List of figures; List of contributors; Series editors' preface; Editors' preface; Introduction: place and performance. Comparative remarks on Greece, Rome, and China Hans Beck and Griet Vankeerberghen; Part I. Crafting Space and Place: 1. Theories of place across time and space: urban form in Ancient Rome and Han China Amy Russell; 2. Local administration, history, and geography in the Han and Roman Empires: Ban Gu's Dili Zhi and Strabo's Geographika Luke Habberstad; Part II. Performances of Power: 3. Power and its trappings in the Han and Roman Bureaucracies Taco Terpstra; 4. The 'Performance' of agricultural labor in Ancient Rome and Han China Darian Marie Totten; 5. Foreigners, spectacles, and imperial performance: Nero and emperor Wu of the Han Zhou Yiqun; 6. The maiden and the mirror: exploring aspects of gendered social performance in the works of Plutarch and Sima Qian Chandra Giroux; Part III. Urban Places: 7. Neighborhood life in Imperial Rome and Han Chang'an Ryan R. Abrecht; 8. Society, cities, and the significance of 'Sacred Roads' in Archaic Greece, in the Chinese Qin and Han Empires and in the Archaic States of the Middle East Martin Mohr; 9. Hydropolitical engineering in Rome and Chang'an. Water flows in the shape of power Jordan Christopher; 10. Imperial gardens in Early Roman and Chinese Empires: a comparative study Wentian Fu; Part IV. Fringe Places and Endpoints: 11. Imitating the emperor? Cities and client kings in the Hellenistic East and the Western Regions of the Han Realm Alex McAuley; 12. Traces of Han and Roman Frontiers: documents from Vindolanda and Jianshui Jinguan Charles Sanft; 13. Money and the dead: coins and other money in Han Chinese and Imperial Roman Tombs and Funerals Tian Tian; 14. Displaying the dead: funeral processions, tombs, performance and place in Ancient Rome and China Armin Selbitschka; Index.