longest and shortest lasting empires

 can we consider the eqyptians before the persians as one empire?

 

 

The Ottoman Empire, ruling continuously from 1300 to 1923. That's six centuries of unbroken sovereignty. Pretty much, I'd say. I don't know how you left that out, Miller.

Edited by Infidel

Obviously the longest is Byzantine empire lasted more than a thousand years. If we take as starting day the changeover from Rome to Constantinople as capital in 330, it lasted since 1453.

The Angevin Empire was damn short. It's even a very virtual empire.





http://xenophongroup.com/montjoie/angevine.htm


Edited by Exarchus

Before going into this, a definition of this empire must be given, people confuse the definition of empire, in modern time it means a imperial possession of foreign territories. Back then it was just a state ruled by an emperor. I think comparing these two definition by themselves are largely meaningless. Whats more definiting is the duration of the central regime without change. For example, the so called Roman Empire that lasted 5 centuries is far from a single continuos regime. The central power has been overthrown plenty of times. Of course a change in the governmental structure to such a degree that alters the power within should also be categorized as another regime.