The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c7.s1.31

c7.s1.31

This must not be summarily dismissed as only the view of a radical anti-imperial propagandist. For, the duration and geographical extent of peace given by "Romans" were not really of a remarkable order. From the oriental platform, besides, the claim may be advanced that not more than once did European history exhibit the formation of a "unitary" state (of an "inorganic" character, of course, to use Seeley's phrase) with the size and area of the Maurya Empire (third century B. C.). This was the Roman Empire at its height during the second and third centuries A. C.² Even the less extensive Gupta Empire of the fifth century, the Vardhana Empire of the seventh century, and the Chola Empire of the eleventh century were barely approached by the Franco-German Empire of Charlemagne, or by the haphazard European possessions of the Spanish Emperor Charles V or by the ephemeral conquests of Napoleon.³