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Roman, Han Empires - how close did they get? Was reading about Han General Ban Chao conquering the Tarim Basin in western China. He extended Han power through Turkestan, and only the Caspian Sea & Armenian mountains seperated both Empires. I'm guessing that this is the closest than the Han, or any Chinese dynasty, ever were to Rome. Thoughts? Oh - the year given for the above is 94 AD. |
Well, the "successor states" of both empires actually meet at the early middle ages: the Abbasids fought the Tangs in 751 AD. The Abbasids won that particular engagement. The Han knew the existence of Rome and they referred to then as "Great Qin". The Romans knew the existence of China but they didn't know that there existed a large and powerful empire there, only that "silk came from there". |
Ban Chao sent Gan Ying as an ambassador to Rome. He probably would have reached it if the Parthians didn't lie to him about the distance. Nevertheless, he did give a brief description about Roman government that's 100 years out of date. Their kings are not permanent. They select and appoint the most worthy man. If there are unexpected calamities in the kingdom, such as frequent extraordinary winds or rains, he is unceremoniously rejected and replaced. The one who has been dismissed quietly accepts his demotion, and is not angry. The people of this country are all tall and honest. They resemble the people of the Middle Kingdom and that is why this kingdom is called Great Qin [Qin being the previous dynasty to the Han]. This country produces plenty of gold, silver, and rare and precious [things] they have luminous jade, 'bright moon pearls,' Haiji rhinoceroses, coral, yellow amber, opaque glass, whitish chalcedony, red cinnabar, green gemstones, goldthread embroideries, rugs woven with gold thread, delicate polychrome silks painted with gold, and asbestos cloth. They also have a fine cloth which some people say is made from the down of 'water sheep,' but which is made, in fact, from the cocoons of wild silkworms. They blend all sorts of fragrances, and by boiling the juice, make a compound perfume. [They have] all the precious and rare things that come from the various foreign kingdoms. They make gold and silver coins. Ten silver coins are worth one gold coin. They trade with Anxi [Parthia] and Tianzhu [Northwest India] by sea. The profit margin is ten to one. . . . The king of this country always wanted to send envoys to Han, but Anxi [Parthia], wishing to control the trade in multi-coloured Chinese silks, blocked the route to prevent [the Romans] getting through [to China]. Quote:
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Never of heard of the Battle of Sogdiana? An expedition of Han soldiers encountered a small contingent of Roman legionaries and defeated them in 36 BC. The Romans ar thought to be survivors from Crassus's army that were defeated by the Parthians. There was a documentary - "Lost Roman City in China (or something like that) - about a Chinese town that still, to this day, holds on to their Roman ancestery. The town is supposed to be where the Chinese let the legionaries live out their lives. |
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[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Roman_Legion_of_China]Liqian (village) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] |
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The Kingdom of Da Qin (the Roman Empire) is also called Lijian. As it is found to the west of the sea, it is also called the Kingdom of Haixi ("West of the Sea"). The territory extends for several thousands of li. It has more than four hundred walled towns. There are several tens of smaller dependent kingdoms. The walls of the towns are made of stone. They have established postal relays at intervals, which are all plastered and whitewashed. There are pines and cypresses, as well as trees and plants of all kinds. |
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All western eurasian states formed after the fall of rome can be understood as sucessors of Rome in this sense: western eurasia 200 ad http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/200/200.jpg western eurasia 700 ad http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/700/700.jpg If the Tang were a successor state of the Han, therefore the Abbasids were one of the several successors of Rome. Quote:
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On that urban myth: Quote:
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On the other hand one of the eventual splintered factions of the Han dynasty took power to become the Tang dynasty. This doesn't make them a successor state, as that would be using our modern terminology to describe a different culture with a different concept of the world. To them they were the succeeding dynasty. However, the Tang was certainly closer to the definition of being a "successor state" to the Han than the Abbasids were to the Romans. Quote:
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Successor state definition: a new smaller country formed after a larger country has been divided up So what did the Islamic Caliphates succeed from? The Sassanids at best, not the Roman empire. In truth they came from an Arab Confederacy formed in Medina, which was not a part of Rome. These toppled the Sassanids(who too were not part of Rome), took over, and FOUGHT with Romans (now under the term of Byzantines). So no, they were hardly Roman successor states. Your map does not show either the Sassanids or Medina as under the rule of the Roman empire. Just because they eventually conquered portions of the Roman empire mean squat, as they conquered other places too. By your logic the Abbasids would have quite a few successor states then. |
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