Cycles of rise and collapse of civilizations are common in our human past. Among the most fascinating cases are those of empires, conquest civilizations, or states that encompass a number of different ethnicities, politics and peoples. However, their rise and often rapid collapse begs an important question: how stable have empires been in human prehistory? Are they intrinsically unstable political forms? The course will address these questions by examining the major empires of the Old and New World in pre-modern history; Akkasian; Babylonian; Persian; Assyrian; Greek; Roman; Chinese; Ottoman; Aztec; and Inca empires. Using readings by political scientists, historians, epigraphers, archaeologists and political anthropologists, we will consider the cause of the expansion and collapse of these empires, their sociopolitical and economic structures as mechanisms for their maintenance to provide a cross-cultural comparison of the differential success and final decline of all these empires. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: several short response papers and a longer research paper. No prerequisites. Expected enrollment: 20.