Comparison on the Polybius from Punic Wars and Ssu-ma Chi’en

At the end of the third century B.C., there were two independent and strong powers existing separately at the southeast of China in Asia and at the core area of Mediterranean in Europe, the Han dynasty and Rome. They have both reached the high point of the contemporary civilizations. Also, they formed their empires by defeating their own hostile forces. There are significant differences between the two great empires in their process of birth, growth and perfection, ruling ideologies and institutions and so on. Before discovering and comparing these two civilizations, we have to enhance our understanding on the authors of these two excerpts that lead people to reveal the unknown yet attractive history of Rome and Han dynasty. Polybius†¦show more content†¦All in a word, a more disciplined army and a stronger sense of honor and belongings of Romans made them competitive and advantageous than the Carthaginians so that the Romans can build a powerful empire in the core area of Europe that almost contains the whole Mediterranean. The foundation of the Han dynasty is a little different from that of the Romans’. Han dynasty is a completely new supremacy and an overturn of the former Chin dynasty because of its tyranny. According to Ssu-ma Ch’ien, the Emperor Kao-tsu faced the competition of other forces and the resistance from the former dynasty in his way of building Han dynasty. Unlike Rome that started wars to expand its territory, Han dynasty took over the territory of former dynasty. During this process, the most competitive and powerful opponent that Kao-tsu faced was Hsiang Yu. Kao-tsu fought with Hsiang Yu in the decisive battle called Kai-hsia. Another evident difference between Rome and Han dynasty are political system and ruling ideologies that they adopted. In Rome empire, the supreme power is divided into three parts: the consuls, the senate and the people. Three main forces interact and counteract with each other to avoid the monarchy. The first part, the consuls are the master of all public affairs. They are the authority in the diplomacy. The senates are composed of the ambassadors introduced by the consuls. They take care and management of the public money and have the cognizance of all the