Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I: The Polis and the Khora : Autochthony and the myth of origins ; Antigone and the Polis ; The reforms of Kleisthenes ; Plato's Law ; Aristotle's Politics ; Site and community -- From Urbis to Imperium : Caesar and the terrain of war ; Cicero and the Res publica ; The historians: Sallust, Livey, Tacitus ; Augustus and Imperium ; The Limes of the Imperium -- Part II: The fracturing of the west : Augustine's two cities ; Boethius and Isidore of Seville ; The barbarian tribes and national histories ; Land politics in Beowulf -- The reassertion of empire : The donation of Constantine ; The accession of Charlemagne ; Cartography from Rome to Jerusalem ; The limits of feudalism -- The pope's two swords : John of Salisbury and the body of the republic ; Two swords: spiritual and temporal power ; The rediscovery of Aristotle ; Thomas Aquinas and the Civitas -- Challenges to the papacy : Unam sanctum: Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair ; Dante: Commedia and Monarchia ; Marsilius of Padua and the rights of the city ; William of Ockham and the politics of poverty -- Part III: The rediscovery of Roman law : The labors of Justinian and the glossators ; Bartolus of Sassoferrato and the Territorium ; Baldus de Ubaldis and the CIvitas-Populus ; Rex Imperator in Regno Suo -- Renaissance and reconnaissance : Machiavelli and Lo Stato ; The politics of Reformation ; Bodin, République, sovereignty ; Botero and Ragione di Stato ; King Lear: "Interest of territory, cares of state" -- The extension of the state : The consolation of the Reformation ; The geometry of the political ; The divine right of kings: Hobbes, Filmer, and Locke ; "Master of a territory" -- Coda: Territory as a political technology.

Territory is one of the central political concepts of the modern world and, indeed, functions as the primary way the world is divided and controlled politically. Yet territory has not received the critical attention afforded to other crucial concepts such as sovereignty, rights, and justice. While territory continues to matter politically, and territorial disputes and arrangements are studied in detail, the concept of territory itself is often neglected today. Where did the idea of exclusive ownership of a portion of the earth's surface come from, and what kinds of complexities are hidden.

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