Roman Views of the Chinese in Antiquity

RES Antiquitatis , 2019

It has long been known that Chinese records provide a considerable amount of information on Daqin 大秦 i. e. Great Qin [synonym of Roman Empire in Chinese records]. Nevertheless, interpretation of these accounts requires a more coherent nexus. Apart from problems of authenticity of written works, characteristics of Chinese historiography and other genres should also be considered. In light of such complexities, grouping Chinese sources on Daqin by relevance, type (e. g. historiographies or geographical treaties etc.) and date (referring to events before or after the 5th/6th century) might lead towards a better understanding of multifaceted perceptions defined by their description. In this manner, through a comparison of Daqin-picture(s) given by these accounts with a review of Roman and Roman-related archaeological finds discovered in China, the paper aims to give a more sophisticated interpretation of the reception of Rome in the Middle Empire and also intends to highlight problems on understanding Sino-Roman relations.

Journal of Ancient Civilizations 30 (2015) 117-149

The paper offers an overview and short discussion of contemporary assessments of 'the Romans' and the Roman Empire in literary and documentary sources from the great Eastern trade routes between the Mediterranean Sea and Ancient China. The paper also proposes new interpretations of the sections on Imperial Rome in the Hou Hanshu and the Weilüe from ancient China.

Sino-Platonic papers , 2012

Following the death of Alexander the Great, a large number of his soldiers were forced to remain in the Asian fortified cities of Bactria and northwest India in order to control the occupied territories. These new colonies of the East appealed to migrants, many of them artists or mercenaries from Greece, during the reign of Alexander’s successor, Seleucos. Many of the children that issued from the mixed marriages of Greeks and locals belonged to a Hellenized aristocracy that came to rule Bactria and northwest India for, in some places, the next three hundred years. Soon after Seleucos had made an alliance with Chandragupta Maurya, the king of India, the Kshatriya, the warrior caste of India, had come to consider the Greeks as entirely members of their own clan. After the reign of Chandragupta’s grandson Ashoka, the first Buddhist king of India, this alliance was reflected in Gandhara with the development of a GrecoBuddhist culture. The independent kingdom of Bactria claimed by Diodotes gave rise to a distinctive culture that mixed Persian, Indian and Greek elements, and its later expansion eastward eventually had a great impact on the Chinese world. The Greco-Bactrians and their Hellenized Scythian troops reached China through the Tarim Basin and established colonies in its southern portion, along the northern range of the Himalayas. The eastern part of the Roman Empire then took the relay, thronged with travelers, embassies and traders reaching China through Sri Lanka, the Kushana Empire and India, following the Spice Road from Roman Egypt. After the advent of Christianity, Byzantium developed close relations with Tang dynasty China in its turn, mostly with Syrian monks acting as intermediaries between the two empires. In this article I have assembled elements from historical texts, archaeological discoveries and research from other scholars in order to establish the links between these civilizations. Few archaeological discoveries have been made in China, and the lack of information on that side makes this research difficult. The ancient Roman and Greek historical sources are also insignificant concerning this particular cultural exchange in East Asia. Modern Western scholars do not have many tools to investigate the subject seriously, and they are very cautious when it comes to Chinese national history. The subject can hurt national sensibilities, because it is situated at the crossroads of major ancient civilisations, and some might regard investigating the Lucas Christopoulos, “Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China” Sino-Platonic Papers, 230 (August, 2012) 3 interactions in that area as taboo. But if we can pass over this psychological barrier, disregarding particular ethnicities and considering mankind’s history as global, then it is possible to make fascinating deductions concerning what happened along the Silk Road in Xinjiang. I found only a few pieces of this particular historical puzzle; other needed pieces are still missing or may themselves raise further questions. I do not intend to try to draw definitive conclusions to these unresolved problems, but I do suggest that we need to assemble all the pieces that we have in order to have a clearer view. That is the premise of this essay. I hope that future archaeological discoveries and exchanges with other scholars will help to clarify this signal part of human history, one that links two ancient and greatly influential civilizations — Greece and China.

Eurasian Studies, 2015

Studies on Cultures along the Silk Roads, 2020

Hoppál K., Rome, China and West-East Intercultural Communications in Antiquity: An Archaeological Perspective. Studies on Cultures along the Silk Roads Vol2. (2020) 56-83.

Museum Sinicum, 2023

There has long been a fascination amongst western scholars for linking the histories of imperial Rome and imperial China, despite the natural buffer which 2000 miles of Parthian dominions presented. Most hypotheses are based on the general principle of communication along supposed long-distance trade routes, despite the absence of direct evidence. This paper analyses the proposal of some Hadrian's Wall scholars that the British wall may have been influenced in some way by the Great Wall of China.