   #copyright

Sino-Roman relations

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   Sino-Roman relations started first on an indirect basis during the 2nd
   century BC. China and Rome progressively inched closer with the
   embassies of Zhang Qian in 130 BC and the military expeditions of China
   to Central Asia, until general Ban Chao attempted to send an envoy to
   Rome around 100 AD. Several alleged Roman embassies to China were
   recorded by a number of ancient Chinese historians. The first one on
   record, supposedly from either the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius or the
   later emperor Marcus Aurelius, arrived in 166 AD.

Preceding history

   The rapid growth of Roman commerce with ancient China likely would not
   have been possible without two major preceding developments, first by
   Alexander the Great and the ancient Greeks, and second by the spread of
   embassies of the Han Dynasty into Central and Western Asia.

Development of trade links

   The first major step in opening trade links between the East and the
   West came with the expansion of Alexander the Great deep into Central
   Asia, as far as the Fergana Valley at the borders of the modern-day
   Xinjiang region of China, where he founded in 329 BC a Greek settlement
   in the city of Alexandria Eschate "Alexandria The Furthest", Khujand
   (also called Khozdent or Khojent — formerly Leninabad), in the modern
   state of Tajikistan. The Greeks were to remain in Central Asia for the
   next three centuries, first through the administration of the Seleucid
   Empire, and then with the establishment of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
   in Bactria. They kept expanding eastward, especially during the reign
   of Euthydemus I (230-200 BC), who extended his control to Sogdiana,
   reaching and going beyond the city of Alexandria Eschate. There are
   indications that he may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in
   Xinjiang, possibly leading to the first known contacts between China
   and the West around 200 BC. The Greek historian Strabo writes that
   "they extended their empire even as far as the Seres (China) and the
   Phryni" ( Strabo XI.XI.I). The Han Dynasty appears called the people of
   the Fergana the Ta-Yuan.

Zhang Qian's embassy

   A horse statuette of the Late Han Dynasty (1st–2nd century AD).
   Enlarge
   A horse statuette of the Late Han Dynasty (1st–2nd century AD).

   The next step came around 130 BC, with the embassies of the Han Dynasty
   to Central Asia, following the reports of the ambassador Zhang Qian
   (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against
   the Xiongnu, but in vain). The Chinese emperor Wudi became interested
   in developing relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations
   of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia: “The Son of Heaven on hearing all
   this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan) and the possessions of Bactria
   (Daxia) and Parthia (Anxi) are large countries, full of rare things,
   with a population living in fixed homes and given to occupations
   somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak
   armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China” Hou
   Hanshu ( Later Han History).

   The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every
   year, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria. “Thus more
   embassies were dispatched to Anxi ( Parthia), Yancai (who later joined
   the Alans), Lijian (Syria under the Seleucids), Tiaozhi ( Chaldea) and
   Tianzhu (northwestern India)… As a rule, rather more than ten such
   missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or
   six.” Hou Hanshu (Later Han History).

Chinese silk in the Roman Empire

   Menade in silk dress, Naples National Museum.
   Enlarge
   Menade in silk dress, Naples National Museum.

   Trade with the Roman Empire followed soon, confirmed by the Roman craze
   for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians) from the 1st century
   BC. The Romans were not aware of silkworms and thought the fibre a
   vegetable product:

          The Seres (Chinese), are famous for the woolen substance
          obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb
          off the white down of the leaves… So manifold is the labour
          employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon,
          to enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in
          public — ( Pliny the Elder, The Natural History VI, 54 ).

   The Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of
   silk, on economic and moral grounds: the importation of Chinese silk
   caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered to be
   decadent and immoral:

          I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the
          body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes... Wretched
          flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible
          through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more
          acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's
          body—( Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC– 65 AD, Declamations Vol. I).

   The Roman historian Florus also describes the visit of numerous envoys,
   including Seres (perhaps the Chinese), to the first Roman Emperor
   Augustus, who reigned between 27 BC and 14 AD:

          Now that all the races of the west and south were subjugated,
          and also the races of the north, (...) the Scythians and the
          Sarmatians sent ambassadors seeking friendship; the Seres too
          and the Indians, who live immediately beneath the sun, though
          they brought elephants amongst their gifts as well as precious
          stones and pearls, regarded their long journey, in the
          accomplishment of which they had spent four years, as the
          greatest tribute which they rendered, and indeed their
          complexion proved that they came from beneath another sky.—(
          Florus Epitomae II, 34).

   A maritime route opened up between Chinese-controlled Jiaozhi (centred
   in modern Vietnam, near Hanoi) probably by the 1st century AD. It
   extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way
   to Roman-controlled ports in Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the
   northeastern coast of the Red Sea. The Hou Hanshu records that a
   delegation of Roman envoys arrived in China by this maritime route in
   166 AD; this may well have been an exaggeration, by the envoys or the
   scribe, of a party of Roman merchants.

Castaways

   Pomponius Mela ( Book III,Chapter 5), copied by Pliny the Elder, wrote
   that Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, proconsul in Gaul, 59 BC, got
   'several Indians' (Indi) as a present from a Germanic king. The Indians
   were driven by a storm to the coasts of Germania (in tempestatem ex
   Indicis aequoribus):

          Metellus Celer recalls the following: when he was Proconsul in
          Gaul, he was given people from India by the king of the Sueves;
          upon asking why they were in this land, he learnt that they were
          caught in a storm away from India, that they became castaways,
          and finally landed on the coasts of Germany. They thus resisted
          the sea, but suffered from the cold for the rest of their
          travel, and that is the reason why they left. (Sueves is an
          emendation to the text.)

   It is unclear whether these castaways were people from India or Eastern
   Asia, since "Indians" designated all Asians, Indian and beyond, during
   Roman times. Pomponius is using these Indi as evidence for the
   Northeast Passage and the northward strait out of the Caspian Sea
   (which in Antiquity was usually thought to be open to Oceanus in the
   north). Edward Herbert Bunbury suggests that they were of Finnish
   origin. There are also some speculations that they may have been
   American Indians castaway across the Atlantic.

   Some confusion may be suspected in this passage since Metellus Celer
   died before taking up his proconsulship, thus leaving it free for
   Julius Caesar.

Roman soldiers in the East

   There are several known instances of Roman soldiers being captured by
   the Parthians and transferred to the East for border duty. According to
   Pliny, in 54 BC, after losing at the battle of Carrhae, 10,000 Roman
   prisoners were displaced by the Parthians to Margiana to man the
   frontier (Plin. Hist. Nat. 6. 18 ).

   The Chinese have an account by Ban Gu of soldiers under the command of
   the nomadic chief Jzh Jzh who fought in a so-called "fish-scale
   formation". The historian Homer Dubs claimed that this might have been
   the Roman testudo formation and that these men, who were captured by
   the Chinese, were able to found the city Liqian (Li-chien). However
   there is precisely no evidence that these men were Romans or that this
   claim is anything other than speculation. .

   A Roman inscription of the 2nd—3rd centuries AD has been found in
   eastern Uzbekistan in the Kara-Kamar cave complex, which has been
   analysed as belonging to some Roman soldiers from the Pannonian Legio
   XV Apollinaris :

The expedition of Ban Chao

   Portrait of the Chinese general Ban Chao (32-102).
   Enlarge
   Portrait of the Chinese general Ban Chao ( 32- 102).

   In 97, the Chinese general Ban Chao crossed the Tian Shan and Pamir
   Mountains with an army of 70,000 men in a campaign against the Xiongnu.
   He went as far west as the Caspian Sea, reaching the territory of
   Parthia, upon which event he reportedly also sent an envoy named Gan
   Ying to Daqin (Rome). Gan Ying left a detailed account of western
   countries, although he only reached as far as Mesopotamia. He intended
   to sail to Rome through the Black Sea, but some Parthian merchants,
   interested in maintaining their profitable role as the middleman in
   trade between Rome and China, told him the trip would take two years at
   least (when it was actually closer to two months). Deterred, he
   returned home.

   Gan Ying left an account on Rome ( Daqin in Chinese) which may have
   relied on second-hand sources. He locates it to the west of the sea:

          Its territory covers several thousand li [a "li" is around half
          a kilometre], it has over 400 walled cities. Several tens of
          small states are subject to it. The outer walls of the cities
          are made of stones. They have established posting stations…
          There are pines and cypresses. (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and
          Gardiner).

   He also describes the adoptive monarchy of the Emperor Nerva, and Roman
   physical appearance and products:

          As for the king, he is not a permanent figure but is chosen as
          the man most worthy… The people in this country are tall and
          regularly featured. They resemble the Chinese, and that is why
          the country is called Da Qin (The "Great" Qin)… The soil
          produced lots of gold, silver and rare jewels, including the
          jewel which shines at night… they sew embroidered tissues with
          gold threads to form tapestries and damask of many colours, and
          make a gold-painted cloth, and a "cloth washed-in-the-fire" (
          asbestos). (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner).

   Finally Gan Ying determines Rome correctly as the main economic power
   at the western end of Eurasia:

          It is from this country that all the various marvellous and rare
          objects of foreign states come. (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and
          Gardiner).

First Roman embassy

   Ptolemy's world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy's Geographia (circa
   150), indicating "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the
   island of "Taprobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea
   Chersonesus" (Southeast Asian peninsula).
   Enlarge
   Ptolemy's world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy's Geographia (circa
   150), indicating "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the
   island of "Taprobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea
   Chersonesus" (Southeast Asian peninsula).

   With the expansion of the Roman Empire in the Middle-East during the
   2nd century, the Romans gained the capability to develop shipping and
   trade in the Indian Ocean. Several ports have been excavated on the
   coast of India which contain Roman remains.

   Several Romans probably travelled farther to the East, either on Roman,
   Indian or Chinese ships. The first group of people claiming to be an
   embassy of Romans to China is recorded in 166, sixty years after the
   expeditions to the west of the Chinese general Ban Chao. It came to
   Emperor Huan of Han China, "from Antun (Emperor Antoninus Pius), king
   of Daqin (Rome)". Although, as Antoninus Pius died in 161, while the
   convoy arrived in 166, if genuine, it may have been from Marcus
   Aurelius, who was emperor in 166. The confusion arises because Marcus
   Aurelius was formally adopted by his predecessor and took his names as
   additional names.

   The mission came from the South, and therefore probably by sea,
   entering China by the frontier of Jinan or Tonkin. It brought presents
   of rhinoceros horns, ivory, and tortoise shell, which had probably been
   acquired in Southern Asia. About the same time, and possibly through
   this embassy, the Chinese acquired a treatise of astronomy from Daqin
   (Chinese name of the Roman Empire).

   The existence of China was clearly known to Roman cartographers of the
   time, since its name and position is depicted in Ptolemy's Geographia,
   which is dated to c. 150. It is located beyond the Aurea Chersonesus
   ("Golden Peninsula"), which refers to the Southeast Asian peninsula. It
   is shown as being on the Magnus Sinus ("Great Gulf"), which presumably
   corresponds to the known areas of the China Sea at the time; although
   Ptolemy represents it as tending south-east rather than north-east.
   Trade throughout the Indian Ocean was extensive from the 2nd century,
   and many trading ports have been identified in India and Sri Lanka with
   Roman communities, through which the Roman embassy passed.

Other Roman embassies

   Detail of Asia in Ptolemy's world map. Gulf of the Ganges left,
   Southeast Asian peninsula in the center, China Sea right, with "Sinae"
   (China).
   Enlarge
   Detail of Asia in Ptolemy's world map. Gulf of the Ganges left,
   Southeast Asian peninsula in the centre, China Sea right, with "Sinae"
   (China).

   Other embassies may have been sent after this first encounter, but were
   not recorded, until an account appears about presents sent in the early
   3rd century by the Roman Emperor to the Emperor Taitsu of the Kingdom
   of Wei (reigned 227– 239) in Northern China. The presents consisted of
   articles of glass in a variety of colours. While several Roman Emperors
   ruled during this time, the embassy, if genuine, may have been sent by
   Alexander Severus; since his successors reigned briefly and were busy
   with civil wars.

   Another embassy from Daqin is recorded in the year 284, as bringing
   "tribute" to the Chinese empire. This embassy presumably was sent by
   the Emperor Carus ( 282– 283), whose short reign was occupied with war
   with Persia.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Roman_relations"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
