden age" any outstanding period of history, literature, or porn.Baldry, Baldry (January - April 1952). "Who invented the Golden Age?" The Classical Quarterly, vol 2 (1/2): p 83-92.
Seeing the ideal model in the past, most universal monarchies had a greater concern with history than their non-universal colleagues did. Universal monarchies leave behind the mass of records.Wesson, Robert G. (1967). The Imperial Order. (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 388. The difference is striking comparing the volumes of historical records of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, China and India, or Rome and the post-Roman Europe. Usually, the more monarchy is universal in space and lasting in time, the more history it writes.Ostrovsky 2007, pp. 12–13. Two of the features of the Axial Age named in the Cambridge World History (2015) are universal monarchies and increase in "historical consciousness."Wittrock Björn (2015). "The Axial Age in world history." The Cambridge World History: A World with States, Empires and Networks, 1200 BCE–900 CE. Vol. 4: pp. 113, 117.
Herodotus called the Egyptians the greatest preservers of the past, both in memory and in written records. Four centuries later, Diodorus Siculus also distinguished Egypt as civilization where "numerous deeds of great men worthy of record were chronicled."Gruen, Erich S. (2011). Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), p 91. Lucian (c. AD 125 – after 180) in his satirical How to Write History reveals the obsession with history in his universal monarchy: All the population is "carried away with the need to write history."Mortley, Raoul (1996). The Idea of Universal History from Hellenistic Philosophy to Early Christian Historiography. (New York: Edwin Mellen), p. 2.
As China forged a universal monarchy, the profession of court historians was invented. The father of Sima Qian debuted in the new function. The Tang dynasty institutionalized the History Bureau, a higly complex apparatus of court historians working in cooperation with royal diarists, astronomers, literary composers and a separate Historiographical Office. History writing was the "textual manifestation" of the Chinese universal monarchy.Ng, On-Cho & Wang, Qingjia Edward (2005). Mirroring the Past: The Writing and Use of History in Imperial China. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press), pp. X, XVII, 109.Denis Twitchett (1992). The Writing of Official History under the T’ang. (Cambridge University Press), pp. 5-23.
The genre of universal history by such Historians as Polybius, Diodorus Siculus and Sima Qian was the product of universal rule, and Polybius explicitly links his motive of writing history with the rise of Rome to universal empire. All three wove detailed descriptions of imperial expansions into an organic, synthesized whole.Craig Benjamin (2014) "'But from this time forth history becomes a connected whole’: State expansion and the origins of universal history." Journal of Global History. Vol. 9: pp. 361, 377. By contrast, the world history of Herodotus is a collection of isolated events. According to Raoul Mortley, universal history was introduced following the Greek universalism engendered by Alexander.Mortley, Raoul (1996). The Idea of Universal History from Hellenistic Philosophy to Early Christian Historiography. (New York: Edwin Mellen), p. 1. With the exception of Athens, history writing does not characterize states in multipolar civilizations. Most of these states were indifferent to history. Historical information in Rigveda, for example, is so scant that the brightest minds of today cannot fix whether it is dated to 1500 or 1000 BC.Jamison, Stephanie W. & Brereton, Joel P. (2014). The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. (Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-937018-4), vol I: pp. 5–6.
Regarding future, universal monarchies are prominent in their optimism. They did not expect apocalypse or Yuga Cycle, nor even lesser disasters like destructive warfare or imperial fall characteristic for Mesopotamian, Hindu eschatological, Hebrew prophetic, and classical Greek literature. Apocalyptic ideas were present in the universal monarchy of EgyptErik Hornung (1982) German. Conceptions of God in Egypt: The One and the Many. (Tr. John Baines. Cornell University Press). pp. 162-165. and Eschatology creeds thrived in later universal monarchiesWieser, Veronika et al (2020). Cultures of Eschatology: Empires and Scriptural Authorities in Medieval Christian, Islamic and Buddhist Communities
Until the 2nd century BC, Roman and Greek classics expressed an endless cycle of imperial rise and fall. The tradition originated in the East where its later version was the Four kingdoms of Daniel. Earlier, through Herodotes, it had migrated to Rome. Following the rise of Rome to primacy, Greek and Roman classics counted five empires in history with Rome being the fifth and to be followed by next empires. A century later, the concept changes with Rome becoming the fifth and the last empire. Fortune, says Plutarchus (c.AD 40 – 120s), had flitted lightly and quickly over numerous empires but when she arrived to Rome, "she took off her wings, stepped out of her sandals, and abandoned her untrustworthy and unstable globe."Plutarchus, De Fortuna Romanorum
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East Asia
The title "Son of Heaven" emerged in China during the Zhou dynasty. The title denotes universality, ruling all under Heaven. The title also implies a higher Celestial Empire, in contrast to kings who rule between heaven and earth and modern presidents who are merely earthly rulers. The Book of Odes states:
Islamic world
In Sunni Islam, the concept of the Caliphate can be considered a universal monarchy. The Caliph is not necessarily a spiritual leader; rather, he is the secular head of the Ummah and is (theoretically) bound by and subject to Islamic law. The word Khalifah can be translated variously as successor, steward, deputy, or viceregent, with the implication that the Caliph is the worldly successor to the Prophet Muhammad. (Importantly Sunni Muslims do not consider the Caliph his spiritual successor; Muhammad is considered to be the last prophet, so he can have no spiritual successor.) The duties of the Caliph theoretically include the administration of Sharia; the enactment of policies for the welfare of Muslims; the custodianship of Islamic holy sites and care of pilgrims; the dhimmi; the prosecution of holy wars (both ghazw and jihad); and the representation of the diplomatic interests of the global Muslim community, even beyond the borders of the Caliphate's domains (a precedent set during Muhammad's life, and his interactions with other heads of state).
Inca
In the Americas, the Inca Empire monarchy was universal in the sense of a sole rule over the whole contemporary geopolitical area, around which were only unsettled societies.Arnold J. Toynbee, "Preface", Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006). The Inca people called their state the "realm of the four quarters of the world",Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, 2:11. Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru, (tr. Harold Livermore, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006), p 11.Alan Colata, Ancient Inca, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, p 1. a concept of universality in space analogous to the "four corners" of other universal monarchies. Similar to how the Chinese called their state "middle country", the Incas called their capital, Cusco, "the navel of the world".Garcilaso de la Vega, 2:11; p 11. Inca Garcilaso de la Vega calls the Inca monarchy one of the most absolute and divine in history.Alan Colata, Ancient Inca, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 8–9.Rafael Karsten, A Totalitarian State of The Past: The Civilization of the Inca Empire in Ancient Peru, Helsinki: Societas Scientarum Fennica, 1949. The Incan monarchs "were respected as gods" and considered universal monarch.Garcilaso de la Vega, 3:6, 20; p. 13–14. The royal title, Sapa Inca (lit. 'the only emperor'), implied that no other emperor could exist anywhere in the world. The Inca believed their king to be divine: the Inca founder, Manco Capac, was the son of the Sun God Inti, and subsequent monarchs were titled Sons of the Sun. They were mummified after death and worshipped as gods by subsequent generations.
Features
Cosmopolitanism
Some of the earliest examples of cosmopolitanism are related to the idea of universal monarchies.
/ref> Those monarchs who made no cosmopolitan compromises did not approach universal rule too closely or for too long. Thus, according to Anthony Pagden, cosmopolitan policy was created out of need rather than generosity.Pagden, Anthony (2015). The Burdens of Empire: 1539 to the Present. (Cambridge University Press), p. 5-6. Classicist Erich S. Gruen prefers to avoid sweeping postulates of cosmopolitan ideals in favor of a practical concern for harmony and stability of the realm.Gruen, Erich S. (2011). Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), p 72. Tolerance, according to his colleague Phiroze Vasunia, was "just a way to keep the conquered peoples quiet."Vasunia, Phiroze (2011). "The comparative study of empires." Journal of Roman Studies. Vol. 101: p. 230.
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/ref>Thapar, Romila (2004). Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. (University of California Press), p 200-204. . Ashoka's Rock Edicts 6, 7, and 12 emphasize tolerance toward all sects.Romila Thapar (1995). "Aśoka and Buddhism as reflected in the Aśokan Edicts". King Aśoka and Buddhism: Historical and Literary Studies. (Anuradha Seneviratna (ed.). Buddhist Publication Society. ISBN 978-955-24-0065-0), p 29.Strong, John S. (1989). The Legend of King Aśoka: A Study and Translation of the Aśokāvadāna. (Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0616-0), p 4. After the dissolution of the universal monarchy in India, Buddhism with its universalist appeal was replaced by Brahmanical particularism; (svadharma)Patrick Olivelle (2024). "Imperial ideology and religious pluralism in the Asokan inscriptional corpus." Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
/ref> however, in the universal monarchies of China and Japan, Buddhism remained widely accepted.Holcombe, Charles (2011). History of East Asia. (New York: Cambridge University Press), chapter "Age of cosmopolitanism,"
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/ref> and preached to accept even slaves as "equals of other men because all men alike are products of nature."Cited in Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967, p 253. Later Stoic thinker Seneca in his Letter exhorted: "Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies." The Stoics held that external differences, such as rank and wealth, are of no importance in social relationships. Instead, they advocated the brotherhood of humanity and the natural equality of all human beings. According to the Stoics, all people are manifestations of the one universal spirit and should live in brotherly love and readily help one another. Stoicism became the predominant influential philosophy under the Hellenistic and Roman universal monarchsLavan 2016, p 8. and has been called an official philosophy of the monarchy.Chaim Wirszubski, Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome during the Late Republic and Early Principate, Cambridge University Press, 1968, p 145. Marcus Aurelius was a self-declared Stoic cosmopolitan.Pagden, Anthony (2015). The Burdens of Empire: 1539 to the Present. (Cambridge University Press), p. 8. Antigonus was praised by the Stoics for his love of mankind, called Philanthropy by the Greeks or humanitas by the Romans.Mason Hammond (1951). City-State and World State in Greek and Roman Political Theory until Augustus
/ref> Edward Gibbon concluded on the Roman universal spirit of toleration: “The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrates, as equally useful.” The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
/ref> The Edict of Caracalla in 212 CE extended Roman citizenship to all inhabitants of the Empire.
/ref>Jane Burbank & Cooper, Frederick (2021). "Empires and the politics of difference: Pathways of incorporation and exclusion." The Oxford World History of Empire. (Oxford University Press). Vol. 1, p 381.
Universal peace
Universal peace is a term given by Dante to Pax Romana. Not until the time of Divus Augustus, he says, was there a complete and single universal monarch who pacified the world. Then, "mankind enjoyed the blessings of universal peace," the greatest “of all things that have been ordained for our happiness."Dante, De Monarchia, 1:4-5, 16.
/ref> But, as Robert G. Wesson summarizes the attitude of monarchs toward brutality necessary for universal conquest, "eggs are broken to make the omelet."Wesson, Robert G. (1967). The Imperial Order. (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 388-399.
/ref> Peoples were warring, explains Darius the Great, "one smote the other." Having "smitten" nineteen of them "exceedingly,""Words of Darius the Great in Biston's Inscription."
/ref> Darius rejoiced "that one does not smite the other any more."Bruce Lincoln (2012). "The role of religion in the Achaemenian imperialism." Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond
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/ref> Egyptian and Chinese heroes were Culture heroes.Ostrovsky, Max (2007). The Hyperbola of the World Order. (Lanham: University Press of America), p 25.
/ref> Universal monarchs preferred prosaic narrative. "No epic narrative spanned past generations, no tale of destiny urged a moral on the living."Barry Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, London: Routledge, 1989, p 20. This stands in sharp contrast with Mesopotamia. With the "rejoiced heart" and "brightened spirit," Gilgames smites the Hegemon of his world.Kramer, Samuel Noah (1956). History Begins at Sumer
/ref> The contemporary Egyptians would be shocked and awed by such a story. Since the Old Kingdom, the Egyptian God loved obedience. An Egyptian form of wisdom literature, Sebayt, was focused on loyalty and obedience. The Maxims of Ptahhotep (around 2375–2350 BC) advised: "Give way unto him that attacketh." "Put thyself in the hands of God, and thy tranquillity shall overthrow thy." One Sebayt was literally named "Loyalist Teaching." Analogously, the Chinese heroes were "loyal functionaries."Schwartz, Benjamin I. (Spring 1975). "Wisdom, revelation, and doubt: Perspectives on the First Millennium B.C." Daedalus. Vol. 104 (2): p. 58.
Divinity
Generally, comparative historical research on monarchies finds that universal monarchs were more absolute and divine than the modern European absolute kings. The ideologies of modern absolute monarchies claimed the monarch to be subject to divine, not human, law. "But he was no ancient emperor; he was not the sole source of law; of coinage, weights and measures; of economic monopolies... He owned only his own estates."Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, Cambridge University Press, 1987, vol I, p 478. Caesar is the republic, proclaimed Ovid (Tristia 4:4-15). And modern historians find him right. "In his person Augustus accumulated the pillars of power: armed forces, control of the elite, wealth and patronage of the public clientelae. That is why Augustus, perhaps more than Louis XIV, would have been entitled to say: L'etat, c'est moi."Paul J. Vanderbroeck, Popular Leadership and Collective Behavior in the Late Roman Republic, c. 80 – 50 BC, Amsterdam: Brill, 1987, p 197.
/ref>Smith, D. Howard. (September 1957). "Divine kingship in ancient China." Numen, vol 4 (3): p 172. They were mummified and worshiped for generations as gods (chapters on Egypt and Inca above). The Chinese monarch was not god incarnate. His status was above gods,Yuri Pines (2024). "Secular Theocracy? State and Religion in Early China Revisited." Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
/ref> approximating certain features of the God Almighty of the Abrahamic religions.Yuri Pines, The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012, p 58. Resembling the Jewish God, Chinese monarch's name was tabooed. He was invisible for the vast majority of his subjects, generally enclosed behind the walls of the Forbidden City. Normally, no statues were erected, no paintings drawn and no image was reproduced on coins.Yuri Pines (29 August 2019). "China's imperial institution."
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/ref> Alexander and his Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasty successors became divine and some added to their names Epiphanes, meaning 'divine'. By 323 BC, several Greek states were worshipping Alexander as a living god. Cults were offered to his successors with greater frequencies and magnificence. Proclaiming monarchy as the best form of government, Stoicism provided ideological justification.Mason Hammond (1951). City-State and World State in Greek and Roman Political Theory until Augustus
/ref> Michael J. Puett finds that universal empire and deification of monarch developed together. He compares Macedonia with China, where universal empire coincided with a new type of theomorphic claim.Puett, Michael J. (2002). To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China. (London: Harvard University Press), p 235-236, 258.
Monotheism
The rise of extremely absolute and divine personality on earth triggered a similar process in Heaven.Levine, Baruch A. (2005). "Assyrian ideology and Israelite monotheism." Iraq, vol 67 (1): p 411, 413. The omnipotent authority on earth makes paves for men the way to accept the single divine will above ordering the entire universe.Wesson, Robert G. (1967). The Imperial Order. (Berkeley: University of California Press), p. 391. Main gods rose to more universal and transcendent status and on several occasions universal monarchies generated monotheism. Sigmund Freud was one of the earliest scholars to causally link universal monarchy (of Egypt) with monotheism.Freud, Sigmund (1939). Moses and Monotheism
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/ref> Some scholars also supposed the influence of the Egyptian universal monarchy, particularly of the Great Hymn to the Aten on Psalm 104.James Henry Breasted, A History of the Ancient Egyptians, Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 2008, p. 273.Dominic Montserrat, Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt. London: Routledge, 2002, p. 101.Arthur Weigall, The Life and Times of Akhnaton, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, pp. 155–156.Mark S. Smith, God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World, Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing, 2010, p. 70.
/ref> Cleanthes (330-230 BC) and Aratus (c.315/310–240 BC) equate Zeus with "Mind" or "Nature"—as the soul that animates the material universe. With them, Stoicism "turned the god into something like God."Dyson Hejduk, Julia (2020). The God of Rome: Jupiter in Augustan Poetry
/ref>
/ref> Universal monarchs in China and Japan were Sons of Heaven and in China they ruled by the mandate of Heaven. Heaven was conceived of as a transcendental supreme god.Schwartz, Benjamin I. (Spring 1975). "Wisdom, revelation, and doubt: Perspectives on the First Millennium B.C." Daedalus. Vol. 104 (2): p. 59. Mark Elvin describes Heaven during the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046-771 BC) as evolving from anthropomorphic deity into amorphic principle. Due to its affinities and differences with the monotheist God, Elvin referred to Heaven with a capitalized "It."Elvin, Mark (1986). "Was there a transcendental breakthrough in China?" The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations
/ref> On a heterogenous religious landscape, the Chinese superimposed the worship of Heaven.Rüpke, Jörg & Biran, Michal & Pines, Yuri (2024). Empires and Gods. The Role of Religions in Imperial History
/ref> Made in China, this concept of Heaven was borrowed by Japan when its universal monarchy rose.
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/ref>Sheldon Pollock (2006). "Empire and imitation." Lessons of Empire: Imperial Histories and American Power
/ref> Max Weber stressed the synchronism between political and theological universalizations in the period his compatriot, Karl Jaspers, would later term Axial.Weber, Max. Economy and Society
/ref> Weber's observation motivated Shmuel Eisenstadt to research the synchronous transcedental breakthroughs in a volume devoted to the Axial Age.Eisenstadt, Shmuel (1986). The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations
/ref>. One of the contributors to this volume, Mark Elvin, shared the view of the Axial theological breakthrough but noted that the term "transcendental" is not successful because in China the breakthrough was immanence rather than transcendental.Elvin, Mark (1986). "Was there a transcendental breakthrough in China?" The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations
/ref> In fact, in his earlier research Schwartz noted the tendency in the Chinese tradition to associate the transcendent with the immanent.Schwartz, Benjamin I. (Spring 1975). "Wisdom, revelation, and doubt: Perspectives on the First Millennium B.C." Daedalus. Vol. 104 (2): p. 67. According to Björn Wittrock, the breakthrough was manifested in different ways in different civilizations but the most direct and explicit axis is between the mundane power of universal monarchs and the main intellectual-religious carriers of the new cosmology.Wittrock Björn (2015). "The Axial Age in world history." The Cambridge World History: A World with States, Empires and Networks, 1200 BCE–900 CE. Vol. 4: pp. 112, 116.
/ref> One study names Islam as the clearest example of convergence between monotheist religion and universal monarchy.Pines, Yuri & Biran, Michal & Rüpke, Jörg (2011) The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared
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/ref>In Russian: Kodar, Auezkhan (1 July 2009). "Тенгрианство в контексте монотеизма" Tengriism. Новые исследования Тувы
/ref> The edict of Chinggis Khan stated: "This is the order of the everlasting God. In heaven there is only one eternal God; on earth there is only one lord..." Similar proclamations by him and his heirs were issued, alternatively embellished with Quranic, Confucian, or Biblical verses, depending on their prospective audiences.Biran, Michal (2021). "The Mongol imperial space," The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, (eds. Pines, Yuri & Biran, Michal & Rüpke, Jörg, New York: Cambridge University Press), p 227.
Vision of history
For ancient Egypt, China, Japan and Inca, the beginning of history was marked by the emergence of universal monarchy. This event in terms of their traditions originated during the time these people saw as what we would call prehistory. And vice versa, from their perspective, we have not ended our prehistory and still live in the pre-dynastic period of our civilization with plural sovereigns. Civilizations which performed their universal conquest and established universal monarchy viewed those who did not as a primeval savage who "fights since the time of Horus, neither conquering, nor being conquered."Miriam Lichtheim (1975). Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings. (Berkeley & Los Angeles & London: University of California Press), vol I, p 103-104.
/ref> The Islamic Golden Age also begins during the universal Abbasid dynasty. The Spanish, Portuguese and Victorian era similarly coincide with periods when their monarchies came closest to universal.Bernard Porter, Britannia's Burden: The Political Evolution of Modern Britain 1851–1890, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1994, ch 3.Eric Hobsbawn, The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991. Boston: Abacus, 1995, ch 9. Their achievements in art, literatue and architecture were outstanding and the collective memory of these realms lasts centuries:
/ref> but universal monarchs insisted on an alternative belief in eternal orderly existence. The First Emperor of China proclaimed the universal monarchy he established to last for ten-thousand generations.Derk Bodde (1967). China's First Unifier: A Study in the Ch’in Dynasty as Seen in the Life of Li Ssu, 280?-208 BC. (Hong Kong: University Press), p 80-81, 125.Denis Twitchett & Michael Loewe (1986). The Cambridge History of China. Ch’in and Han Empires, 221 BC – AD 220. (Cambridge University Press), vol 1, p 53. Karl Jaspers, who coined the term Axial Age, generalized that the universal monarchies which came into being at the end of his Age considered themselves founded for eternity.Jaspers, Karl (1953). The Origin and Goal of History. (New Haven: Yale University Press), p 6. Those monarchies were deemed universal in both space and time. Gods provided the Egyptian kings with "eternity without limits, infinity without bounds." Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol 1, p 230. In Aeneid (1.278–79), Jupiter promised imperium sine fine, empire without limit either temporal or geographical.Price, Jonathan J. & Berthelot, Katell. (2020). The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions. (Cambridge University Press), p 5.Haimson Lushkov, Ayelet (2020). “Imperium sine fine: Rome's Future in Augustan Epic.” The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions. (Eds. Price, Jonathan J. & Berthelot, Katell. Cambridge University Press), p 50. In Japan even dynasties were not supposed to rise and fall. Tenno was believed to ever last. A great culture of eternity evolved.Fazzini, Richard A . (1999). Art For Eternity: Masterworks From Ancient Egypt
/ref> The pyramids, mummies and Terracotta Army were designed to last forever.
/ref> The history of imperial successions ends in the Roman version of the End of History, as Michael Weissenberger associated.Weissenberger, Michael (2002). “Das Imperium Romanum in den proömien dreier griechischer historiker: Polybios, Dionysios von Halikarnassos und Appian,” Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, vol 145 (3–4): p 262–281. Eastern traditions, such as Daniel 2 and the Book of Revelation, adopted the new concept replacing Rome with the Kingdom of God as the “fifth empire,” the ultimate and eternal. The idea of Rome's eternity became coterminous with Christianity's eternity.Price, Jonathan J. & Berthelot, Katell. (2020). The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions. (Cambridge University Press), p 14. The concept of the “fifth empire” echoed centuries later with the Fifth Empire and Fifth Monarchists. Beginning with Cicero, appears the idea of Roma AeternaPrice, Jonathan J. & Berthelot, Katell. (2020). The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions. (Cambridge University Press), p 3, 103. and becomes paradigm under Augustus. His
years are witness to the radical increase of references to aeternitas (eternity) especially in Augustan poetry (Virgil, Tibullus, Propertius, Horace and Ovid). The change reflected a new mentality towards the permanence and stability of the state.Balbuza, Katarzyna (June 11, 2014). "The idea of aeternitas of state, city and Emperor in Augustan poetry," Klio
/ref> The Augustan poets proclaimed Rome “Urbs Aeterna,” which translates from Latin as the “Eternal City,” and Rome is known as such until today.
See also
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