Sino-Roman relations
In the second century AD, the Roman geographer Ptolemy drew a map placing the land of Sinae on the northern shore of the Great Gulf. This body of water combined what we now call the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea. Ptolemy believed the Indian Ocean was an inland sea, causing him to bend the Cambodian coast south beyond the equator before turning west to join southern Libya. His chief port for this region was Cattigara, which modern scholars suggest was Óc Eo in Vietnam. A Greek sailor named Alexander provided the testimony that allowed Ptolemy to chart the Bay of Bengal so accurately. Alexander claimed it took twenty days to sail from Thailand to a port called Zabia in southern Vietnam. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written by an anonymous merchant of Roman Egypt around 1st century AD, described eastern trade cities with vivid detail. It listed travel times from rivers and towns, locations of royal courts, and favorable times to sail from Egypt to catch monsoon winds. Chinese historians like Sima Qian wrote about countries in Central Asia and West Asia as early as the 2nd century BC. The Book of Han, co-authored by Ban Gu and his sister Ban Zhao, offered more nuanced accounts of these western territories. Fan Ye compiled the Book of the Later Han between 398 and 445 AD, creating the basis for almost all later descriptions of Daqin. These texts described the Levant, particularly Syria, rather than the core Roman territories. Historical linguist Edwin G. Pulleyblank explained that Chinese historians viewed Daqin as a counter-China located at the opposite end of their known world. The Shiji by Sima Qian gave descriptions of countries in Central Asia and West Asia. The Weilüe by Yu Huan provided details about the easternmost portion of the Roman world, including mention of the Mediterranean Sea. This text also listed what it considered the most important dependent vassal states of the Roman Empire. Friedrich Hirth identified these states as Alexandria-Euphrates, Charax Spasinu, Nikephorium, Palmyra, Damascus, Emesa, and Hira. Going south of Palmyra and Emesa led one to the Stony Land, which Hirth identified as Arabia Petraea.
In 97 AD, the Eastern Han general Ban Chao sent an envoy named Gan Ying to explore the far west. Gan made his way from the Tarim Basin to Parthia and reached the Persian Gulf. He intended to sail to the Roman Empire but was discouraged when told the trip was dangerous and could take two years. Deterred, he returned to China bringing much new information on the countries to the west of Chinese-controlled territories. The Book of the Later Han locates this account in Haixi, meaning west of the sea or Roman Egypt. In 166 AD, a group claiming to be an ambassadorial mission of Romans arrived at Emperor Huan of Han China. They came from Andun, possibly Emperor Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The embassy entered China by the frontier of Rinan or Tonkin, present-day Vietnam. It brought presents of rhinoceros horns, ivory, and tortoise shell, probably acquired in Southern Asia. Historians believe this was most likely a group of Roman merchants rather than official diplomats sent by Marcus Aurelius. Another merchant named Qin Lun arrived in 226 AD at Jiaozhou, which is Chinese-controlled northern Vietnam. Wu Miao, the Prefect of Jiaozhi, sent him to the court of Sun Zhongmou in Nanjing. An expedition was mounted to return the merchant along with ten female and ten male blackish colored dwarfs he had requested as a curiosity. A Chinese officer, Liu Xian of Huiji, died en route. Several years later a Daqin craftsman showed the Chinese how to make flints into crystal by means of fire. Another embassy from Daqin is recorded as bringing tributary gifts to the Chinese Jin Empire in 284 AD during the reign of Emperor Wu of Jin. The first reported diplomatic contact between Fulin and Tang dynasty occurred in 643 AD during the reigns of Constans II and Emperor Taizong of Tang. The Old Book of Tang provided the name Po-to-li for Constans II. This embassy bore gifts of red glass and green gemstones. Additional Fulin embassies arrived in 711 and 719 AD, with another in 742 AD that may have been Nestorian monks. The last diplomatic contacts with Fulin are recorded as having taken place in the 11th century AD. In 1081 AD, Byzantine emperor Michael VII Parapinakēs Caesar sent an embassy to China's Song dynasty. The final recorded embassy arrived in 1091 AD during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos.
The first Roman glassware discovered in China was a blue soda-lime glass bowl dating to the early 1st century BC. It was excavated from a Western Han tomb in the southern port city of Guangzhou. Other Roman glass items include a mosaic-glass bowl found in a prince's tomb near Nanjing dated to 67 AD. A glass bottle with opaque white streaks was found in an Eastern Han tomb of Luoyang. Roman glass beads have been discovered as far as Japan within the 5th-century AD Kofun-era Utsukushi burial mound near Kyoto. Roman golden medallions from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and his successor Marcus Aurelius were found at Óc Eo. These coins were among the vestiges of long-distance trade discovered by French archaeologist Louis Malleret in the 1940s. Granville Allen Mawer states that Ptolemy's Cattigara seems to correspond with the latitude of modern Óc Eo. Ancient Roman glass beads and bracelets were also found at this site. A coin of Maximian, who ruled from 286 to 305 AD, was discovered in Tonkin. Roman bronze lamps have been found at P'ong Tuk in the Mekong Delta. Archaeological excavations of Roman ruled Chatalka uncovered several swords and other weapons buried inside tombs. These swords included Han Dynasty style swords and scabbards with nephrite-jade scabbard slides adorned with Chinese dragon motifs. A Han-dated hydra-type nephrite scabbard slide found in Chatalka represents the earliest and most distant example of Chinese nephrite distribution in Europe. A Roman gilded silver plate dated to the 2nd-3rd centuries AD was found in Jingyuan County, Gansu. It featured a raised relief image depicting the Greco-Roman god Dionysus resting on a feline creature. Bronze coins of Constantius II, who ruled from 337 to 361 AD, were found in Karghalik, modern China.
Direct trade links between Mediterranean lands and India had been established in the late 2nd century BC by the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. Greek navigators learned to use the regular pattern of monsoon winds for their trade voyages in the Indian Ocean. The lively sea trade in Roman times is confirmed by excavation of large deposits of Roman coins along much of the coast of India. Many trading ports with links to Roman communities have been identified in India and Sri Lanka along the route used by the Roman mission. High-quality glass from Roman manufacturers in Alexandria and Syria was exported to many parts of Asia including Han China. Trade items such as spice and silk had to be paid for with Roman gold coinage. Pliny the Elder lamented the financial drain of coin from the Roman economy to purchase this expensive luxury. He remarked that Rome's womankind and the purchase of luxury goods from India, Arabia, and the Seres cost the empire roughly 100 million sesterces per year. In 14 AD the Senate issued an edict prohibiting the wearing of silk by men but it continued to flow unabated into the Roman world. Despite claims by Pliny about trade imbalance, Warwick Ball asserts that Roman purchase of other foreign commodities particularly spices from India had a much greater impact on the Roman economy. Chinese-produced glassware dates back to the Western Han era between 202 BC and 9 AD. During the 1st century BC silk was still a rare commodity in the Roman world. By the 1st century AD this valuable trade item became much more widely available. The Romans knew of wild silk harvested on Cos but did not at first make the connection with silk produced in Pamir Sarikol kingdom. There were few direct trade contacts between Romans and Han Chinese as rival Parthians and Kushans protected their lucrative role as trade intermediaries.
In 2010 mitochondrial DNA identified that a partial skeleton found in a Roman cemetery from 1st or 2nd century AD in Vagnari Italy had East Asian ancestry on his mother's side. Evidence indicated he was not originally from Italy but was a slave or worker in the area. Although these examples show Eurasian contacts they were not a Chinese population but were of Paleo-Siberian descent. A 2016 analysis of archaeological finds from Southwark London suggests two or three skeletons from a sample of twenty-two dating to 2nd to 4th centuries AD are of Asian ancestry possibly of Chinese descent. The assertion is based on forensics and analysis of skeletal facial features known as the Looks Chinese method. Dr Rebecca Redfern curator of human osteology at Museum of London presented this discovery. No DNA analysis has yet been done as skull and tooth samples offer only fragmentary pieces of evidence. Samples used were compared with morphology of modern populations not ancient ones. The discovery remains speculative without further genetic confirmation. These findings suggest some level of movement between East Asia and Rome though direct proof of Chinese origin remains elusive.
The historian Homer H. Dubs speculated in 1941 that Roman prisoners of war transferred to eastern border of Parthian Empire might later have clashed with Han troops there. After a Roman army under command of Marcus Licinius Crassus decisively lost battle of Carrhae in 53 BC an estimated 10,000 Roman prisoners were dispatched by Parthians to Margiana to man frontier. Some time later nomadic Xiongnu chief Zhizhi established state further east in Talas valley near modern-day Taraz. Dubs points to Chinese account by Ban Gu about hundred men under command of Zhizhi who fought in so-called fish-scale formation to defend Zhizhi's wooden-palisade fortress against Han forces in Battle of Zhizhi in 36 BC. He claimed this might have been Roman testudo formation and these men founded village of Liqian possibly from legio in Yongchang County. There have been attempts to promote Sino-Roman connection for tourism but Dubs synthesis has not found acceptance among historians on grounds it is highly speculative and reaches too many conclusions without sufficient hard evidence. DNA testing in 2005 confirmed Indo-European ancestry of few inhabitants of modern Liqian which could be explained by transethnic marriages with Indo-European people known to exist in region.
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Common questions
What did Ptolemy map regarding Sino-Roman relations in the second century AD?
Ptolemy drew a map placing the land of Sinae on the northern shore of the Great Gulf which combined what we now call the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea. His chief port for this region was Cattigara which modern scholars suggest was Óc Eo in Vietnam.
When did Roman ambassadors first arrive at Emperor Huan of Han China according to historical records?
A group claiming to be an ambassadorial mission of Romans arrived at Emperor Huan of Han China in 166 AD. They came from Andun possibly Emperor Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and entered China by the frontier of Rinan or Tonkin present-day Vietnam.
Where were Roman glass items discovered within ancient Chinese territories during the early centuries AD?
The first Roman glassware discovered in China was a blue soda-lime glass bowl dating to the early 1st century BC excavated from a Western Han tomb in Guangzhou. Other finds include a mosaic-glass bowl found near Nanjing dated to 67 AD and a glass bottle with opaque white streaks found in an Eastern Han tomb of Luoyang.
How did Pliny the Elder describe the financial impact of trade between Rome and Seres in the 1st century AD?
Pliny the Elder lamented that Rome's womankind and the purchase of luxury goods from India Arabia and the Seres cost the empire roughly 100 million sesterces per year. He remarked on the financial drain of coin from the Roman economy to purchase this expensive luxury despite Senate edicts prohibiting men from wearing silk issued in 14 AD.
What evidence exists regarding East Asian ancestry in Roman skeletal remains from Italy and England?
In 2010 mitochondrial DNA identified that a partial skeleton found in a Roman cemetery from 1st or 2nd century AD in Vagnari Italy had East Asian ancestry on his mother's side. A 2016 analysis of archaeological finds from Southwark London suggests two or three skeletons from a sample of twenty-two dating to 2nd to 4th centuries AD are of Asian ancestry possibly of Chinese descent.