Chapter 1 sets the scene by arguing that far from things of the past, empires and imperialist desires present a fundamental aspect of today’s geopolitics and everyday experiences. The study of ancient empires, their discourses of sovereignty and material practices, then, is critical for understanding our own increasingly neo-imperial and neo-nationalist presents. The chapter surveys relevant theoretical developments in the study of past imperial networks and sovereignty more broadly, and outlines how the complex, messy, and often paradoxical developments that make up imperial histories can be conveyed in ways that do not reproduce imperial self-talk.