Roman embassies to China
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Roman embassies to China were recorded by a number of ancient Chinese historians. The first one on record came from the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius and arrived in the year 166.
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First Roman embassy
The first embassy started 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, it may have been from Marcus Aurelius, who was emperor in 166. The confusion arises because, as a mark of respect, Marcus Aurelius took the names of his predecessor 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.
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 circa 150. It is located beyond the Aurea Chersonesus ("Golden Peninsula") and refers to the Southeast Asian peninsula. It is shown as being on the Magnus Sinus ("Great Gulf"), which corresponds to the known areas of the China Sea at the time. Trade throughout the Indian Ocean was extensive from the 2nd century, and many Roman trading ports have been identified in India, 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 Sovereign of Daqin to the Emperor Taitsu of the Kingdom of Wei (reigned 227�239), which reigned in Northern China. The presents consisted in articles of glass of a variety of colours. The embassy might have been sent by any of several Roman Emperors who ruled during this time:Another embassy from Daqin is also recorded in the year 284, which allegedly brought "tribute" to the Chinese empire. This embassy must have been sent by the Emperor Carus (282�283), whose short reign was occupied with war with Persia.
See also
Later Han History, Hou Hanshu.
References
- Henry Yule. Cathay and the Way Thither. 1915.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Roman_embassies_to_China" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_embassies_to_China, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
