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.
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 BCE a Greek settlement in the city of Alexandria
Eschate "Alexandria The Furthest", Khujand (also called Khozdent or
Khojent - formely 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).
Zhang Qian's Embassy
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 Xiong-Nu, 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” Hou Hanshu (Later Han History).
Chinese Silk in the
Roman Empire
Trade with the Roman Empire followed soon, confirmed by the Roman craze
for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians) from the 1st century BC, 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 labor
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 (23- 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
BCE- 65 CE, Declamations Vol. I)
The Roman historian Florus also describes the visit of numerous envoys,
included Seres (perhaps the Chinese), to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who
reigned between 27 BCE and 14 CE:
“Even the rest of the nations
of the world which were not subject to the imperial sway were sensible of its
grandeur, and looked with reverence to the Roman people, the great conqueror of
nations. Thus, even Scythians and Sarmatians sent envoys to seek the friendship
of Rome. Nay, the Seres came likewise, and the Indians who dwelt beneath the
vertical sun, bringing presents of precious stones and pearls and elephants,
but thinking all of less moment than the vastness of the journey which they had
undertaken, and which they said had occupied four years. In truth , it needed
but to look at their complexion to see that they were people of another world
than ours.
-("Cathay and the way
thither", Henry Yule).
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.
Castaways
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 requesting 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.
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 Finns. 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 proconsul- ship, 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 transfered 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).
The Chinese have kept an account (by Bau Gau) that some of these
soldiers were enlisted by the Hun chief Jzh Jzh against the Chinese Han Dynasty. Some of them were blond with blue
eyes, and fought in "fish-scale formation" (possibly the Roman
testudo formation). These men were captured by the Chinese and were able to
found the city Liqian (Li-chien), the Chinese transliteration of
"Alexandria", in the Gansu region of western China.
A Roman inscription of the 2nd-3rd centuries CE has been found in
eastern Uzbekistan in the Kara-Kamar cave complex, which has been analyzed as
belonging to some Roman soldiers from the Pannonian Legio XV Apollinaris.
The Expedition of Ban
Chao
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 is covers
several thousand li [a li is around half a kilometer], 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 colors, 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 marvelous 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.
First Roman Embassy
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 traveled 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
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 colors. 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
