Dominic Lieven - In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History

The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (r. 668631 BCE) is shown killing a lion in a wall relief from his palace at Nineveh, c. 654635 BCE. (Copyright Trustees of the British Museum)

The earliest known pillar erected by Ashoka (r. c. 268232 BCE) at Vaishali, India. (Amaan Imam / Wikimedia CommonsCC BY-SA4.0)

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 16180 CE) shows his clemency towards the vanquished after his success against Germanic tribes. Bas-relief, c. 17680 CE, from the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, Rome. Musei Capitolini, Rome. (Luisa Ricciarini / Bridgeman Images)

Emperor Taizong of China (r. 62649 CE) receiving the ambassador of Tibet, in a contemporary scroll of the Tang era. (Bridgeman Images)

The Caliph Muwiya I ibn Ab Sufyn (r. 66180 CE) meeting his councillors, illustrated in a fifteenth-century manuscript from Herat, Afghanistan. (Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Mary Burns Foss (1983.94.4))

A portrait of Otto, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 9961002) from his contemporary Gospel Book, depicts him between military men on one side and two clergy on the other. On the facing leaf, four figures resembling the Magi approach him, symbolizing the four provinces of his empire (Germany, France, northern Italy, and the Slavic east). (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (Clm 4453))

Entrants undertake Imperial Chinese civil-service exams, in a seventeenth-century copy of a painting dating from the period of the Song Emperor, Zhenzong (r. 9971022). Bibliothque Nationale, Paris. (Bridgeman Images)

Founding emperors of the Qin and Han dynasties, portrayed in an early fourteenth-century history book owned by the son of Timur, Shahrukh (r. 140547). Shahrukhs seal appears on the folio alongside a sketch of a face. (The Khalili Collections (MSS727 fol. 11a))

The Mughal Emperor Babur (r. 152530), celebrates the birth of his son and successor, Humayun (r. 153040 and 15556) in the royal gardens at Kabul. Miniature, c. 1590. The British Library, London (Or. 3714 Vol.2 f.295). (Copyright British Library Board. All Rights Reserved / Bridgeman Images)

The Emperor Maximilian I (r. 14591519) with his wife Mary of Burgundy and their family, c. 151520. Below them are Philips sons, the future emperors Charles V (r. 151956) and Ferdinand I (r. 155664). Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. (Bridgeman Images)

Suleyman the Magnificent (r. 152066) with his faithful Janissaries during the Conquest of Belgrade, 1521. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul. (Bridgeman Images)

In El Grecos painting The Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus, 15779, Philip II of Spain (r. 155698) is shown kneeling at bottom centre. Monasterio del Escorial, Madrid. (Bridgeman Images)

Prince Khurram (later Emperor Shah Jahan, r. 162858) weighed in gold and silver (a Hindu royal ritual) before Jahangir (r. 160527), in a painting of c. 1615. The British Museum, London (1948,1009,0.69). (Bridgeman Images)

Louis II (r. 16431715) portrayed in triumph as the Roman god Apollo, 1664. Chteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles. (Copyright 2021RMN-Grand Palais /Dist. PhotoSCALA, Florence /Phot. Franck Raux)

An eighteenth-century portrait of the Qing dynastys Kangxi Emperor (r. 16611722). (Pictures from History / Bridgeman Images)

Kangxis son, the Yongzheng Emperor (reigned 172235), from An Album of the Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes, by anonymous court artists, c. 1725. The Palace Museum, Beijing. (Bridgeman Images)

Peter the Great (r. 16821725). Portrait attributed to Jean-Marc Nattier, 1717. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. (Ian Dagnall / Alamy)

Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Roman-German Empress (r. 174080). Portrait by Jean-tienne Liotard, 1747. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Standing before the tomb of Peter the Great, Catherine (r. 176296) gestures towards the banners and other trophies of Russian victory over the Ottoman fleet in 1770. Painting by Andreas Huhne, 1791. Tsarskoye Selo, Pushkin. (Photo Josse / Bridgeman Images)

Kaiser William II (r. 18881918) speaking from the throne. Behind him the imperial family with Empress Auguste Victoria and Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm; before the steps of the throne is Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Painting by Anton von Werner, 1888. Sammlung E. Werner des Johanniter-Ordens, Berlin. (akg-images)

The Meiji Emperor Presented with a Portentous Eagle, Japanese woodblock print by Ogata Gekko, 1894. (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.MJMCarterAOCollection through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2019)

The Empress Dowager of China, Cixi. Portrait commissioned by the Empress, 19056, after forty years as de facto ruler. Not of royal or aristocratic birth, her ascent was a result of having borne the emperors only son. Portrait by Hubert Vos, 19056. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop. (Copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College (1943.162))

Nicholas II (r. 18941917). This portrait was part of a much broader trend that sought to identify the dynasty with the Russian people and their ethno-religious traditions. Portrait by Boris Kustodiev, 1915. State Russian Museum, St Petersburg. (Album/Alamy)

Alexander of Macedon (r. 336323 BCE), statue in Thessaloniki, Greece, 2018. How Greek Alexander was remains a hotly disputed issue between Macedonians and Greeks. (Sakis Mitrolidis/Getty Images)

The Japanese Emperor Naruhito (r. 2019) visits the Geku, Outer Shrine of the Ise Grand Shrine, 2019. (The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images)

This book is about emperors. Probably most readers will come to the book believing that they know what an emperor is. No illusion could be more fatal. Emperors come in many different shapes and sizes. Empire is one of the most contested words in history and politics. In chapter 1 I will delve deeper into these questions. For the moment I will confine myself to saying that my book studies the hereditary holders of supreme authority in many of the most powerful and significant polities in history. In principle this is a global history of emperors. In practice I limit myself before the sixteenth century CE to Eurasia and north Africa. The surviving sources do not allow a historian to know much about the personalities of emperors in the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa before that time. Sheer despair at the already enormous scale of my project was an extra deterrent to extending its limits even further from my comfort zone.