03-01-2006, 11:58 AM
H.H. Dubs has shown in A Roman City in Ancient China (1957), that there are indications that at least some of the Roman survivors of Carrhae offered mercenary service to one Jzh-jzh, the leader of a nomad tribe known from Chinese sources. When he was defeated, these soldiers, which had shown great military prowess and discipline (a.o. acting as testudo, which is described in a Chinese source), accompanied the Chinese general to the east. A census list of 1-2 CE mentions a town Li-jien ('Roman city') in the commandery Chang-i.
To Dubs' book I can add that (according to the National Geographic) at the moment, a Chinese town claims to be Li-jien, and has erected a statue to symbolize friendly relations between east and west. I suspect that the city tries to attract western tourists, but on the other hand: contacts between east and west did exist. Centuries later, Ammianus Marcellinus devoted, in his twenty-third book, a digression to the topography of Asia, which includes some information on the land of the Seres (Chinese) that is not completely wrong.
To Dubs' book I can add that (according to the National Geographic) at the moment, a Chinese town claims to be Li-jien, and has erected a statue to symbolize friendly relations between east and west. I suspect that the city tries to attract western tourists, but on the other hand: contacts between east and west did exist. Centuries later, Ammianus Marcellinus devoted, in his twenty-third book, a digression to the topography of Asia, which includes some information on the land of the Seres (Chinese) that is not completely wrong.
