Sino-Roman relations
Sino-Roman relations started first on an indirect basis during the
2nd century BCE.
China and
Rome progressively inched closer with the
embassies of
Zhang Qian in
130 BCE and the military expeditions of China to
Central Asia, until general
Ban Chao attempted to send an envoy to Rome around
100 CE. 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 CE.
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 BCE a Greek settlement in the city of
Alexandria Eschate "Alexandria The Furthest",
Khujand (also called Khozdent or Khojent â€" 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 BCE), 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 BCE. 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
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A horse statuette of the Late Han Dynasty (1stâ€"2nd century CE). |
The next step came around
130 BCE, 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).
 |
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 BCE, even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees:
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 â€" (
Pliny the Elder VI, 54 (
23â€"
79,
The Natural History).
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 BCEâ€"
65 CE,
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 BCE and
14 CE:
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 CE. 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 CE; this may well have been an exaggeration, by the envoys or the scribe, of a party of Roman merchants.
Pomponius Mela (
Book III,Chapter 5), copied by
Pliny the Elder, wrote that
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer,
proconsul in
Gaul, 59 BCE, 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.
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 BCE, 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
["Next comes the district of Margiane, so remarkable for its sunny climate. It is the only spot in all these regions that produces the vine, being shut in on every side by verdant and refreshing hills. This district is fifteen hundred stadia in circumference, but is rendered remarkably difficult of access by sandy deserts, which extend a distance of one hundred and twenty miles: it lies opposite to the country of Parthia, and in it Alexander founded the city of Alexandria. This place having been destroyed by the barbarians, Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, rebuilt it on the same site as a Syrian city. For, seeing that it was watered by the Margus, which passes through it, and is afterwards divided into a number of streams for the irrigation of the district of Zothale, he restored it, but preferred giving it the name of Antiochia. The circumference of this city is seventy stadia: it was to this place that Orodes conducted such of the Romans as had survived the defeat of Crassus." Source: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.
[Sources on Roman soldiers in China: Xinhua, Archaelogy.org Italy Magazine].
A Roman inscription of the 2ndâ€"3rd centuries CE 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 [Reference: Ustinova, Yulia, "New Latin and Greek Rock-Inscriptions from Uzbekistan," Hephaistos: New Approaches in Classical Archaeology and related Fields, 18/2000, pp. 169â€"179. Through Roman inscriptions in Uzbekistan]:
PANN:G. REX:AP.LG
 |
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 and the region of
Ukraine, 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).
The Chinese army made an alliance with the
Parthians and established some forts at a distance of a few days march from the Parthian capital
Ctesiphon and held the region for several years. In
116, after the conquest of
Dacia's gold and silver mines in year
106, the Roman Emperor
Trajan advanced into Parthia to Ctesiphon and came within one day's march of the Chinese border garrisons, but direct contacts never took place.
 |
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.
 |
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). |
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.
*Like the Later Roman Emperors the Han Emperor was considered to be semi-
divine but more secure than Roman Emperors. This is due to the fact that the people believed the Han Imperial family had the
Mandate of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven was a practice established by previous Chinese dynasties which stated that the Emperor was given power to rule by the Supreme Deity as manifested in the Emperor's ability to control China. Unlike his Roman counterpart the Han emperor did not have to pretend to get the approval of the
Roman Senate in his decisions.
*The Roman Empire conducted more trade within its empire (due to its largeness and the
Mediterranean Sea routes) and little long distance trade, except to India and China. Similarly the Han Empire traded silk along the
Silk Road and conducted massive amounts of internal trade down the major river systems of China. Due to its geography, on one side surrounded by the
Gobi desert and the
Himalayas while on the other side the
Pacific Ocean, China did not conduct much long distance trade with any other region except Inner Asia.
*
Foreign relations of imperial China*
Ptolemy world map*
Kangnido map* Later Han History,
Hou Hanshu.
*
Silk Road*
Henry Yule.
Cathay and the Way Thither. 1915.
* http://www.silk-road.com/artl/romanenvoy.shtml
*
Rome, China, and Roman Li-chien*
The Lost Legion (Italian) (English)*
Did the Romans settle in Yongchang County, Gansu Province, China?*
The Romans in China. They came，saw and settled*
Romans in China?*
Los Angeles Times: "Digging for Romans in China"; August 24, 2000
*
Rome vs Han - Military, Political and Economic Comparison between Roman Empire and Han Dynasty
