Editing Hegemony (section)

=== 2nd century BC – 15th century AD ===
[[File:Roman Empire Trajan 117AD.png|thumb|upright=1.1|{{legend|#b23938|[[Roman Empire]] at its greatest extent, 117 AD}}]]
Rome established its hegemony over the entire Mediterranean after its victory over the [[Seleucid Empire]] in 189 BC. Officially, Rome's client states were outside the whole Roman imperium, and preserved their entire sovereignty and international rights and privileges.<ref>Perry Cooper Sands, ''The Client Princes under the Republic'', New York: Arno Press, 1975, pp. 114, 160.</ref>

With few exceptions, the Roman treaties with client states (''foedera'') were formulized on equal terms without any expression of clientship and the Romans almost never used the word "client." The term "client king" is an invention of the post-Renaissance scholarship.<ref>[[Andrew Lintott]], ''Imperium Romanum: Politics and Administration'', London: Routledge, 1993, p. 32.</ref> Those who are conventionally called by modern historians of Rome "client kings" were referred to as "allies and friends" of the Roman people. "Alliance" and "friendship," not any kind of subordination, bound them to Rome.<ref>[[Cassius Dio]], [[Roman History (Cassius Dio)|''Roman History'']], (tr. Earnest Lary, London: Loeb, 1961), 20:68:3; 28:53; 33:34; 36:21; 37:14; 38:33–34; 39:33; 41:11, 13; 43:27.</ref><ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]'', (tr. C. H. Oldfather, London: Loeb, 1946), 33:16; 34/5:31.</ref><ref>[[Vergil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'', in ''Cosmos and Imperium'', (Oxford University Press, 1986), 7:543.</ref><ref>[[Sallust]], ''[[Jugurtha|Jogurthine War]]'', (London: Loeb, 1961), 14:2; 83.</ref><ref>[[Sallust]], ''Histories'', (London: Loeb, 1961), 1:11.</ref><ref>[[Julius Caesar]], ''[[Gallic Wars]]'', (trs. V. O. Gorenstein, & M. M. Pokrovsky, Moscow: Ladomir, 1981), 1:3, 11, 35.</ref><ref>Lintott, 1993, p 32.</ref><ref>Sands, 1975, pp. 10–11, 46, 49, 54.</ref>

No regular or formal tribute was extracted from client states. The land of a client state could not officially be a basis for taxation.<ref>Sands, 1975, pp. 127–128, 152–155.</ref> The overall fact is that, despite extensive conquests, the Romans did not settle down nor extracted revenues in any subdued territories between 200 and 148 BC.<ref>[[John North (historian)|John North]], "The development of Roman imperialism," ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 71: (1981), p. 2.</ref> The first good evidence for regular taxation of another kingdom comes from Judea as late as 64 BC.<ref>Lintott, 1993, p. 35.</ref>

The Roman hegemony of the late Republic left to the Mediterranean kings internal autonomy and obliged them not to enter alliances hostile to Rome and not to wage offensive wars without consent of the Senate. Annexations usually followed when client kings broke this order ([[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]] in 148 BC and [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontus in 64 BC]]). In the course of these and other annexations, Rome gradually evolved from hegemony into empire. The last major client state of the Mediterranean—the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]]—was annexed by [[Augustus]] in the very beginning of his reign in 30 BC.

Augustus initiated an unprecedented era of peace, shortly after his reign called ''[[Pax Romana]]''. This peace however was imperial rather than hegemonic. Classic and modern scholars<ref>Parchami, A., [https://books.google.com/books?id=Pwt6AgAAQBAJ&q=hegemony+rome&pg=PA41 ''Hegemonic Peace and Empire: The Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana''], [[Routledge]], 2009, p. 32, referring to [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]].</ref> who call ''Pax Romana'' "hegemonic peace," use the term "hegemony" in its broader sense which includes both hegemony and empire.

From the 7th century to the 12th century, the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] and later [[Abbasid Caliphate]] dominated the vast territories they governed, with other states like the [[Byzantine Empire]] paying tribute.<ref>al-Tabari, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1Oe16n-tfBEC&dq=al-tabari+umayyad&pg=PR11 ''The History of al-Tabari'']</ref>

In 7th-century India, [[Harsha]], ruler of a large empire in northern India from AD&nbsp;606 to 647, brought most of the north under his hegemony. He preferred not to rule as a central government, but left "conquered kings on their thrones and contenting himself with tribute and homage."<ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica'', [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/256065/Harsha "Harsha"]</ref>

From the late 9th to the early 11th century, the empire developed by [[Charlemagne]] achieved hegemony in Europe, with dominance over France, most of Northern and Central Italy, [[Burgundy]] and Germany.<ref>Story, J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vTbvq_8HFPUC&dq=Charlemagne++hegemony&pg=PA193 ''Charlemagne: Empire and Society'', Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 193.]</ref>

From the 11th to the late 15th century the [[Italian peninsula|Italian]] [[maritime republics]], in particular [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] and [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]] held hegemony in the Mediterranean, dominating trade between Europe and the Orient for centuries, and having naval supremacy.<ref>{{cite web|title=Italian Trade Cities {{!}} Western Civilization|url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-herkimer-westerncivilization/chapter/italian-trade-cities/|access-date=2021-09-29|website=courses.lumenlearning.com}}</ref> However, with the arrival of the [[Age of Discovery]] and the [[early modern period]], they began to gradually lose their hegemony to other European powers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=F. Dewitt Platt|first=Roy T. Matthews|title=Western Humanities: Beginnings Through the Renaissance|year=1998 |publisher=Mayfield Pub Co|isbn=1559349441|pages=}}</ref>